An elderly patient at a Chicago nursing home was killed by his younger, mentally ill roommate....so some people are concerned about mixing the mentally ill with the elderly.

Dr. Mahmoud Ahmed from Marshfield Clinic says it's important mentally ill patients get the medical attention they need while they're in a nursing home, and he says our area facilities are capable of doing that.

"It's ok, it's ok. There's nothing wrong with that, as long as they are receiving adequate treatment, as long as their psychiatric needs are met, and they are appropriately placed," says Dr. Ahmed.

The Department of Health says there are no laws against mixing the mentally ill and elderly in nursing homes, but the facilities are required to do extensive screening on patients and establish a long-term care plan.

For example, Dove Healthcare of Eau Claire and Fall Creek Valley Care Center both mix the patients, but after they have screened them.

"They check in with the nurses there, you're really going through the charts trying to make sure you catch that type of thing," says Kathleen Kalland, Director of Nursing at Fall Creek Valley Care Center.

She says the screening also helps them choose the appropriate roommates.

"They're very careful on who they put roommate to roommate, psycho-social wise, how they are. That's all looked at before they're put into a semi-private type situation," Kalland says.

Dr. Ahmed says it's common for the mentally ill to be placed in a nursing home because of the demand for physical health care.

And he says sometimes it's expensive for them to be on their own.

"Because of the medications, it costs money, access of health care, of an ability of services to the patients," Dr. Ahmed says.

And both he and Kalland say, it would be a surprise if something devastating happened.

"It would just be out of the blue type of situation that no body expected to happen," Kalland says.

Again, Dr. Ahmed says the medical care is what keeps the mentally ill under control, so nursing home patients should be in a facility they trust can do that, which he says shouldn't be hard to find around here.

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