Questions Arise About Residents’ Health and Safety at Care Home in Lexington
Posted in Featured Articles on December 30, 2011The Messner Home, a care home in Lexington, KY, housing more than 70 men, most of them mentally ill or developmentally disabled, is under investigation by the state over living conditions in the facility’s three buildings, according to news reports.
Ralph Messner, 77, the owner of the home, recently told the Lexington Herald-Leader that he spends more than 65 hours every week working in the home, taking men to doctor’s appointments, picking up their prescriptions at the pharmacy and supervising them as they take their medications. He says that he has the situation in hand but that the men living there often damage the property and litter the rooms, requiring ongoing cleaning and repair.
Kentucky Protection and Advocacy, an independent state agency mandated by federal law to protect the rights of the disabled, received a complaint that led to repeated visits to the home beginning last August. Marsha Hockensmith, executive director of Kentucky Protection and Advocacy, reports that the agency found bed bugs, a lack of general cleanliness, a lack of bedding, a lack of privacy and problems with the physical structure.
Most care homes in Kentucky come under the guidance of the Cabinet for Health and Family Services, which typically licenses homes where the mentally ill and mentally disabled live together. However, the Kentucky Court of Appeals determined that the Messner Home did not have to obtain a state health facility license to care for non-veterans because it was regulated by the Veterans’ Administration.
Currently only eight of the more than 70 men who live at the Messner Home are veterans. The VA Medical Center told the Lexington Herald-Leader that veterans live in only one of the three buildings in the complex, and the VA has jurisdiction only over that building. Neither the state nor the VA oversees the other two buildings. The VA conducts annual and spot inspections in the building it has jurisdiction over; the last inspection was Sept. 8, when investigators noted only minor deficiencies.
Kentucky Protection and Advocacy reported the problems it found to other state agencies, including the VA, the Cabinet’s Adult Protection Services, the Lexington Fayette County Health Department and the Lexington Fayette Urban County Government Division of Code Enforcement. The VA offered residents at the home the opportunity for a new placement; four residents accepted and left, although one of those has since returned.
The Health Department opened an investigation into the bed bug infestation; after monthly treatments, department officials said, there’s evidence that the infestation is nearly eradicated. Code enforcement officials inspected the property and noticed several violations, including holes in the walls and floors, broken and damaged doors and outlets which were missing covers. They said Messner initiated repairs which are still continuing.
Several of the men living in the home are wards of the state. State guardianship officials reported that five wards have transitioned out of the house in the last three months.
Messner says that there’s no need for further regulation and that a number of state agencies, like Adult Protective Services, and guardianship workers offer enough oversight to the home. The men living there, he says, have a complex set of problems, and the property is in a constant state of disrepair due to the fact that the men damage it. For many of these men, he says, the Messner Home may be a last resort. “I get the ones no one else wants,” Messner says. He insists that he runs a good home.
The mentally ill and developmentally disabled citizens of Kentucky deserve to live in a safe and healthy environment. Messner seems sincere in his desire to give these men a safe place to live, and it’s important for the state of Kentucky to ensure he’s succeeding.
