State Supreme Court rules Alzheimer's patients can't be lumped in with mentally challenged patients

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MADISON - The Wisconsin State Supreme Court rules patients with Alzheimer’s disease can’t be lumped in with mentally challenged patients.

The state high court ruled a patient with Alzheimer’s was committed improperly. Two years ago a Fond du Lac County judge granted the request to have an 85 year old patient placed in a locked psychiatric unit because she couldn’t cooperate with her health providers in a Wisconsin nursing home.

The request was made up Chapter 51, which is a state law allowing mentally ill people to be detained if their problems are treatable. The Supreme Court ruled Chapter 51 doesn’t apply to Alzheimer’s patients because their disease is irreversible. The court said the women in the case being considered could be ordered to a nursing home, but not committed to the locked psychiatric unit.

Tags: news, wisconsin, health, courts