Close up image of a caretaker helping older woman walk

Illinois-based for-profit nursing home operators must stop issuing misleading “information sheets” to mentally ill residents, a federal judge recently ruled.

The American Civil Liberties Union recently filed a lawsuit against nursing home operators alleging that mentally ill residents were being misled about their options. A recent Illinois Nursing Home Task force recommended that they be allowed to seek community-based support services. “Information sheets” being distributed to the residents were purposefully lacking in details, and implied that those residents would be left homeless and without care if they left the nursing home, the ACLU charged.

U.S. District Judge William Hart, in a decision made public Wednesday, agreed and ordered the facilities to stop distributing the sheets immediately, the Chicago Tribune reported. Hart referred to some passages as inaccurate and incendiary, and ordered the operators to cease communication with the mentally ill patients without the consent of the ACLU or other patient representatives.