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9:18pm July 27, 2014
Anonymous asked: is it possible for an adult family member (who is the caregiver) to put a disabled adult they caregive for, into a nursing home without their consent? (physically disabled. in the US.) if so, what measures can be taken against this?

I think it can happen if the person has certain rights over decision-making.  One way to prevent it is to get a durable power of attorney paperwork drawn up for someone you trust to be your power of attorney if you’re ever declared incompetent.  That will prevent it from falling automatically to your next of kin, who may well be that caregiver.  I have such paperwork because even though I get along with my family, I don’t think they understand my medical wishes very well and I’d rather have it done by people that I know will make the decisions I would make, even when I haven’t explicitly described my wishes.  And I’ve also got a living will drawn up with my wishes for a lot of things described there.  I’m not sure if institutionalization is something that can be covered in such a document but it might be possible.  You can restrict the ability of your durable power of attorney to make certain decisions, too, and it may be possible on the document to restrict them from being able to institutionalize you.  You might want to look into that more thoroughly from a legal angle.  If you’re not already declared incompetent, then it’s possible to set things up so that if/when you are (which can happen much more easily than people realize, it just takes one stroke, one accident, one sufficiently bad illness, one injury, etc.), people have less of a chance of being able to do things you don’t want them to do.

I’m saying this as if it’s you, but I don’t know if it’s you.  And I don’t know all the laws, so don’t take my word as the final word on this.  I’d strongly encourage looking into how people get institutionalized in nursing homes, maybe learning from people who have actually been put in them, because I haven’t.  I’ve had people really really want to, but they haven’t managed so far, in part because my DPA is really intense about keeping me out of them.  

It must be possible to do it against your will, then, even if competent… because it seems to happen to people all the time.  The most common scenario is not having another way to receive care, and then everyone puts you in a nursing home.  I don’t know how it’s done though or what legal things are put into it or what the laws are.  I just know it happens, usually a “we won’t provide you services in the community now/anymore” sort of thing.

Anyone else know anything about this?

Notes:
  1. withasmoothroundstone posted this