Elder Law

Class-Action Lawsuit Orders Illinois to Help Residents out of Mental Institutions

By Levin & Perconti

A settlement in a class-action lawsuit has demanded that the state of Illinois must help thousands of residents move out of large mental institutions. The state must also provide those residents with support services. The Chicago Sun Times has reported that the state will have five years to help those residents make a transition to small homes and apartments. The residents will be overseen by a court-appointed monitor.

The negligence lawsuit was filed by the ACLU and claimed that Illinois has violated the rights of 4,500 mentally ill people by forcing them to live with large groups of others who have mental illnesses in under funded facilities. By doing this the ACLU argued that Illinois had violated the Americans with Disabilities Act. One 51-year-old victim resided in the Chicago nursing home of Columbus Manor for nearly 10 years. He wants to move out and get a job and believes that he can manage his own medications with some help. He feels that the state has been too slow to help him with this transition. Illinois has 25 nursing homes that will be subject to this settlement.

Another nursing home lawsuit has been filed that involves those medical ill people who live in nursing homes with the elderly. More than 13,000 mentally ill people live in nursing homes throughout Illinois that also house the elderly. It is imperative that Illinois address these problems for the sake of both the mentally ill and the elderly. The Chicago nursing home lawyers at Levin & Perconti believe this is a positive step towards nursing home reformation. To learn more about the Illinois settlement, please click the link.

Full post as published by Illinois Nursing Home Abuse Blog on March 18, 2010 (boomark / email).