Long-Term Care Community Has Mixed Feelings Over Illinois IMD Settlement

Over the next five years, thousands of Illinois psychiatric patients could leave nursing homes in favor of community-based settings, part of a landmark legal agreement.

According to the Chicago Tribune, approximately 4,500 mentally ill nursing home residents will be given the option of remaining in large nursing homes that are classified as "institutions for mental diseases" (IMDs) or moving into smaller settings that experts have heralded as more appropriate and less expensive.

The decision is the result of a lawsuit filed in 2005 by the ACLU of Illinois. The suit cited a 1999 Supreme Court ruling, known as the Olmstead decision, that requires states to place residents in the least restrictive setting appropriate to their disabilities.

The long-term care community has responded to the ruling with mixed feelings, according to an article in the online version McKnight's Long-Term Care News. Some groups applaud the decision. Others, like the Alliance for Living, which represents residential care facilities that are dedicated to treating patients with severe mental illness, caution that "Real choice in residential housing for the seriously mental ill means decisions are made jointly by the resident, their family and their doctors, not dictated by lawmakers."

While the decision only covers the 4,500 mentally ill residents in Illinois IMDs, there are at least 10,000 other mentally ill people in the state who live among elderly and disabled residents in nursing homes that are not classified as IMDs.

To learn more about the settlement, click here.