This is surely not the Atheist's fault because they are not in control.

[heidler1]

AP IMPACT: Mentally ill threat in nursing homes
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090322/ap_on_re_us/mentally_ill_nursing_homes

AP Medical Writer Carla K. Johnson, Ap Medical Writer – 1 hr 24 mins ago AP – ADVANCE FOR MONDAY, MARCH 23; graphic shows the rise of mentally ill residents in nursing homes from … CHICAGO – Ivory Jackson had Alzheimer's, but that wasn't what killed him. At 77, he was smashed in the face with a clock radio as he lay in his nursing home bed.

Jackson's roommate — a mentally ill man nearly 30 years younger — was arrested and charged with the killing. Police found him sitting next to the nurse's station, blood on his hands, clothes and shoes. Inside their room, the ceiling was spattered with blood.

"Why didn't they do what they needed to do to protect my dad?" wondered Jackson's stepson, Russell Smith.

Over the past several years, nursing homes have become dumping grounds for young and middle-age people with mental illness, according to Associated Press interviews and an analysis of data from all 50 states. And that has proved a prescription for violence, as Jackson's case and others across the country illustrate.

Younger, stronger residents with schizophrenia, depression or bipolar disorder are living beside frail senior citizens, and sometimes taking their rage out on them.

"Sadly, we're seeing the tragic results of the failure of federal and state governments to provide appropriate treatment and housing for those with mental illnesses and to provide a safe environment for the frail elderly," said Janet Wells, director of public policy for the National Citizens' Coalition for Nursing Home Reform.

Numbers obtained through the Freedom of Information Act and prepared exclusively for the AP by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services show nearly 125,000 young and middle-aged adults with serious mental illness lived in U.S. nursing homes last year.

That was a 41 percent increase from 2002, when nursing homes housed nearly 89,000 mentally ill people ages 22 to 64. Most states saw increases, with Utah, Nevada, Missouri, Alabama and Texas showing the steepest climbs.

Younger mentally ill people now make up more than 9 percent of the nation's nearly 1.4 million nursing home residents, up from 6 percent in 2002.

Several forces are behind the trend, among them: the closing of state mental institutions and a shortage of hospital psychiatric beds. Also, nursing homes have beds to fill because today's elderly are healthier than the generation before them and are more independent and more likely to stay in their homes.

No government agency keeps count of killings or serious assaults committed by the mentally ill against the elderly in nursing homes. But a number of tragic cases have occurred:

• In 2003, a 23-year-old woman in Connecticut was charged with starting a fire that killed 16 fellow patients at her Hartford nursing home. A court guardian said Leslie Andino suffered from multiple sclerosis, dementia and depression. She was found incompetent to stand trial and committed to a mental institution.

• In 2006, 77-year-old Norbert Konwin died at a South Toledo, Ohio, nursing home 10 days after authorities said his 62-year-old roommate beat him with a bathroom towel bar. Sharon John Hawkins was found incompetent to stand trial.

• In January, a 21-year-old man diagnosed with bipolar disorder with aggression was charged with raping a 69-year-old fellow patient at their nursing home in Elgin, near Chicago. A state review found that Christopher Shelton was admitted to the nursing home despite a history of violence and was left unsupervised even after he told staff he was sexually frustrated.

Jackson's roommate was 50 and had a history of aggression and "altered mental status," according to the state nursing home inspector's report. Solomon Owasanoye wandered the streets before he came to All Faith Pavilion, a Chicago nursing home, and he yelled, screamed and kicked doors after he got there.

On May 30, 2008, he allegedly picked up a clock radio, apparently while Jackson slept, and beat him into a coma. Exactly what set him off is unclear. Jackson died of his injuries less than a month later. Owasanoye pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder, and after a psychiatric review was ruled unfit to stand trial. He now lives in a state mental hospital.

All Faith Pavilion co-owner Brian Levinson said his staff is trained to deal with aggressive behavior, and he disputed state findings that Owasanoye had a history of aggression. The for-profit nursing home was fined $32,500 for failing to prevent the assault.

Under federal law, nursing homes are barred from admitting a mentally ill patient unless the state has determined that the person needs the high level of care a nursing home can provide. States are responsible for doing the screening. Also, federal law guarantees nursing home residents the right to be free from physical abuse.

Families have sued in hopes of forcing states to change their practices and pressuring nursing homes to prevent assaults. Advocates say many mentally ill people in nursing homes could live in apartments if they got help taking their medication and managing their lives.

The problem has its roots in the 1960s, when deplorable conditions, improved drug treatments and civil rights lawsuits led officials to close many state mental hospitals. As a result, some states have come to rely largely on nursing homes to care for mentally ill people of all ages.

