By Hugh Brady / President - National Alliance on Mental Illness - Recently the Daily Herald ran a story on the harm done by the practice of housing people with mental illness in nursing homes. ("Tragic Results: What can happen when the mentally ill live in nursing homes," March 23).

The article unfortunately gives the impression that people with mental illness are dangerous and likely to commit violent crimes. National statistics show that people with mental illness who are receiving treatment are no more likely than the general population to commit violent crimes, and that the vast majority of violent crime is committed by people who do not have a mental illness.

Placing people with mental illness in nursing homes is more commonly harmful in less violent ways:

First, nursing homes are generally ill-equipped to treat people with mental illness. Nursing home personnel and care management programs are set up for elderly patients, not for those with mental illness. As a result, the symptoms of the residents with mental illness generally show little or no improvement, and often get worse.

Second, nursing home placements are very expensive. It costs the state of Illinois around $40,000 per year to keep a person with mental illness in a nursing home, about twice the cost of keeping the same person in supportive housing. And supportive housing has better therapeutic outcomes, as the treatment programs are tailored to the needs of their illnesses.

Third, Illinois keeps more than 12,000 persons with mental illness in large nursing homes known as institutes for mental disease (IMDs). Medicaid regards these IMDs as substandard care and will not reimburse the state for them. As a result, Illinois bears the entire cost of these expensive placements alone.

The killings described in the story are indeed tragic. A more common tragedy is the wasted lives resulting from the ineffectiveness and expense of these inappropriate nursing home placements. Eliminating them would help solve both problems.