Is your loved one in a nursing home? Here’s what you should know about chemical restraints….

It was back in 1987 when regulations premised around standards and practices in nursing homes were passed in the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act. These regulations essentially served to protect or were at least intended to protect elderly, weak, and helpless nursing home residents and ensure that their rights were not violated.

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The age old practice of using chemical restraints and administering redundant medication in order to control or make patients supposedly “docile” were banned in all its forms courtesy of this regulation. The laws have changed, but nursing home abuse lawyers tell us that the use of such means in nursing homes all across the United States has not been completely eradicated.

We actually saw the opposite happen in the show House. In season 5, when House chose to a health clinic to try to figure out how to function without having to rely on Vicodin. Dr. Gregory House (Hugh Laurie) at the end of season 4 finally realized that his friend Dr. Wilson was right, House was messing up and making himself look real bad. He needed to step away from his job so he could figure some things out.

The first few days of House being in this clinic his body went into a break down since it was not being fed Vicodin anymore. In this case, the health clinic did not give House any drugs since House’s body was already on a powerful drug and hooked onto it. House’s body was going into convulsions but it was a process that House had to cope with.

Now health clinics or nursing homes cannot drug people up to sedate them for no reason. That is the opposite of the House experience.

In fact and moreover, it is often revealed (by individual nursing home abuse complaints/lawsuits) that a nursing home was using such chemical restraints and/or unnecessary medication rampantly. This is why it is imperative that both the families of nursing home residents and the residents themselves are aware of what the laws are in order to make sure that their rights are not violated.

What are chemical restraints?

Chemical restraints are essentially nothing but drugs or medications which are used not for the purpose of treating a disorder or a medical condition per se, but instead in order to sedate a nursing home resident to an extent where their behavior becomes docile and they are easily manageable by staff members of the nursing home.

Nursing home abuse attorneys confirm that prior to 1987 these techniques were legal and were used when the behavior of a resident was too aggressive or unruly. However, if such methods are employed today, irrespective of how unruly or aggressive the resident is, it is quite simply a violation of federal law and hence the nursing home can be sued through a lawsuit and made to pay for damages.

Some of the most popular types of drugs used by staffers of a nursing home in order to sedate and pacify their patients are antidepressants, mood stabilizers, antipsychotics, anxi-olytics, and sedative-hypnotics. But if the patient is a danger to themselves or to others, then these rules may be curtailed. If a patient is a danger to others, other patients too, and/or themselves, then something must be done. Keeping them isolated is certainly one of them.

The Negative Consequences of Chemical Restraints

The problem with administering such drugs exclusively to control a patient is that they are not without unwanted side effects which in some cases can be permanently damaging to the health and well-being of the resident proclaim medical malpractice and nursing home abuse lawyers.

Side effects from the use of such drugs include, but are not limited to addiction or dependency, agitation, withdrawal symptoms when drug is stopped, depression, orthostatic hypertension, loss of ability to move around, loss of muscular strength, hypotension, increased chances or risk of falls and accidents.

If your loved one is a victim of nursing home abuse then there are certain legal actions you can take to ensure justice is served. We highly recommend that you talk to a tremendous nursing home abuse lawyer in your state today to find out how to go about this in the correct manner.

This monumental website, Nursing-Home-Abuse.USAttorneys, that has saved lives did not exist when House checked himself into the mental health clinic. It does now! Much to the blessing of humankind too.