Resident Rights
Retaining Your Autonomy in Senior Living
Sometimes when people move into Senior Living Communities, they assume that their autonomy is being handed away – that from here on out, they are trapped in the community, following whatever orders the staff gives them. This perception could not be more wrong.
Seniors are independent individuals with rights, just like everyone else. These rights do not suddenly disappear just because a senior has chosen to live in a community of other seniors in an active, social environment with a maintenance-free lifestyle. In fact, their individual rights are protected by the State.
Here at Canterfield Senior Living, resident rights are proudly displayed in the community and in the Resident Handbook. Seniors retain the right to privacy, the right to come and go as they please (unless they are dementia-afflicted), to refuse medications, meals, showers, to attend all the bingo happy hours or to attend none of them. They can sleep in, wear pajamas all day, go on vacations, order takeout, and so on and so forth. There is a saying in the senior living community, “You have 50 years to live after you turn 50.” Why would anyone try to dim your golden years?
For more information on specific resident rights, see below an example of our resident's rights from our Kennesaw community.
RESIDENT’S BILL OF RIGHTS
Each resident must have the right to:
Exercise the constitutional rights guaranteed to citizens of this state and this country including, but not limited to, the right to vote.
Choose activities and schedules consistent with the resident’s interests and assessments.
Interact with members of the community both inside and outside the home and to participate fully in the life of the community.
Make choices about aspects of his or her life in the home that are significant to the resident.
Each resident must have the right to enjoy privacy in his or her room; home personnel and others must respect this right by knocking on the door before entering the resident’s room.
Each resident must have the right to associate and communicate freely and privately with persons and groups of the resident’s choice without being censored by staff.
Each resident must be treated with dignity, kindness, consideration and respect and be given privacy in the provision of personal care. Each resident must be accorded privacy and freedom for the use of bathrooms at all hours.
No religious or spiritual belief or practice may be imposed upon any resident. Residents must be free to practice their religious beliefs as they choose. Each resident must have the right to participate in social, religious, and community activities that do not interfere with the rights of other residents.
Each resident has the right to be free from mental, verbal, sexual and physical abuse, neglect, and exploitation. Each resident has the right to be free from actual or threatened physical or chemical restraints and the right to be free from isolation, corporal or unusual punishment and interference with the daily functions of living, such as eating or sleeping.
Each resident has the right to use, keep and control his or her own personal property and possessions in the immediate living quarters, except to the extent a resident’s use of his or her property would interfere with the safety or health of other residents. Each resident has the right to reasonable safeguards for the protection and of his or her personal property and possessions brought into the home.
Each resident’s mail must be delivered unopened to the resident on the day it is delivered to the home. Each resident’s outgoing correspondence may not be opened or tampered with prior to being mailed or otherwise delivered.
Each resident must have access to a telephone and the right to have a private telephone, at the resident’s own expense. Telephones must be placed in areas to insure privacy without denying accessibility.
Each home must permit immediate access to residents by others who are visiting with the consent of the resident. Residents have the right to have visitors at mutually agreed upon hours. Once the hours are agreed upon, no prior notice is necessary. Each resident has the right to refuse to see visitors or terminate any visit.
Each resident has the right to manage his or her own financial affairs, including the right to keep and spend his or her own money unless that resident has been adjudicated incompetent by a court of competent jurisdiction. Each resident has the right to be free from coercion to assign or transfer to the home money, valuables, benefits, property or anything of value other than payment for services rendered by the home.
Each resident has the right to a personal needs allowance for the free use of the resident in the amount of twenty dollars per week to be distributed by the administrator, onsite manager, or a responsible staff person in the home unless waived by the resident. The following conditions must be met regarding the personal needs allowance:
The personal needs allowance must be included as a charge for services to each resident’s account which a resident or a resident’s representative or a legal surrogate, if any, may waive by signing a written waiver upon admission or anytime thereafter. No allowance charge may be assessed where a resident or a resident’s representative or legal surrogate, if any, has signed a written waiver of the personal needs allowance. Such a waiver must be kept in a resident’s file.
Where no waiver has been signed, the personal needs allowance must be tendered to each resident, in cash, on the same day each week.
The personal needs allowance must not be intended or needed for purchasing necessary goods such as toilet paper and light bulbs which the home ordinarily supplies and must in no way relieve the home of the obligation to ensure that such necessary goods are available to the resident.
Each resident has the right to receive or reject medical care, dental care, or other services except as required by law or regulations.
Each resident has the right to choose and retain the services of a personal physician and any other health care professional or service.
No home is permitted to interfere with the resident’s right to receive from the resident’s attending physician complete and current information concerning the resident’s diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis.
Each resident and his or her representative or legal surrogate, if any, has the right to be fully informed about care and of any changes in that care and the right of access to all information in medical records retained in the home.
Each resident has the right to fully participate in the planning of his or her care. Case discussion, consultation and examination shall be confidential and conducted discreetly. A person who is not directly involved in the resident’s care may be present when care is being rendered only if he or she has the resident’s permission.
Each resident has the right to inspect his or her records on request. Each resident has the right to make a copy of all records pertaining to the resident. Each resident has the right to confidential treatment of personal information in the resident file.
Each resident who has not been committed to the home by court order or who does not have a representative or legal surrogate with specific written authority to admit, transfer or discharge, may discharge or transfer himself or herself upon notification to the home in conformance with the home’s policies and procedures
Each resident has the right to access to the State Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program O.C.G.A. 31-8-50 et seq. and the name, address, and telephone number of the ombudsman must be posted in a common area of the home.
Residents have the right to form a Resident Council and have meetings in the home outside the presence of owners, management or staff members of the home.
Each resident has the right to file a complaint with the Department concerning care being provided in the home that violates these rules. The home must post the name of the Department and the address and telephone number where licensing complaints are received in the common area of the home.
Each resident must be provided, at the time of admission to the home, with a copy of the Resident’s Bill of Rights, as provided in Rule 111-8-62-.25 which must include provisions for protecting the personal and civil rights of each resident. In the event that a resident is unable to read the Resident’s Bill of Rights the manager must take special steps to assure communication of its contents to the resident.
A personal care home must comply with the provisions of the “Remedies for Residents of Personal Care Homes Act” as outlined in O.C.G.A. 31-8-131 et seq.
Authority: O.C.G.A. 31-2-7 and 31-8-131 et seq. As a minimum, the following rights shall be guaranteed and cannot be waived by the Resident or the Resident’s representative or legal surrogate, if any:
Each Resident shall be provided, at the time of move into the Community, with a copy of the Resident’s Bill of Rights, as provided in 290-5-35-.18 which shall include provisions for protecting the personal and civil rights of each Resident. In the event that a Resident is unable to read the Resident’s Bill of Rights the Executive Director shall take special steps to assure communication of its contents to the Resident.