According to the State of California Department of Developmental Services, patients have the following rights. Of course, the rub is... another section of their code says the facility can withhold these rights for "good cause" and that it must be documented, reviewed, etc etc.
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(2) A right to dignity, privacy, and humane care.
(6) A right to social interaction and participation in community activities
(8) A right to be free from harm, including unnecessary physical restraint, or isolation, excessive medication, abuse or neglect. Medication shall not be used as punishment, for convenience of staff, as a substitute for program, or in quantities that interfere with the treatment program.
(9) A right to be free from hazardous procedures.
(10) A right to advocacy services, as provided by law, to protect and assert the civil, legal, and service rights to which any person with a developmental disability is entitled.
(12) A right of access to the courts for purposes including, but not limited to the following:
(A) To protect or assert any right to which any person with a developmental disability is entitled;
(B) To question a treatment decision affecting such rights, once the administrative remedies provided by law, if any, have been exhausted;
© To inquire into the terms and conditions of placement in any community care or health facility, or state hospital, by way of a writ of habeas corpus, and
(D) To contest a guardianship or conservatorship, its terms, and/or the individual or entity appointed as guardian or conservator.
(b) Personal Rights. Each person with a developmental disability who has been admitted or committed to a state hospital, community care facility, or health facility shall have rights which include, but are not limited to, the following:
(5) To see visitors each day.
(8) To refuse electroconvulsive therapy (“ECT”).
(9) To refuse behavior modification techniques which cause pain or trauma.
(10) To refuse psychosurgery. Psychosurgery means those operations currently referred to as lobotomy, psychiatric surgery, and behavioral surgery and all other forms of brain surgery if the surgery is performed for any of the following purposes:
(A) Modification or control of thoughts, feelings, actions, or behavior rather than treatment of a known and diagnosed physical disease of the brain.
(B) Modification of normal brain function or normal brain tissue in order to control thoughts, feelings, actions, or behavior.
© Treatment of abnormal brain function or abnormal brain tissue in order to modify thoughts, feelings, actions, or behavior when the abnormality is not an established cause for those thought, feelings, actions, or behavior.
(11) Other rights as specified by administrative regulations of any federal, state, or local agency.
© Rights of State Hospital Residents. In addition to all of the other rights provided for in this subchapter, each person with a developmental disability who resides in a state hospital shall be accorded the following rights:
(1) If involuntarily detained, to have access to a current and up-to-date copy of the California Welfare and Institutions Code. This right includes the right to have assistance from the Clients' Rights Advocate in the reading and understanding of the Code.
(2) To give or withhold consent for treatments and procedures, in the absence of a judicial order or other provision of law which provides for the exercise of this right to devolve to another party.
http://www.dds.cahwnet.gov/Title17/T17Se...hapterID=5