The Bill of Rights for Senior Residents, 1-5

*The following is the output of transcribing from an audio recording. Although the transcription is largely accurate, in some cases it is incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors.

The following podcast is provided by care partners living and answers for elders radio, and welcome everyone to answers for elders radio network. And we’re here in the month of June. I can’t believe to everyone that the years half over and spring in the Pacific northwest is finally, Um, I think, arriving about three months after it should have arrived. And but Um, we’re really happy about that and we’re also happy because we have one of our favorite people on the show this week and that is our wonderful Kelly Smith from care partners senior living. Kelly, welcome back. It’s always great to have you. Thank you. I’m always happy to be here. Well, I know that there’s a lot happening with care partners and we’ve talked about new communities that you guys are, Um, you know, bringing forward in the community, you know, in the world. And you know the thing that it is so amazing about care partners as you guys are on this amazing expansion mode and yet you’re locally owned, locally operated, you’re you operate like a small business, you know, intimate, close business and yeah, that cares, truly cares about their residents. And you know, Kelly, one of the things that Um, I was recently made um aware of a kind of a bill of rights for senior living residents, and you were so gracious to say let’s do a series on it, because I think you know, there’s no better person in the world that I would go to on this. You’re giving Um, giving your vast amount of experience in this Um world. So, to our listeners, this is the part, first part of actually there’s twenty what we call the seniors residents bill of rights, Um, and so we’re gonna it as far as we can in this segment and then for part one, and so stay tuned. Next month we’ll continue and until then, Kelly Um, thanks so much for stepping in and telling us all about the bill of rights. One of the things you and I talked about before a lot of times with our seniors. The reason they’re afraid to move into an assistant living communities are very afraid they’re gonna lose their autonomy. Right, someone’s gonna tell them when to get up whendy, go to bad, windy dinner, you know, and and who wants to you know, and in your life like that, you know, being treated like a child. So every community out there that has that, that type of license has a resident bill of rights and the residents get it, usually on contract signing or before Um, but it just kind of outlines what the residents rights are. I mean, you have rights when you’re in the hospital. Why wouldn’t you have rights? And so what is the first bill of rights? The very first one is to be treated with dignity and respect, and this almost hurts my feelings that this even has to be on the bill of rights. Shouldn’t that be just common sense that we would treat our elders with dignity and respect? You would think so. You’d think so, but you have that right. You don’t get to be spoken down to. You don’t get to be treated disrespectfully just because you’re older and maybe you’re frail. There’s there’s no reason for anyone to bully you or treat you in any manner other than what you deserve, and that is your dignity and be treated with the respect that you come with. Um and again I think it’s sad that it even has to be on here, but just everybody knows you have a right to be treated well and your dignity always needs to be intact. Yes, and I’m sure with the right to be treated with dignity and respect. I think that really goes to the family members. Um. You know, I have seen a lot of times that. Yes, families come with their own set of baggage, but it also can make mom or dad feel bad if they are in a community or something like that, especially if they’re more vulnerable, to see families at odds. And I you know, I would hope that families would have enough, what’s the word? I want, common sense and enough Um mindfulness not to be Um derogatory or Um, you know, or you know, cause conflict on in front of their loved one and dignities a lot of things. You know, it’s it’s in the way you know any any kind of incontinence is handled. You know, there’s a number of things a community owes a resident. You know, if if there’s certain things are having issues with, Um, if they have walking issues, Um, you know, mobility concerns, things like that. There’s dignity involved in the way you treat somebody over those things and you have a right to be treated correctly. Yes, so are we ready to move on to number two? Let’s take a look at number two. What is number two? To be given informed choice, an opportunity to select or refuse service and to ex accept responsibility for the consequences. So let’s break that sentence down a little bit. The first part of that makes it pretty easy. To be given informed choices and opportunities to select your care and there’s nothing wrong with that. Every community that has assistant living has care plans right, memory care and assistant living all have care plans and to work with that resident, that caregiver, nurse, whoever has to go over and sign off on that care plan. If there’s something on there you disagree with that, they say, well, you need a shower assist and you’re a hundred percent sure you can take your own darn showers. That’s fine, you have that right. But the second part of this is also important, and that is you also have the right too to accept the responsibility for those consequences. If the nurse felt you needed stand by assist in the shower and you say no, I refuse it and you fall in the shower, well, you can’t blame my nurse for that. Okay, she already said she really thought you needed some extra help. So we have to make sure that the community that you go to m HM, when you go over those care plans. If you do turn