Southern California Nursing Home Abuse Lawyer Blog

Seniors residing in Riverside County nursing homes can sustain injuries in a wide range of circumstances, and in many of those cases, the facility may be liable. In some situations, elder abuse or neglect may be the cause of a resident’s injury, while other instances of harm might result from the facility’s negligence in maintaining safety protocols. Abuse or neglect in a nursing home can take many different forms, from acts of intentional physical or psychological abuse to passive neglect that can result in injuries like bed sores. It is important to know that the use of physical restraints can constitute unlawful abuse, and it may be possible to hold the facility accountable. Our Riverside County nursing home abuse attorneys can tell you more about physical restraints, and we can discuss your case with you today.

Knowing the Law on Physical Restraints

The use of restraints among nursing home residents has been a concern for elder safety advocates for decades, and the federal Nursing Home Reform Act was intended in part to “crystallize a growing consensus against the use of restraints throughout all sectors of nursing home service delivery,” and it ultimately “led to a complete change in how restraint use is viewed,” according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). That law clarified “the right to be free from . . . any physical or chemical restraints imposed for purposes of discipline or convenience and not required to treat the resident’s medical symptoms.”