Physical/Chemical Restraints in LTC

With the first debate right around the corner, I believe the subject of the debate would be a good one to start thinking about and discussing. The debate will be about if the use of chemical or physical restraints in Long Term Care facilities is acceptable or unacceptable. My opinion would vary case by case and depend on the situation the patient or their caretaker were in. If the patient was in a position to harm themself or anyone around them I would say it is acceptable, some patients in there mental condition need a little help to calm down. Ensuring patients physical safety is number one and if you can do this by using restraints I would say it is okay. I do believe that physical restraints should not be able to be choice of caretakers or nurses but should be taken to higher authority such as doctors approval first.

Other instances when it us used for discipline or at the caretakers convenience because they are lazy or fed up with dealing with the patients and they use chemical/physical restraints instead of taking their time to use other sources that are available such as words to see what is needed, it is highly unacceptable in those matters. Believe it or not there are alot of cases of abuse going on in Long Term Care facilities and this is the cause of many of them.
Although the use of restraints have decreased becuase of the Nursing Home Reform Act, 200 patients still die each year due to the use of restraints. Caretakers are being lazy and not taking the time to care for their patients. You have to have a big heart and care alot about people to do what they do and the people who cannot handle it should not be in the field. Overall I believe restraint are acceptable if people within the facility are using an ethical code of conduct by doing so.






Soures:
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http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.ohiobarrister.com/images/restraint.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.ohiobarrister.com/nursing%2520home%2520rights.htm&usg=__WJQK6oVht3nqQZE6XXeh2KaIGWk=&h=330&w=450&sz=26&hl=en&start=5&sig2=sQF7Y_zQM6EKUob-ihgUJg&um=1&tbnid=H6WTlTjHfN_JKM:&tbnh=93&tbnw=127&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dnursing%2Bhome%2Brestraints%26hl%3Den%26um%3D1&ei=_AinSr6wKabQNIjgnbEP

http://www.allhealthcare.com/nfs/allhealthcare/attachment_images/0003/8260/facility_restraints_crop380w.jpg

What does LTC mean to you?

Long Term Care can mean a variety of different things, it depends on the person and how they view it. I believe Long Term Care to be a facility or person taking care of someone who is not capable of taking care of there selves. Many people view Long Term Care as taking care of the “elderly”, I would like to think that the elderly were the only ones who would need this type of care, but not necessarily. A person with a certain condition, disability, or illness may need Long Term Care. It doesn’t matter if they are ten years old or thirty years old they could be using long term care just like your grandmother is. Long term care I would think of a person helping someone to do the day to day activities that they cannot do by themselves, an example of these might be eating, bathing, or brushing their own teeth.
I have viewed Long Term Care in this way because I have grown up watching my uncle get taken care of ever since I can remember, and he is now thirty three. He has a condition called Cerebral Palsy, and needs help with all the things an elderly person would need help with. I have watched and still watch my grandmother who is not a young woman struggle to help feed, clothe, and bathe my uncle daily. It makes me sad to watch her on daily basis, thinking to my self she is getting to old for this. What is going to happen when she needs help herself? Long term care is not cheap, if it were to be done through a facility of some sort. My uncle goes to a special school/work everyday to keep him living a halfway normal life and still learning a lot to this gay and I know that it cannot be cheap. I am sure that there is some type of government program that pays for disabilities like this, but not so much for all the elderly. The government only can give so much to the elderly for long term care facilities and it is sad to see that they can’t do more or will not do more.
I think that long term care is an important field to go into and I think it would be interesting as well as needed. I don’t think the need for long term care will decrease anytime soon, if anything it will only rise, due to the increasing elderly population. Hopefully there will be some sort of a result in funding to the increasing elderly population so that the country doesn’t find them selves in some kind of problem in the future. In my opinion, people need to plan for their own retirement and save money, not always think that the government is going to be there to support them.