The Hampton Roads (VA) Virginian-Pilot (2/23, Simpson) reports that “a widening mix of frail elderly people and those with behavior problems” are landing “in nursing homes, assisted-living facilities, group homes and supportive-housing situations.” About 10 percent of the more than 17,000 people discharged from Virginia psychiatric hospitals between 2010 and last year “went to assisted-living facilities, adult care homes or nursing homes, according to the Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services.” Robert Palmer, MD, MPH, who directs the Glennan Center for Geriatrics and Gerontology at Eastern Virginia Medical School, said, “They are invisible populations, but they are there, and they are increasing in numbers.”
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— “Senior care facilities mix the frail and the disturbed,” Elizabeth Simpson, Hampton Roads Virginian-Pilot, February 22, 2015.