View source for Key Bill of Rights Provisions for Residential Care

===Privacy===

Section 2 acknowledges and protects personal privacy is several contexts (privacy when receiving care, privacy in communication, privacy in physical space and environment, and privacy of personal information and records). “Privacy” in residential care has several related meanings, including the right to be treated in a dignified manner when receiving care, irrespective of whether a person seems to be mentally aware, and the right to control over certain aspects of one’s life (e.g. meals, visitors, mail, information, records). In other contexts, privacy can mean the right be left alone (e.g. to choose to not participate).

In section 2, safety is viewed as one important consideration but it is not the only consideration. Personal privacy needs to be respected in all aspects of the residents’ lives. Common examples of respecting privacy in residential care include when staff and others:

* provide personal or health care (e.g.,  putting in dentures) in private, not in public areas of the facility
* knock  before entering the resident’s room, and waiting for the resident to answer
* ask permission before cleaning a resident’s room or anything else that belongs to the resident, or touch a resident’s personal belongings. 

Respecting privacy in residential care is often shown by what people do not do. That includes, for example, when staff:
  
* do not use the resident’s possessions (e.g. wheelchair or walker) for someone else without their permission,
* do not share personal and confidential information about the resident without consent, or
* do not talk with each other unnecessarily about residents’ lives. 

Issues about limits on personal privacy issues can come when care facilities ban smoking or alcohol consumption by residents.  Sometimes an operator may try to enforce the policy by having the staff search a resident’s room under pretext of “cleaning”, and seize “contraband” possessions without permission.In some cases, family members’ possessions might be searched. Whether these are reasonable limits will depend on the particular circumstances, the actions taken and the specific risks involved.

Physical privacy is often an issue for residents in the private hospitals which tend to have double and quadruple occupancy rooms for residents. Privacy is becoming an increasingly important issue in residential care because of developing technologies that allow for continuous monitoring of a person, falls detection, as well as video surveillance by family or the operator.