July 21, 2008

Returning Soldiers and Illinois Nursing Home Neglect - Part One

Filed under: Chicago Nursing Home Abuse Attorneys — admin @ 8:48 am

There is no question: we have a great deal of soldiers coming home to Illinois who are disabled. They may have head trauma, missing limbs, or other severe injury. These soldiers need extended care and rehabilitation before they can live on their own. Some will never be able to live on their own, especially in the cases of traumatic brain injury from an IED (Improvised Explosive Device).

Illinois nursing home negligence lawyers say these soldiers are the newest flux of residents coming into skilled nursing, assisted living, and long-term care facilities, on top of the enormous growth that’s already occurring due to the aging of the baby boomer generation.

This has severely impacted the already broken system of long-term care in Illinois. Chicago nursing home abuse attorneys are desperately trying to get the word out, and to help design a system of care that is appropriate for rehabilitating soldiers.

Reports given to the US Senate Committee on Veteran Affairs indicate over 1800 of the service men and women returning home have suffered a traumatic brain injury. There has been testimony that over a third of people who are coming home also present with multiple mental health concerns, anxiety and depression, as well as substance abuse.

Illinois nursing home neglect
lawyers say a nursing home is unequivocally the wrong place for this type of person. The staff are typically highly uneducated with regard to these types of injuries and very in-depth psychological issues. Nursing home facilities do not offer physiatry services (which is a type of physical medicine involving a doctor who can work with spinal cord and head injuries in combination with psychiatric services). Nursing home and long term care facilities don’t even contract out with these types of doctors.

On a more fundamental level, Chicago nursing home abuse attorneys point out, nursing homes don’t offer any type of work-hardening programs, or community re-integration programs. We’re talking about young men and women who have seen things that none of us could ever imagine. These soldiers are returning from an unimagineably heinous environment to one that is absolutely un-equipped to rehabilitate them, and could even pose further deterioration to their mental and physical health.

Our Illinois nursing home negligence lawyer will further explain the implications of this tragic situation that is only getting worse, and what needs to happen to prevent further Illinois nursing home neglect and abuse of its residents.

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