Georgia has regulations regarding Personal Care Home Residents, which give to each personal care home resident a right to:
- Be fully informed about his or her rights in a way that the resident will understand, and receive copies of:
- The Personal Care Home regulations regarding residents;
- All procedures and policies of the home concerning resident conduct and responsibilities;
- The services available in the home; and
- The current schedule of all fees and charges.
- The resident must state in writing before he or she is admitted to the home that he or she has been informed of these items.
- Participate in drawing up the terms of the admission agreement with the home manager, including provisions for transfer and discharge, obtaining medication, and arranging for medical treatment.
- Receive adequate and appropriate care and services that comply with federal and state law, without discrimination based on age, gender, race, physical or mental disability, religion, sexual orientation, national origin, marital status or the source of payment for the service.
- Receive or reject medical care, dental care, or other services, if allowed by law.
- Choose and retain the services of a personal doctor and any other health care professional and choose any health care service.
- Be fully informed about his or her care and any changes in that care, and have access to all information in his or her medical records.
- Fully participate in the planning of her or his care.
- Have 30 days advance, written notice of any involuntary transfer or discharge, except where immediate transfer is required. The home may arrange an immediate transfer if the resident develops a physical or mental condition requiring continuous medical or nursing care or if the resident’s continuing behavior or condition directly and substantially threatens the health, safety and welfare of the resident or other residents. In cases of immediate transfer, the home must document the reasons for the transfer and arrange to transfer the resident to an appropriate facility where his or her needs can be met.
- Have 60 days advance, written notice of any increase in fees or charges.
- Voice grievances and recommend changes in policies and services to the staff members of the home, including the manager, without fear of restraint or punishment.
- Be informed by the home manager of procedures for registering complaints confidentially.
- Be free from punishment or harassment by the home, its agents, or employees because of the resident’s efforts to enforce her or his rights.
- Manage his or her financial affairs, including the right to keep and spend his or her own money. If the resident makes a written request for help in managing his or her financial affairs, the home must keep a written record of transactions with itemized receipts in the resident’s file maintained by the manager.
- Be free from coercion to assign or to transfer to the home any money, valuables, benefits, property or anything of value, other than payment for services rendered by the home.
- Have a personal needs allowance for the free use of the resident in the amount of $5 per week, distributed by the administrator, the on-site manager, or a responsible staff member.
- Be free from mental and physical abuse, neglect and exploitation, humiliation, withholding of money, whether actual or threatened, physical or chemical restraint, any form of isolation, or any other punishment, including interference with the daily functions of living, like eating and sleeping.
- Have personal information in his or her resident’s file kept confidential and disclosed only to him or her, management of the home, the ORS, and anyone who has the resident’s written permission.
- Be treated with consideration, respect, and full recognition of his or her dignity and individuality.
- Interact with members of the community both inside and outside the home and participate fully in the life of the community.
- Be free to practice religious beliefs as the resident chooses, and participate in social, religious, and community activities that do not interfere with the rights of other residents.
- Choose activities and schedules that the resident desires.
- Choose aspects of his or her life in the home that are significant to the resident.
- Exercise his or her federal and state constitutional rights including, the right to vote.
- Have privacy for sleeping and for storage space of personal belongings, and have notice that a staff member wishes to enter the resident’s room by the staff member’s knocking on the resident’s door first.
- Have free access to day rooms, dining and other group living or common areas at reasonable hours, and be free to come and go from the home in any reasonable way.
- Have privacy and freedom for the use of bathrooms at all hours.
- Be treated with respect and be given privacy in the provision of personal care.
- Share a room with his or her spouse who is a resident of the home, if they both desire.
- Wear his or her clothes and keep and use his or her personal possession, including toilet articles, as space permits.
- Have reasonable safeguards for the protection and security of his or her personal possessions.
- Send and receive unopened mail.
- Have reasonable access to a telephone to make and receive personal calls in privacy, and have a private telephone at the resident’s expense.
- Associate and communicate privately with people of his or her choice.
- Have visitors at agreed-upon hours without advance notice to the home.
- Be free from performing services for the home, unless the resident and the home manager agree that the resident will perform certain activities or services in the home.
- Voluntarily discharge or transfer himself or herself under the home’s policies and procedures, unless the resident has been committed to the facility by a court order or has a legal representative who has specific written authority to admit, discharge, or transfer the resident.
- Have access to the Long-term Care Ombudsman Program.
- Form a residents’ council and have meetings in the home outside the presence of the home owner(s), management, or staff members.