Legislation that would allow families to install surveillance cameras in nursing-home residents’ rooms unanimously cleared the Senate on Tuesday.

S 2263, sponsored by Sen. Dawn Euer, D-Newport, would allow family members to install their own cameras in loved one’s rooms and remotely monitor their treatment. The resident would have to consent, unless their doctor determined they are incapable of doing so.

The bill would also apply to assisted living facilities. It now goes to the House of Representatives, where a companion bill has been introduced by Rep. Jason Knight, D-Barrington.

The debate: Empowering or Orwellian?

The legislation has faced opposition from organizations representing long-term care facilities, who say that allowing cameras would be Orwellian and go against their goal of creating a home-like environment.

Additionally, opponents argue, anyone who would actually abuse an elderly person would disable the camera first.

Critics also say that surveillance would be insulting to nursing home staff. But SEIU 1199 New England, which represents workers at unionized nursing homes, came out in favor of the legislation and said that it could help protect workers from false accusations.

Proponents argue that the goal is to empower some of the state’s most vulnerable residents, and they note that nursing homes often have cameras in common areas.

More: What hundreds of pages of records reveal about nursing home resident-on-resident violence

Lawmakers hear harrowing stories

Speaking before the Senate Judiciary Committee in March, James Delisle said that his mother was sexually assaulted by a CNA at a nursing home in Warwick. That man ultimately had his license reinstated and “is working in the state of Rhode Island as a CNA, and as a predator,” he said.

“I don’t quite understand what happened,” Delisle testified said. “But ultimately, the ‘he said, she said’ part of this would not be even in question if we were to have this bill here.”

Ginny Lee, a member of Advocates for Better Care in Rhode Island and volunteer with the state Long-Term Care Ombudsman’s Office, described a disturbing case from several months ago: A resident was admitted to the hospital and placed in a room with electronic monitoring, and a hospital staffer “witnessed a person climbing in the person’s bed and starting to engage in sexual activity.”

“The chilling part of the story is the person was a CNA from the long-term facility where the patient lives,” Lee said.

In a statement on Tuesday, Euer said that in-room cameras “can provide a means of contact, oversight and protection” for residents and families that want it.

“This does not impose an additional cost on the nursing home, as the devices would be paid for by the resident or their family,” she said. Additionally, “it would not constitute an invasion of privacy, as cameras would only be installed at the request of the resident and with the consent of any and all roommates.”

Learn more about nursing home violence and abuse

The Providence Journal recently reviewed hundreds of pages of records documenting resident-on-resident violence and abuse in nursing homes and created an online database tracking those incidents.

In numerous instances, police reports indicated that an alleged assault couldn’t be substantiated because it occurred in a resident’s private room, or because the only potential witnesses suffered from memory-loss disorders.