Physical and Chemical Restraint Injuries

In 1986, the U.S. Congress requested a study to be conducted. That’s when the Nursing Home Reform Act was passed by the federal government and a year later, signed into law.

To make certain that residents in nursing homes have the entitlement to receive adequate care, and/or maintain optimal practical physical, psychological, and mental well-being, this law was designed.

When residents at nursing homes across the state sustain physical and chemical restraint injuries, personal injury attorneys can assist you to hold liable the facility.

Nursing home patients, in fact, have every right to personal dignity, as well as the fundamental capacity to move freely wherever they decide to go.

This entitled right should never be dismissed or neglected due to the resident admitted into a nursing home, or long-term care facility.

Many nursing homes, unfortunately, use a myriad of methods in restraints on the elderly as a way to make things easy for the medical staff under their care to handle challenging individuals.

Minimal consideration, too often, is offered to any physical or mental damage which could result when a patient in a nursing home is forced to be restrained.

Restraints, under normal care, are sparingly used; generally, they are used as the final option in preventing a patient from harming him or herself.

Only when it’s absolutely necessary to have a restraint should it be used; only when an individual has the likelihood of being self-harmed.

There should be a removal of the restraint promptly when the irritation circumstance exists no longer.

Physical and chemical restraint injuries can escalate easily into physical and emotional affliction, namely when restraints are administered repeatedly.

A nursing home patient being restrained, often times, develop extensive mental damage, and continuous fear which is not possible to eradicate.

Several nursing home facilities, as a method to control agitated patients, use chemical restraints.

Friends and relatives are typically shocked when a family member appears confused, uncommunicative, dazed, or withdrawn.

This is normally the result of potent medication used, to apply control, as a likely inappropriate method.

This is because nursing homes are usually understaffed, and housed to capacity with residents; negligent training of healthcare employees and lack of supervision typically results in critical failure in the facility.

Inadequate care and negligent actions normally translate to an excess in force when applying restraints.

Due to the likelihood of frailty, disorientation, and unsteadiness of residents in a nursing home, severe and, at times, fatal healthcare conditions can emerge even with adequate restraint usage.

Members of a staff can turn quickly to restraint usage for a number of conditions, which entail: the resident has a history of falling down; the resident takes antipsychotic medicines; the resident has a cognitive performance that is low; and the resident has limited capacity for implementing living activities daily.

Physical and chemical restraint injuries can be the result of negligence and mishandling of nursing home patients.

Contact us for a free consultation or call Anzalone Law Firm PLLC, at: 603.548.3797.