Dear Readers;

This great article was sent to me by Ken Ditkowsky from the WSJ but it was locked and the WSJ does not makes its contents generally available until the next day.  Judy Ditkowsky found an open article:

http://www.northjersey.com/community/Nursing_homes_temper_their_reliance_on_drugs.html?page=all

While Federal Laws restrict the use of psychtropic drugs except with consent of the patient–even those under a guardianship or conservatorship, and while the FDA contraindicates these drugs for those under 20 and above 60 because they are simply too hard on the brain and internal organs, yet an astonishing third of these drugs dispensed in the US go to nursing homes and the most frail, elderly populations in the US.  Obviously this is a very, very serious problem in the US that has to be addressed for the safety of seniors in nursing homes.

In Illinois, a person cannot have psychotropic drugs dispensed without notice, being provided with other options, and then the person has the right to refuse these drugs–primarily because they often don’t work and are actually dangerous to the senior.  See In re Tiffany, Ill. Supreme Court Opinion.  inreTiffany-notice-meds-case

If you have not read the case, please do so now and thanks to the reporter for “outing” this dirty little secret of nursing homes.

When residents are chemically restrained, you can keep them like sardines in a can.

JoAnne