Arizona Assisted Living: Resident Rights


According to the Arizona Administrative Code (R9-10-710), those who reside in assisted living facilities in Arizona have certain rights. In addition to having the right to live in an environment that promotes dignity, independence, self-determination, individuality, privacy and the right of choice, the following are a few of the rights given to residents who reside in assisted living facilities:

1. The right to be free from physical and chemical restraints.

2. The right to privacy regarding correspondence, visitation, communications, financial and personal affairs, hygiene and health related services.

3. The right to be involved in the creation of a written service plan and the right to review and re-negotiate the service plan at any time.

4. The right to refuse services as long as the services are not court ordered or the health, safety or general welfare of other individuals is not compromised due to the refusal of services.

5. The right to request to relocate or refuse to relocate within the facility based upon the needs and desires of the resident, and the availability of options.

6. The right to choose activities, schedules and daily routines.

7. The right to choose a primary care provider, pharmacy, or other service provider and to assume additional costs as a result of such choices.

8. The right to refuse to participate in social, recreational, rehabilitation, religious, political and community activities.

9. The right to be free from discrimination, and to be given the same civil and human rights others are given.

10. The right to be treated with consideration and respect.

Upon moving into an assisted living facility, a copy of the complete list of Resident Rights must be given to the resident or their representative. In addition, the facility is required to provide current phone numbers of several agencies such as D.E.S. Adult Protective Services and the Governor’s Office for Americans with Disabilities. If a resident or their representative feels these rights are being violated, the resident has the right to submit grievances to the facility, or other outside agencies. In summary, those residing in assisted living facilities have the right to remain as independent as possible, while residing in a facility that promotes such independence and strives to enhance the quality of life for their residents.

About the author:

Torey Farnsworth has over 12 years of experience working with seniors. Ms. Farnsworths vast expertise encompasses a wide variety of senior issues ranging from adult care to elder law. Ms. Farnsworth owns and operates a senior care placement business in Arizona called Horizon Senior Care Referral. Her placement services are free to seniors and their families. For information on placement services in Arizona, visit www.adultcarecentral.com

MEDICAL BANKRUPTCIES: WHAT YOU CAN DO TO PROTECT YOURSELFDavid LearFirst the bad news: about 2,000,000 personal bankruptcies each year are caused by unexpected medical expenses. Of all those people, 1,500,000 have (or had) health insurance before they ran into difficult financial straights.

But wait a minute. Isn’t the whole idea behind health insurance - security? The financial security that comes from knowing that you’re covered if something goes wrong with your body? You say you’re covered, but what if your medical “situation” exceeds your policy limits? Then what?

No one wants that to happen, so the question is: are there other options? For instance, is there a way to “insure” against getting sick in the first place? Most people assume that’s not possible, but personally, I disagree.

Several years ago my wife Sandy and I stumbled onto a very unusual health product. We both had our own experiences with it and have seen it work miracles for others.

But before going there, I’d like to explain something. To me, health insurance should be about staying healthy. In China, for instance, doctors used to be paid only if they kept you healthy. That’s what I call real health insurance. And although the U.S. has some of the best-trained, dedicated physicians in the world, heart disease, cancer, strokes, and autoimmune diseases are all on the rise.

Clearly, our health isn’t being protected - at least not to an appreciable extent. The medical paradigm in the U.S. is mostly about treating symptoms, not fostering health. And while we’re all very grateful to doctors for all their efforts, symptom treatment is intrinsically short-sighted.

If symptom treatment was effective in restoring health, people would be getting well and staying well. But that’s not what usually happens.

There’s a growing movement of people who’ve recognized the shortcomings of the traditional medical/pharmaceutical “health” model. They’re not stupid. For instance: 106,000 annual deaths from properly prescribed prescription drugs sure got my attention when I heard the news. Check it out on the net. It’s a fact.

OK. So everyone knows there’s a problem. Again, the question is: are there options out there and if so, what are they?

As I was saying earlier, there is an option. I can say that because I have personal proof. Four years ago, I was diagnosed with a heart condition called atrial fibrillation. It wasn’t painful per se, but the irregular, spasmodic poundings inside my chest were very disconcerting.

My wife Sandy and I were in Maui when a friend of ours told us about something called glyconutrition. Now, I’m a fairly open-minded kind of a guy and I’ve been interested in health supplements for a long time, so I decided to try it. (By the way, nothing I was taking before then was helping my heart condition). After a few months, the condition went away. It hasn’t returned since.

Sandy also had a positive health reversal. She was in a lot of pain from neck surgery she’d had seven years earlier. She also decided to try the glyconutrients. It took a little longer for her, but her pain subsided and surgery was avoided.

My point in telling you these two stories is that we saved a ton of money and who knows how much pain and suffering by not having to undergo surgery. I don’t know if my atrial fibrillation would have led to a worsening condition requiring surgery, but I do know that Sandy was considering a second neck surgery before we heard about glyconutrients.

Since then, we’ve learned a lot more about the science behind glyconutrients and why this new category of nutrient is turning around so many health conditions for so many people.

Even highly trained medical doctors and surgeons are taking notice. Case in point: Dr. Ben Carson is the department head of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Medical Center. A severe form of prostate cancer led him to discover glyconutrients. Long story short: he attributes to them his complete recovery. He now recommends glyconutrients to all his patients, to his staff and others as well.

Without going into a lot of complicated detail, science now has a pretty good idea about why glyconutrients seem to be helping so many different kinds of health conditions. The bottom line is this: enhanced cell-to-cell communication.

Glyconutrients provide the body with highly specialized building blocks that the body transforms into communication molecules that all cells use. Without an adequate supply of these molecules, communication starts to break down and illness starts to creep in.

The reason glyconutritional supplements are so effective is this: our diets suck. Let me explain. If we got all the nutrients we needed in our diet, we’d rarely get ill. By the way, the scientific evidence to support that statement is huge.

But because 90 percent of the food we eat is processed (devoid of essential, health-promoting nutrients) and for a number of other reasons, we’re not getting the nutritional build blocks our bodies need in order to stay disease-free.

Bottom line: understand the powerful relativity between the nutrients we consume and the state of our health.

So to reiterate - there are options for warding off illness and medically related bankruptcy. Just don’t look for them in the current medical - pharmaceutical - health insurance paradigm. Look for them in the emerging science of glycobiology - the same science that’s starting to describe the cellular mechanisms behind the major health recoveries that thousands of glyconutrient users are now reporting.

About the author:

David Lear is an independent nutrition researcher and free-lance writer. His main interest is in cutting-edge supplements that improve health and reverse illness. For further information, visit http://www.glycoresults.com

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