When you enter a nursing home, it can be a big mental pill to swallow. Losing some of your independence can be hard to take and make you feel as if you’re under the control of the nursing home staff. This doesn’t have to be the case. Rather, here are some helpful tips to ensure that you can successfully advocate for yourself.
Know Your Rights and the Complaint Procedure
During your initial visit to the nursing home, they should’ve supplied you with your list of rights. When your admission gets underway, a representative from the facility should go over your rights with you. Ask any questions at that time if you don’t understand a particular right or the initial explanation of it. They should also provide you with an overview of the complaint process so that you know how to proceed with complaints in the future.
Document Your Concerns
It can be very easy to forget about instances or get too overwhelmed to clearly recall them. By keeping a book or other form of documentation, you can help to record your concerns at the time that they happen. You’re going to have the most recall closest to the time of the incident. For this reason, you want to write down your concern as soon as you possibly can. Any nursing home neglect lawyer will be more capable of assisting you if you have a fully documented list of concerns about your time at the nursing facility.
Understand the Ombudsman Program
Each nursing facility is required to have a poster regarding contact information from the Ombudsman Program in clear view at all times. This is a program that is set up under the Older Americans Act. This federal program is responsible for advocating for improvements in long-term care facilities.
Follow the Complaint Process
If you believe that it’s time to file a complaint, then you should prepare yourself first. Consider what you want to present and what you believe is an acceptable outcome is. This will help you to better negotiate throughout the complaint process. Once you have these questions clearly answered, it’s time to start the process.
Advocating for yourself at a nursing home is something that you should fully understand how to do. Just because you don’t have the independence that you used to, it doesn’t mean that you should be treated in a disrespectful manner. By understanding the topics above, you’ll be better able to advocate for yourself in the future.