Also, mixing the mentally ill with the elderly makes economic sense for states. As long as a nursing home's mentally ill population stays under 50 percent, the federal government will help pay for the residents' care under Medicaid. Otherwise, the home is classified a mental institution, and the government won't pay.

In Missouri, more than 4,400 younger mentally ill people are living in nursing homes, in part because of a state program that helps the elderly stay in their own homes longer.

Nursing homes "are looking at 60 to 70 percent occupancy, and the statistics tell us they've got to be in the 90s to operate successfully," said Carol Scott, the state long-term care ombudsman for 20 years. "They're going to take anybody they can."

Gaps in staff training leave the homes inept at handling the delusions and aggression of the mentally ill, said Becky Kurtz, the state long-term care ombudsman in Georgia, where nearly 3,300 younger mentally ill people live in nursing homes.

"Often they'll say, 'I hate it there. I'm angry. I don't want to be there.' Sometimes the behavioral issues are the result of being ticked off you're in a nursing home," Kurtz said.

Pat Willis of the Center for Prevention of Abuse said she has seen elderly residents terrified by younger, mentally ill residents who scream and yell, day and night. "The senior residents are afraid," Willis said. "They would prefer to sit in their rooms now and keep the doors shut."

Nursing home operators say protections against frivolous transfer or discharge keep the homes from throwing out some mentally ill residents.

"Many times, the nursing home's only option becomes dialing 911," said Lauren Shaham, a spokeswoman for the American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging.

[ZombieHorde]

1. What does this have to do with Religion/Theology, or atheism/theism as your subject line suggests?

[heidler1]

16. In my mind quite indirectly, but it does show to me that the so called religious just let

helpless people get murdered because it saves money and these religious types don't give a shit. The treatment of our wounded veterans is quite similar, but please don't make them look at the caskets.

If religious people want to claim that they care more about other people more than Atheists do than prove it.

[Why Syzygy]

23. So, since

Atheists aren't "in charge", by default all the blame falls to "religious people", as if they are in charge?

Does the term "black and white thinking" mean anything to you?

Ronald Reagan was the beginning of the dismantling of mental health care in our country. He can hardly be described as a "religious person".

[heidler1]

26. I believe that Ronald Reagan was the guy who first aligned Republicans and the Christian Right.

Boston, MA – Boston based radio talk show host and author of the national bestselling Conservative
Comebacks to Liberal Lies, Gregg Jackson is saying what no one else dares…the simple truth. The lack
of a presidential candidate with an unwavering faith in God is unmistakable and an enormous
loss. And, none of the current contenders fit the bill.
According to Jackson, a proud Jewish Christian, none of the current frontrunners have anything in
common with Reagan’s core principles and beliefs, which leaves an enormous void in the presidential
nominee discussion. Who WOULD fill that void? Jackson believes someone with the characteristics of
Congressman Duncan Hunter, Mike Huckabee (Arkansas), Fred Thompson or Newt Gingrich.
The most powerful American presidents were the ones with the greatest faith in the God of the Founding
Fathers. Washington helped make America great in the 18th century. Lincoln preserved the union of
states from collapsing in the 19th century. And Reagan made America into the super-nation of history.
Jackson questions, "Why is everybody glorifying Romney? He's really a RINO, and polls show 90
percent of Americans reject him. Didn’t the Republican Party learn anything from the 2006 election?
RINOs lose."

[Critters2]

27. Reagan was famous for NEVER attending church.

He had no church community in Washington, and only nominally away from Washington. Like Rove, he played the religious right like a fiddle. But he was himself NOT religious.

[54anickel]

28. Reagan rescinded the Mental Health Systems Act of 1980 that Carter signed after

a very long battle to address the underfunding of the Mental Retardation Facilities and Community Mental Health Centers center instituted in 1963 by the Joint Commission on Mental Illness. Reagan was both the beginning and end to the dismantling of mental health care, and that action was just the beginning of a complete paradigm shift from societal concern to policy that favors business.

The OP unfairly places blame on the societal changes of the 60s.

http://www.sociology.org/content/vol003.004/thomas.html

snip>

The final report of the commission to President Carter contained the recommendations upon which the Mental Health Systems Act of 1980 was based. Despite the methodological flaws of the earlier report, the act was considered a landmark in mental health care policy. The key to the proposals included an increase in funding for Community Mental Health Centers and continued federal government support for such programs. But this ran counter to the financial goals of the Reagan administration, these were of c ourse to reduce federal spending, reduce social programs, and transfer responsibility of many if not most government functions to the individual states. So, the law signed by President Carter was rescinded by Ronald Reagan on August 13, 1981. In accordance with the New Federalism and the demands of capital, mental health policy was now in the hands of individual states.

snip>

Perhaps what is most interesting about the change in policies of involuntary commitment is the coalition that helped bring it about: a combination of "law and order" conservatives, economic conservatives, and liberal groups that sought reform in the pr ovision of mental health services. But the policy shift had hardly anything at all to do with the mentally ill or the practitioners who treated them. It was designed to lower taxes and shift responsibility away from the federal government. Ironically then , the need for reform perceived by those involved and concerned with the mentally ill (practitioners and families) was co-opted by the interests of capital.

