This act would cover the following:
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No patient who has been diagnosed with Alzheimers of any form, including dementia, Aphasia, etc., can be Baker Acted as part of the disease is acting out, including combative or belligerent behavior. The relocation of a memory care patient to a new facility, even on a temporary basis, is very upsetting to the patient and should not be permitted. Patients who are acting out are doing so under duress and it is part of the disease. If the facility claims to be a memory care facility, they should know how to handle these situations and not just send the patient off to a psychiatric ward.
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There must be extensive training for any employee who is working in any memory care facility to effectively deal with patients who have this disease, how to care for the patient and how to deal with combative or belligerent patients.
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Heavy fines and penalties will be assessed to any facility that does not perform a swallow test on a patient by a licensed speech pathologist if the patient is deemed to have a swallowing issue as is the case in many memory care facilities.
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No Alzheimers patient can be drugged without specific approval from the patients healthcare advocate.
These horrific and appalling actions by memory care facilities should not be tolerated. People, no matter if they are healthy or sick, cannot just be thrown away like this. These were, and are, mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, aunts and uncles, but most of all they are human beings. They deserve better.