something down, make sure that your loved one really does know the consequences because again, you can also hold you know, a community sometimes can be liable. You put their insurance at risk when you have risky behavior, and it’s not to try to control you. They want to keep you safe. Nobody wants to make that phone call that mom broke her hip in the shower when the kids said she needed stand by shower assist and the nurse said she did. You know exactly exactly. That’s just not okay. And again you do have that right to make those choices about your own care exactly exactly, which obviously leads us into the next um section. Okay, so the next one to participate in their initial care service plan and any revisions or updates at the time changes occur. If the nurse feels like you need another level of care, you have a right to participate and have that assessment and be part of all those conversations. Same thing with your initial assessment into the community. We won’t take anybody that we haven’t seen and talk to ourselves. Okay, because their kids can come in and tell us all kinds of things that mom needs and then we assess her it’s like maybe, not exactly, you know. So you know they have a right what they’re saying in the sentences you have. You have a right to be part of all of those, those assessments and those conversations, and you also have a right to help put your care plan together. Wow, wow, very good one. Alrighty, what’s that? Next one to receive information about the method for evaluating their service needs and assessing costs for the services provided. So, again, if they come in and tell you your my mom is a level four, that’s all the nurse says, you actually have a right to sit down with her and say, explain to me how you cannot with those charges. Explain to me how your assessment tool works. Now, some of those assessment tools are proprietory, so they’re not going to give them to a family member. Um. And that’s also information that we’ve gathered. That’s now nursing notes that we also have to be careful with hippo laws and things like that, right, but the nurse can have notes on there too. That maybe is a discussion. She’d rather have with a family than have them read them off a piece of paper. Um. But again, you have a right to know what you’re paying for and have that spelled out for you. Just a level four with no ex planation is not, not acceptable, and that’s part of your rights. Well. And you know, the thing that’s interesting, Kelly, what you’re talking about. Two, is that goes for the power of attorney, because the power of attorney says Um, bottom line. Um. You know, I have a right to have a care conference, let and you can do that at any time if you have some questions or your you have questions about, you know, what is being provided as opposed to what your understanding is. Um, where you see, you know mom’s not eating right or something’s not right. Those are things that have to be dialogue about. But I think it’s also important that they that the mom is, you know, our dad is involved in those conversations if they would like to. Absolutely we always encourage those in family meetings that bring mom in here. You know, it’s a little harder in memory care, you know, but for residents that can make their own choices, it’s very important for them to be part of that. And again, that’s all so they’re right, right, right, and so obviously talking about this piece Um and in really evaluating, you know, what type of service it also involves probably a conversation up front before you even move in about, you know, are you what kind of care services do offer and how are they charged? And so that is something obviously that we have to make sure that they understand exactly exactly. All right, we have two minutes left, so I would like to address Um, that one more before we go to our break. Okay, Um, the last one is is gonna be a really easy one, but it’s the exercise individual rights that do not infringe upon the rights or safety of others, and that’s that’s another kind of no brainer. You have a right to be yourself. Yeah, you have a right to be anything and everything you are in your beautiful self, but you also have to make sure that your your decisions throughout the day don’t infringe on the rights of other people either. I remember, there’s all walks of life living in these assistant livings, all different ethnic backgrounds, religious beliefs, and you have a right to yours, and guess what, so do they. So that’s all that’s saying is is you know, we all need to be polite. Basically, you have a right to be you and we’re celebrating that. But yeah, remember, everybody does. So that’s what we want and that’s the important thing about all of this. And you know, Kelly and I are going to be talking a lot about what are your rights when you’re in assist a living? We’re going to continue this conversation right after this, but in the meantime, Kelly, how do we reach you? I think the best place to reach us as on our website, care partners living dot com. You can see testimonials and pictures and there’s three d tours and, Um, some really good information. So check us out online. Absolutely, and so everyone. Kelly and I will be right back right for this. The preceding podcast was provided by care partners living and answers for elders radio. To contact care partners living, go to care partners living dot com.

1. To be treated with dignity and respect.
2. To be given informed choices and opportunities to select or refuse service and accept responsibility for the consequences.
3. To participate in their initial care service plan and any revisions or updates at the time changes occur.
4. To receive information about the method for evaluating their service needs and assessing the costs for their services provided.
5. To exercise their individual rights that do not infringe upon others or the rights or safety of others.

Learn more about CarePartners at their website.