Greater Oversight of Mental Health Practices in Nursing Homes Welcomed

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ubcnewsworld
Health & Medical
https://www.cchrint.org/2023/01/27/dangerous-mental-health-practices-must-stop-on-our-elderly-in-nursing-homes/
Greater Oversight of
Mental Health
Practices in Nursing
Homes Welcomed
On January 18th, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Centers for
Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced that it was launching a crackdown on
certain nursing homes that are misdiagnosing seniors with schizophrenia and treating them
with dangerous antipsychotic drugs.
Mental health industry watchdog,
Citizens Commission on Human
Rights International (CCHR)
commends HHS Secretary Xavier
Becerra for launching the
investigation.
The HHS announcement of the commencement of the current
investigation noted that in 2012, the federal government began tracking
when nursing homes used antipsychotics on residents.
In 2007, then-FDA drug reviewer
David Graham said that at least
15,000 residents had died in
nursing homes from antipsychotics.
In May 2012, U.S. Senators Chuck Grassley, (R-Iowa), Herb Kohl (D-Wisconsin), and
Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut) filed an amendment to the Food and Drug Administration
Safety and Innovation Act seeking to combat the costly, widespread, and inappropriate use of
antipsychotics in nursing homes.
Despite this, evidence has mounted since then of
some facilities administering antipsychotic drugs to
sedate them, despite dangerous side effects that
could include death. The FDA even issued two black
box warnings citing increased risk of death when
antipsychotics are used in elderly with dementia.
Following Senator Grassley’s efforts, antipsychotics for nursing home residents dropped to under 20%
in recent years, according to federal data. However, the 2022 report by HHS-OIG revealed that
residents were still being wrongly diagnosed with schizophrenia in order to prescribe antipsychotics.
In its recent statement, HHS stopped short of
threatening to levy fines against those facilities that
violate the elderly. The agency does not have plans to
immediately intervene in the patients’ care directly or
notify relatives of residents who have been wrongly
coded or given antipsychotics.
According to IQVia’s Total Patient Tracker Database for 2020, over
19 million elderly ages 65 and older were taking a psychotropic
drug, of which 2,170,963 were taking antipsychotics.
The Food and Drug Administration
(FDA) has issued two “black box”
serious warnings citing increased risk
of death when antipsychotics are
used in elderly patients with dementia.
CCHR says HHS needs to implement effective oversight,
accountability, and penalties for rights violations.
Accountability requires substantial civil, financial
and criminal penalties to be put in place, CCHR
says. And for the elderly to be assured proper
care in their golden years and to be compensated
when abused. Our senior citizens deserve nothing
less, CCHR says.
Find Out More at https://www.cchrint.org/issues/protectelderly/