I speak as one who has lived in assisted living going on four years. After open heart surgery, etc. I was more than ready. But, the facility was too, but only for weak personalities, people who wanted sympathy and a soft voice.
In my case, it began with their refusal to cease operating the laundry next to my bedroom all night! It quickly degenerated to anger and my looking for other things to complain about. The state ombudsman was of no help, being a weak personality supported not by law but by weak regulations obviously written by the industry.
With at least half the residents being on Medicaid or some other form of assistance and many of the rest in early stages of dementia , it is impossible to get others taking action other than complaining to me as their "leader." The only practical alternative I see is the increased active involvement of family, which has the negative aspect of only furthering the resident's feelings of powerlessness.
I know it doesn't help you much in reality but you should know that others like me know what you are experiencing and we fear finding ourselves in that situation ourselves in the future. People who need assisted living and nursing homes need to be treated with respect and dignity. I often wonder if those who work in and run those places and who do not respect their employers (which is what residents are, employers since they would not have jobs without someone needing to reside there) ever think that some day they might find themselves in that situation. As a family member who tries to advocate, I know the pitfalls, b/c this industry is not highly regulated the way it should be. To me the only solution is for family members and residents like you to join together to resolve issues with management. But when family members are no where to be found it is hard. It might be small comfort for you to know that there are organizations out there trying to change things. One resouce you might want to review is this one:
History
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The National Consumer Voice for Quality Long-Term Care was formed as NCCNHR (National Citizens' Coalition for Nursing Home Reform) in 1975 because of public concern about substandard care in nursing homes. The Consumer Voice is the outgrowth of work first achieved by advocates working for Ralph Nader and later for the National Gray Panthers. Elma Holder, NCCNHR founder, was working with The Long-Term Care Action Project of the Gray Panthers when she organized a group meeting of advocates from across the country to attend a nursing home industry conference in Washington, DC. At that meeting, representatives of 12 citizen action groups spoke collectively to the industry about the need for serious reform in nursing home conditions. The consumer attendees were inspired to develop a platform of common concerns and motivated to form a new organization to represent the consumer voice at the national level. Most of the original members had witnessed and endured personal experiences with substandard nursing home conditions
Whether payment is being paid by medicaid or private; they are taking in plenty of money - don't let them get away with anything if you can. Start with talking to the social worker and director of nursing. My mother was moved many times for various reasons. Believe me, the squeaky wheel gets the oil. I formed good working relationships with those involved in facilitating changes. The patient must be compliant to a certain extent and try to be of an agreeable nature. This does reap rewards.
If you are not happy, put name on list for another facility. But, by far, i was my mother's most successful advocate and would not take no for an answer with reapect to things that were not being done properly. Best to all and stay strong.