Illinois Nursing Home Residents with Disabilities File Suit

Five individuals with physical disabilities living in nursing homes have sued Illinois state officials for unnecessary institutionalization as discrimination under the ADA. The lawsuit seeks an order permitting people with disabilities in Cook County, IL, to access services in their own homes or in community-based settings rather than nursing homes. The class-action lawsuit charges that warehousing persons with disabilities in nursing homes segregates them from their own communities. According to the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, more than 31,000 people live in nursing homes in Cook County. In six of the ten largest facilities, housing hundreds of people each, the majority of the residents are not elderly.