This article is troubling, as it perpetuates the false notion that persons with mental illness are more prone to violence than the general population as a whole.
Carla Johnson, the AP Medical Writer, finds four instances of nursing home violence involving persons with mental illness (she admits there are no kept statistics) and then proclaims that persons with mental illness are "a threat in nursing homes."
Four instances over six years is not a pattern. That's life. How many violent episodes have occurred in nursing homes over the past six years that did not involve a person with a diagnosed mental illness? More than four? I'd be willing to bet on that.
A March 27, 2009 google news search for "nursing home abuse" retrieved articles about more than six episodes of violence against nursing home residents by the staff at nursing homes this month. Wouldn't it stand to reason that the staff at nursing homes are a far greater threat than persons who have been diagnosed as mentally ill?
But no, the AP and Ms. Johnson have gone for the red meat of stereotypes and have seen that red meat picked up by nearly 500 news outlets.
And to what end? Articles like this will be used to shut out persons with mental illnesses from nursing homes, and those persons will likely end up in one of two places: warehouse-like state-run mental hospitals, or on the streets, where they will have little or no access to treatment.
Shame on the AP, and shame on Carla Johnson.
1 comment:
As you saw from my blog post a couple of weeks ago about the NIMBY issue here in the Nashville area, fear of people with mental illness is a lot more fun and compelling to reporters than actual facts.
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