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At Least Four North Carolina Nursing Home Residents Killed by Mentally Ill and Violent Patients in the Last Two Years

According to Disability Rights North Carolina, the state has violated the Americans With Disabilities Act by neglecting to give mentally ill patients the correct type of housing, as well as not properly overseeing the sometimes hazardous and poor conditions at these state-licensed and inspected facilities. The advocacy group filed its complaint with the U.S. Justice Department earlier this week.

It was almost 10 years ago that the state of North Carolina closed thousands of beds in psychiatric facilities that were run by the government. A state study reports says that last year, there were over 6,400 patients suffering from serious mental illnesses that were living in North Carolina assisted living facilities and adult care residences. Unfortunately, in the last two years alone, at least four North Carolina nursing home residents have died at the hands of mentally ill and violent residents. Per TheSunNews.com:

? In December 2008, Levi Montgomery , 69, was allegedly killed by his roommate, Muncie Grimes, 60, at a Fayetteville nursing home. Grimes, suffers dementia and schizophrenia.

? Roland Simmons, 70, was beaten to death with a stick at a Hickory, nursing home last July. Dennis Scherzer, 43, is a paranoid schizophrenic.

? In October 2009 in Asheville, Kenneth Hayward, a 43-year-old mentally ill resident, allegedly beat 66-year-old Walter Davis to death during a disagreement over $4.25.

? Also last year, 27-year-old Jeremiah Love was beaten with a cane at a Surry County rest home by another patient. According to residents at the facility, no rest home workers were around during the altercation, which lasted several minutes. Love was later given a bag of ice for the bump on his head. He died from blood pooling in his brain.

According to the Associated Press, in 2009 there were close to 125,000 seriously mentally ill middle-aged and young adults living in US assisted living facilities?a 41% jump from 2002. The issue of whether it makes sense to house seriously mentally ill nursing home residents with the general population is not a unique one, and there have been incidents in other US states involving patient violence that have resulted in resident fatalities and deaths.

Allowing seriously mentally ill nursing home patients to live with other residents can be detrimental for everyone involved. If your loved one was the victim of a violent crime committed by another patient, you may have grounds for filing a North Carolina nursing home neglect and abuse case.

At Least Four North Carolina Nursing Home Residents Killed by Mentally Ill and Violent Patients in the Last Two Years, WakeMyNYC.com, July 28, 2010

Four killed in N.C. rest homes, TheSunNews, July 30, 2010

Related Web Resources:
Americans With Disabilities Act

Disability Rights North Carolina

Full post as published by North Carolina Injury Lawyer Blog on July 31, 2010 (boomark / email).