Peoria Nursing Home Chemical Restraint Lawyers
Holding Nursing Homes Accountable for Inappropriate Use of Chemical Restraints
Chemical restraint is an inappropriate and dangerous nursing home practice that involves the use of drugs to control nursing home residents. This form of nursing home abuse can be used to limit a resident’s behavior or activities, keep them sedated, or make it easier to attend to them and manage their needs. Nursing homes often resort to chemical restraints when they are understaffed or lack sufficient resources to properly care for their residents. Unfortunately, this inhumane practice can lead to serious injuries or even wrongful death for nursing home patients.
If you suspect that your loved one has been subjected to chemical restraint in a nursing home, you will want to take action immediately to address this issue and ensure that their health and safety are protected. At Nursing Home Injury Center, we can help you understand your options in these situations, and we will work with you to prevent nursing home abuse and protect your loved one from injuries caused by nursing home negligence. In addition to directly addressing the issues that have affected your family, we will work to make sure inappropriate practices do not cause harm to your loved one or other nursing home residents in the future.
Addressing Chemical Restraint in Nursing Homes
Nursing home patients often take multiple types of prescription medications to address their health issues. These drugs should be administered at appropriate doses based on the orders of a patient’s doctor. However, there are some cases where nursing home staff members may purposely administer drugs at higher doses or use medications inappropriately as a method of control. Medications that may be used for chemical restraint include:
- Antipsychotics used to treat conditions such as dementia
- Antianxiety medications, antidepressants, and other mood stabilizers
- Benzodiazepines and other drugs used to treat seizures or muscle spasms
- Tranquilizers and sleep aids
- Opioids used to treat pain following surgery or in other situations
- Sedatives that may render a patient unconscious or limit their energy and movements
When medications are used inappropriately, they can significantly limit a person’s quality of life, and they can have dangerous or life-threatening side effects. For example, opioid painkillers can be very addictive, and they may lead to issues such as dizziness, nausea, and slowed breathing. Patients who are given high doses of opioids or who use these drugs regularly have a higher risk of suffering injuries in falls.
The misuse of antipsychotic drugs can also put patients at risk. These drugs may have side effects such as osteoporosis, uncontrollable body movements, higher cholesterol levels, weight gain, low blood pressure, an increased risk of strokes, or even heart failure. When these medications are used to sedate patients or control their behavior, they may cause a person to experience serious health issues.
The inappropriate use of drugs by nursing home staff may also harm residents due to the unexpected effects of certain types of medications. Some drugs may have dangerous interactions with medications that patients are already taking, leading to serious health risks. If drugs are used without a doctor’s authorization, patients may have allergic reactions that could cause serious harm or even death.
Help With Improper Chemical Restraint Used Against Nursing Home Residents
Chemical restraint can cause serious harm to nursing home patients. Even if the misuse of medications does not lead to undesired results, patients who are kept sedated or who cannot think or function correctly due to the inappropriate use of drugs will experience a greatly diminished quality of life. At Nursing Home Injury Center, we can help families address these issues and ensure that their loved ones are cared for correctly by nursing home staff. We can make sure a nursing home is held responsible for causing harm to a resident through the use of chemical restraint, and we will take steps to prevent these practices and ensure that all of a nursing home’s residents will be safe from harm. Contact our office at 309-524-6900 to arrange a complimentary consultation and learn more about how we can assist with cases involving chemical restraint or other forms of nursing home abuse.
