Illinois ranks highest among the states in the number of mentally ill adults under age 65 living in nursing homes.
An Associated Press analysis finds there were more than 12,000 younger mentally ill nursing homes residents in the state last year.
Illinois has shut down seven state-run mental hospitals since 1980, leaving fewer public hospital beds for mental patients.
Nursing homes took up the slack when the hospitals closed.
The AP found that nearly 125,000 young and middle-aged adults with serious mental illness lived in U.S. nursing homes last year. That was a 41 percent increase from 2002, when nursing homes housed nearly 89,000 mentally ill people ages 22 to 64.
(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
