More young people winding up in nursing homes

SARASOTA, Fla. - Adam Martin doesn't fit in here. No one else in this nursing home wears Air Jordans. No one else has stacks of music videos by Tupac and Jay-Z. No one else is just 26.

It's no longer unusual to find a nursing home resident who is decades younger than his neighbor: About 1 in 7, or 15 percent, now living in such facilities in the United States is younger than 65. But the growing phenomenon presents a host of challenges for nursing homes, while patients like Martin, a quadriplegic, face staggering isolation.

"It's just a depressing place to live," Martin says. "I'm stuck here. It starts to really get depressing because all you're seeing is negative, negative, negative."

The number of nursing home residents younger than 65 has risen about 22 percent in eight years to about 203,000, according to an analysis of statistics from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. That number has climbed as mental health facilities close and medical advances keep people alive after they've suffered traumatic injuries. Still, the percentage of nursing home residents 30 or younger is less than 1 percent.

Advocates who help young patients find alternatives to nursing homes say people are often surprised to learn there are so many in the facilities. Federal law requires states to provide alternatives to institutional care when possible, though its implementation varies from place to place. Navigating the system can require a knowledgeable advocate and, sometimes, litigation.

Not all younger nursing home residents are there for good. Some nursing homes are seeing an increase in patients who come to recover there instead of in a hospital because it is cheaper for their insurance company.

Martin was left a quadriplegic when he was accidentally shot in the neck last year by his stepbrother. He spent weeks hospitalized before being released and eventually ended up in the Sarasota Health and Rehabilitation Center. There are other residents well short of retirement age, but he is the youngest.

Martin's parents are unable to care for him at home. His father, a truck driver, is constantly on the road, and his stepmother is sick with lupus. Medicaid pays his bills; it could take a lawsuit for him to get care outside a nursing home.

Like Martin, many younger residents have suffered a traumatic injury. Others have neuromuscular diseases such as multiple sclerosis, or have suffered a stroke.