Reagan's social policy is best seen as an abdication. Reagan's economic policy was to adjust government regulation so that it favored business once again, and social policy was merely an outgrowth of this larger issue. While family groups and professi onal groups and patient groups did clamor for respect, the real struggle was between the state and the business community. Reagan worked to lessen the tax load for the rich, and the social policies were meant to match this goal. Business needed a more fav orable corporate climate, and Reagan worked to that end. The coalitions that were necessary for election were either gratified (the elderly) or abandoned (the poor). As for the mentally ill, certain changes that their families and practitioners wanted wer e gained, and the administration pointed this out. Even though these changes came about primarily through state governments and the courts, the Administration would take credit. All in all, business interests were served. Families and doctors were appease d. Patients were forgotten.

[rrneck]

2. What does this

have to do with atheism?

Looks like a privatization problem to me.

[dkf]

3. We've had several murders by males with Schizophrenia lately.

They were all living in the community and some weren't under medical treatment for the condition. Several had access to guns and used them.

It makes you wonder what is the best thing to do in these cases.

[enlightenment]

4. I'll second the question. nt

[TZ]

8. I'll third it..

:wtf:

[MineralMan]

5. What on earth does this have to do with atheism? Or Religious

belief of any kind?

I'm annoyed.

[frebrd]

6. WTF!

What "Atheist" are you talking about?

:shrug:

[MineralMan]

7. Must be the Wandering Atheist...you know...

the Atheist who has lived for 5000 years and keeps appearing in history. Yeah...that's the ticket.

Of course, the OP has not reappeared to participate in hisher thread. I guess I'll find something else to do...

[katanalori]

9. I can only speculate

that OP was working on two posts simutaneously and switched the titles. OR, OP is wastin' away again in Margaritaville.

[Occam Bandage]

10. What does this have to do with atheism, religion, or theology?

[laconicsax]

11. IT'S ALL THE CATHOLIC CHURCH'S FAULT!!!!

[ZombieHorde]

18. There is a large box below the subject line which allows for additional text.

To use the large box, or message box, press the tab button on your keyboard when you are finished writing in the subject box. You can also access the message box by clicking directly on the box with your mouse cursor.

[laconicsax]

19. HOW DO I USE THE LITTLE LETTERS?

[ZombieHorde]

20. Little letters can be use in the same way as the large letters for DU posts.

For example: "HOW DO I USE THE LITTLE LETTERS?" can also be typed as "how do i use the little letters?"

http://www.sevenwires.com/play/UpsideDownLetters.html">˙sɹǝʇʇǝן uʍop ǝpısdn ǝdʎʇ oʇ ʍoɥ uɹɐǝן oʇ ǝɹǝɥ ʞɔıןɔ

[laconicsax]

12. IT'S ALL THE LDS CHURCH'S FAULT!!

[laconicsax]

13. IT'S ALL THE ATHEISTS' FAULT!!!!

[Why Syzygy]

14. wtf does this have to do with R/T?

:crazy: Who do you speculate is "in control"? That would be closer to an R/T topic of discussion.

[saltpoint]

15. This is a provocative topic but appears mis-posted. Is "mis-posted" a

word? I hope so. It should be. What fun to say "misposted."

I'm pretty sure a wide majority here are deeply convinced that mental health deserves the consideration of just about everybody, and not just in the health care-related sectors.

But I agree with others in this thread that that point is not, specifically considered, a theological or philosophical one.

[heidler1]

17. Please read post #16 above.

[saltpoint]

22. Again, I think I understand the point and agree with you and others

that people who are deserving of our respect are owed that respect, no question.

Whether as individuals or as collective groups.

[saltpoint]

21. dupe

[Sanctified]

24. Wow, just wow.

I fail to see how this has anything to do with religion or how this would have been prevented if atheists were in control.

[heidler1]

25. There is no proof that Atheists would be better or worse, but Atheists very seldom

claim being better than Christians except when it comes to voting preferences, staying married and being sucked into a religion that demands loving everybody and turning the other cheek. Which very few humans can live up to. Thus causing Atheists to holler hypocrite at Christians quite often.