From the Chicago Tribune:

A convicted felon has been charged with the murder of a dementia patient at an Illinois nursing home, exposing the dangerous mix of violent and vulnerable residents at residential facilities in that state.

Ardyce Nauden, 62, has been charged with homicide in the beating death of 72-year-old Andres Cardona, who wandered into Nauden’s room and began eating his lunch. Nauden, who has a history of felony drug convictions and aggressive behavior, was described as “psychotic.”

Illinois is an outlier among states in its reliance on nursing homes to house adults with mental illness, including thousands of felons such as Nauden whose disabilities qualify them for Medicaid-funded nursing care.

A recent Tribune investigation documented numerous cases when elderly and disabled people such as Cardona were assaulted and even murdered by fellow nursing-home residents. The governor and state legislature have held hearings in response and are considering a series of reforms aimed at making the facilities safer and overhauling how Illinois houses and treats the mentally ill.

See also:

Convicted felons are regulars at sheltered workshop for the disabled – Salt Lake Tribune

Sheltered workshops in Utah serve the dual role of providing second chances for felons and jobs for people with developmental disabilities. Most states avoid mixing the two populations, but Utah officials said they have had no reports of clients being harmed.

A supervisor at a sheltered workshop said the ex-offenders are needed to keep such programs afloat because they bring the skills needed to attract manufacturing contracts.

From the Chicago Tribune:

Mental health advocates in Illinois are seeking a major overhaul in the way the state manages patients with mental illness, arguing that the state should not be placing people in nursing homes when they could be treated more cheaply and effectively in community settings.

The volatile mix of felons, mentally ill people and seniors in Illinois facilities today serves none of those populations, advocates said, and records show elderly and disabled residents have been assaulted, raped and even murdered in the homes.

From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

A handful of protesters were arrested in the courtyard of the Sam Nunn Federal Center in Atlanta Tuesday during a demonstration calling for better long-term care options for people with disabilities.

Representatives of the Office of Homeland Security refused to disclose how many had been arrested and whether they were being temporarily held.

The protest was part of a five-day campaign by members of ADAPT, a national coalition of disability advocates, to seek state compliance with the Supreme Court’s 1999 Olmstead decision. The ruling has been interpreted as directing states to provide community-based supports for people with disabilities rather than continue unwarranted segregation in institutions.

See also: ADAPT Action Report

From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

Some 200 disability advocates rallied at the Georgia state capitol Monday, dispersing only after securing a meeting with Gov. Sonny Perdue’s chief of staff. The meeting is scheduled for Tuesday.

The protesters are seeking state compliance with the Supreme Court’s 1999 Olmstead decision, which directed states to provide community-based supports for people with disabilities rather than continue unwarranted segregation in institutions. They are members of ADAPT, a national disability rights organization.

“It’s a shame that 10 years after Olmstead, more people are going into nursing homes than before, “said Bernard Baker, an organizer with ADAPT’s Atlanta chapter. “Living in the community isn’t a privilege, it’s a civil right, and we are being denied our civil rights.”

Earlier post here.

From the New York Times:

A growing number of states are teaming up with Medicaid to help elderly people and those with disabilities move out of nursing homes and back into their communities.

Walter Brown, 72, says the transition to his own home has dramatically improved his life. Brown, who had a stroke two years ago, said living in a nursing home was “like being in jail.” Now he says he is “more confident in my future.”

The new programs in 29 states are a sharp departure from past practices, in which Medicaid practically steered people into nursing homes. Each participating state has designed its own program, called Money Follows the Person. The federal government provides extra funding for the first year.

“Medicaid has had an institutional bias in favor of nursing homes,” even for people who do not need them, said Gene Coffey, a staff lawyer at the nonprofit National Senior Citizens Law Center. “Federal law requires states to provide nursing home services. They don’t have to provide home or community-based services.”

(Photo from the New York Times)

From the San Francisco Chronicle, Oakland [CA] Tribune, and KGO-TV (ABC) San Francisco:

Diana Harden, who shot and killed her daughter and herself in an Oakland nursing home last weekend, sent a letter to a local television station the day before their deaths. She alleged that nursing home staff members had been abusing her daughter Yvette, calling her a “fat pig” and subjecting her to cold showers where she was washed “like a car.”

Neighbors of Harden’s said she had never complained about the nursing home, but that she was increasingly worried about her daughter’s well being and long-term care as her own health declined. She had filed two complaints with the state against the Oakland Springs Health Care Center. Yvette Harden, 43, had brain damage and limited mobility following a car accident in 1994.

The state public health department is investigating in the wake of the shootings. Over the past five years, 152 complaints have been filed against Oakland Springs, of which about half were substantiated by the state. No fines were issued.

Oakland Springs “has an unusual amount of complaints,” said Charlene Harrington, a UCSF School of Nursing professor who studies California nursing homes. “But there are very few quality homes in California. You can see how somebody would feel trapped.”

(Photo from KGO-TV)

From the St. Petersburg Times:

A Florida couple offers advice to caregiving spouses who have reached the breaking point: Get out of “caregiver hell” and move on.

Both Rhonda, 42, and David Travland, 68, were previously married to chronically ill spouses who required extensive medical care. Each opted for divorce, putting their former spouses in nursing homes.

They recently founded the Caregiver Survival Institute and self-published a book, The Tough & Tender Caregiver: A Handbook for the Well Spouse.

David Travland, trained as a clinical psychologist and marriage counselor, says marriage is a contract with boundaries. “Vows have limits,” he says. “If the marriage contract is broken, it needs to be renegotiated.”

… many extended friends and family members have been unable to make peace with the decisions they made. David Travland’s son is still so angry he won’t allow his father to see his only grandson.

But the couple believe their former spouses are now happier, more independent and better off without them.

(St. Petersburg Times photo)