the rise in recent years. This influx of potentially aggressive
residents is creating some serious safety concerns, The Associated
Press reported.
Mentally ill residents between the ages of 22 and 64 now comprise
roughly 9% of the nursing home population nationwide, up from about 6%
in 2002. That year, 89,000 nursing home residents were mentally ill.
Now, the number is closer to 125,000, according to the AP report. A
shortage of state funding for mental hospitals and a lack of hospital
psychiatric beds have led to the placement of these patients in nursing
homes.
One other explanation for the rise in the mentally ill nursing home
population could be improved health well into old age, and advances in
home healthcare, which allow many seniors to stay in their homes
longer. Nursing homes with a low census might be forced to take these
patients in order to stay open, the AP report suggests. The Associated
Press conducted interviews and received exclusive statistics from the
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services for its report. For more, read the story.
A nursing home or assisted living facility is responsible for
identifying patients with a history of disruptive or inappropriate
conduct or who exhibit other behaviors that make them more likely to be
involved in an altercation. In that regard, the nursing home or
assisted living facility must identify the factors (e.g. illness,
environment, etc.) that increase the risks for individual patients of
an altercation or assault. The care plan team of the nursing home or
assisted living facility should review the risk assessment in the
presence of the patient and the patient’s family in order to identify
interventions that would prevent altercations.
The nursing home or assisted living facility can intervene helpfully
by providing sufficient staff to supervise its patients, providing safe
supervised areas for unrestricted movement, eliminating or reducing
underlying causes of distressed behavior (e.g. boredom and pain),
monitoring environmental influences (e.g. temperature, lighting, and
noise levels), evaluating staffing assignments to ensure staff members
are consistently responsible for the same patients (so changes in a
patient’s condition and behavior can be quickly identified), and
training staff consistently about how to approach a patient who is
agitated, combative, verbally or physically aggressive, or anxious.
___________________________________________________________
Robert W. Carter, Jr. is a Virginia attorney whose law practice is
dedicated to protecting the rights of the victims of nursing
home and assisted living neglect and abuse in Richmond, Roanoke,
Norfolk, Lynchburg, Danville, Charlottesville, and across Virginia.
