Nursing home residents have rights and freedoms under both federal and state law. In many cases, the right to be free from restraints is violated when either physical or chemical restraints are used unnecessarily on a patient. In terms of federal law, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) explains that patients have the right to freedom from restraints. Under federal law, physical restraints are anything that “prevent freedom of movement or normal access to one’s own body.” Chemical restraints, according to CMS, are drugs that are “used for discipline or convenience,” and that are not needed to treat a patient’s medical symptoms.

It defines this right to freedom from restraints as being against the law for a nursing facility to use physical or chemical restraints unless it’s necessary to treat medical symptoms. This means that restraints can’t be utilized to punish or simply for convenience, and you have the right to refuse restraints unless you are at risk of harming someone.

How about under Minnesota state law? Under the Minnesota Health Care Bill of Rights, improper restraints are discussed in terms of a patient’s right to “freedom from maltreatment.” Specifically, the law mentions that chemical and physical restraints shouldn’t be sued except when necessary to protect the resident from self-injury or injury to others.