IL: Pushing for Stricter Rules for Antipsychotic Drugs in Nursing Facilities

Nursing home resident advocates in Illinois are pushing for new, stricter rules on the use of antipsychotic drugs among elderly nursing home residents, in order to prevent misuse of the drugs as a form of chemical restraint in nursing homes.
Illinois Citizens for Better Care, a grassroots organization that fights to improve nursing home care in the state, is pushing for new state laws and regulations that would prevent nursing homes and doctors from using antipsychotic and psychotropic drugs as a form of chemical restraint on the elderly, according to a report by the Chicago Tribune and ProPublica.

Concerns over the use of such drugs have increased considerably as the result of an ongoing series of in-depth nursing home investigative reports conducted by the Tribune on nursing home problems in Illinois. The stories have unveiled a series of critical failings in the Illinois nursing home system. In addition to investigations which uncovered unapproved use of antipsychotics on non-consenting elderly nursing home residents in order to control them, the stories have also found incidents of murder, rape and abuse, largely due to the housing of the criminally insane within the same facilities as elderly patients.

Illinois Governor Pat Quinn has established the Nursing Home Safety Task Force to address problems uncovered by the investigations, and Illinois Citizens for Better Care are pushing that task force to come up with a firm, durable solution that would prevent doctors and facilities from using antipsychotics to control and restrain nursing home residents.

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Restrictions sought in Illinois for Chemical Restraints in Nursing Homes