Improper Use of Restraints is a Form of Nursing Home Abuse

Get Help from Experienced and Dedicated Idaho Personal Injury Attorneys

If you and your family have made the decision to place a beloved older relative in an assisted living facility or nursing home, you likely didn’t enter into this decision lightly. You looked at all available information on a facility, spoke with staff, and conducted visits to be sure you’d found the right home for your loved one. No one would willingly subject a parent or other relative to a facility that would neglect, mistreat, or abuse them. Sadly, state and national ombudsmen receive thousands of reports of elder abuse in nursing homes and long-term care facilities every year. One particularly barbaric tactic of control employed by a startling number of facilities is the inappropriate use of physical or chemical restraints on elderly residents.

Restraint use in nursing homes

Both federal laws and the laws of Idaho make it illegal to use physical or chemical restraints on nursing home residents unless necessary for safety purposes–either of the resident themselves, their fellow residents, or the nursing home staff. Though it is hard to imagine what could motivate this level of cruelty, it is not unheard of for nursing home staff to make use of restraints for their own convenience or as punishment for a resident who may be acting out. Restraints such as bed rails, hand mitts, vests, belts, or lap cushions can be deployed in such a way that residents are unable to get out of bed, access their body, feed themselves, or move normally. In the absence of some immediate physical threat to themselves or others, these individuals deserve to be free to move and behave as any other human being would be, and such abuse must be prosecuted.

Abuse victims may be entitled to compensation

If your parent or loved one has suffered from abuse in a nursing home in Idaho or been subjected to restraint use, don’t allow this abuse to go unpunished. You may have a right under Idaho law to money damages for this abuse, and even an obligation to alert the public to the abuse your family member suffered. The Idaho personal injury and nursing home abuse lawyers at Pedersen Whitehead & Hanby are seasoned protectors of the rights of the elderly in nursing homes, and can provide vigorous representation of your claims in court. Find out about your right to compensation after an incident of improper restraint use in a nursing home by contacting the Twin Falls offices of Pedersen Whitehead & Hanby for a no-cost consultation on your case.

Stop Nursing Home Abuse with the Help of Compassionate & Dedicated Idaho Injury Attorneys

For assistance after an incident of improper restraint use or other form of nursing home abuse in Idaho, contact the compassionate, dedicated, and determined Boise elder abuse lawyers at Pedersen Whitehead & Hanby for a consultation, at 208-336-2552, with additional offices in Twin Falls at 208-734-2552.