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Ombudsman: Your Advocate in Long-Term Care Communities · Talking FACS

• 0:01
  Welcome to talking facts what you need to know about family food,
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  finance and fitness.
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  This nationally recognized award winning podcast is hosted by the University of Kentucky.
• 0:12
  Family and consumer sciences extension program.
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  Our educators share research knowledge with individuals,
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  families and communities to improve quality of life.
• 0:25
  Hello and welcome to talking facts what you need to know about family food finance and fitness.
• 0:30
  I am your host,
• 0:31
  mindy McCully,
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  extension specialist for instructional support with family and consumer sciences extension at the University of Kentucky.
• 0:39
  And my guest is kim Browning outreach coordinator for the Kentucky.
• 0:42
  Long term care ombudsman program.
• 0:45
  Welcome kim,
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  Thank you.
• 0:48
  Thank you so much for having me today,
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  Mindy and I am so excited to talk to you today about this program because I know how important it is that we have someone to advocate for our people who are in long term care.
• 1:00
  And so our topic today is ombudsman.
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  Your advocate in long term care communities.
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  Let's just get started and ask the question,
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  what is an ombudsman?
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  Okay,
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  thank you so much.
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  And I think a lot of people are not familiar with the term ombudsman and don't really realize how important they are in long term care communities.
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  So a long term cure ombudsman is a voice for residents of long term care facilities and as a designated advocate helps residents solve problems and improve their quality of life concerns may include all aspects of residents care,
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  residents rights,
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  physician services,
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  questions or problems with Medicaid,
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  Medicare or any other service for which residents are eligible.
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  So that's kind of in a nutshell.
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  what,
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  what a long term care ombudsman is?
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  I'd like to at this point to provide a little history of the program.
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  Some of the listeners may find the origin of the program a little surprising as I did.
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  So.
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  The ombudsman program began in the early 19 seventies.
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  During the Nixon administration,
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  instances of abuse and neglect in nursing homes had come to the attention of the nation,
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  and administration officials really knew that something had to be done.
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  The ombudsman program actually began as demonstration projects in a handful of states And by 1978,
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  with the older Americans act,
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  every state was required to have an Ombudsman program was specifically defined functions and responsibilities.
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  Kentucky appointed its first long term care Ombudsman for the state in 1980,
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  when the older americans act was reauthorized in 1987 it mandated a full time ombudsman in each state and it established the office of the long term care ombudsman at the federal level.
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  So in Kentucky we have a state long term care ombudsman and we have to regional ombudsman,
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  one covering the eastern part of the state and one covering the western part of the state.
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  I was recently hired as the outreach coordinator for the Kentucky.
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  Long term care ombudsman program.
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  The state ombudsman program is run through the local nonprofit,
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  The Nursing Home Ombudsman Agency of the Bluegrass and is actually located in Lexington.
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  Our state is split into 15 area development districts and each of these districts has a district ombudsman?
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  The district programs are run through the area agency on aging and independent living or is contracted to a local nonprofit agency.
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  In that district,
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  the district ombudsman are responsible for recruiting the local long term care ombudsman who will actually visit the residents in the long term care facilities.
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  Right now.
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  We need more ombudsman in in every district in our state.
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  Okay,
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  so your listeners may also be surprised to learn that most of the ombudsman who visit residents in our state are certified volunteer ombudsman.
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  Volunteer Ombudsman participate in an initial thorough 36-hour training program that includes classroom training,
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  independent study and time in the field.
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  The classroom training covers many topics,
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  including the history of the program,
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  the aging process,
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  residents rights,
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  problem solving,
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  investigation and resolution and reporting systems.
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  After training is complete.
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  Volunteer ombudsman must pass a certification test.
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  Volunteers are the backbone of our ombudsman program in Kentucky as they are in states all across our nation.
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  We are always looking for people who are interested in becoming certified volunteer ombudsman and making life better for our family,
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  our friends and our neighbors who are living in long term care communities across the state.
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  Let me ask you a question.
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  So if someone is living in a long term care facility and they have an issue or a concern that they think needs to be addressed by an ombudsman?
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  How do they find the volunteer ombudsman?
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  Are they somebody that's in the facility?
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  Or do they contact your office or how do they find the person who advocate for them?
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  It could be a combination of a few different ways.
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  So ombudsman are assigned throughout the state to two facilities in the state.
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  They can always contact the state organization.
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  And the way that they could reach us at the state is to go to our website which is very simply um buddy dot org.
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  That's O M B U D D Y dot org.
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  And I think that's wonderful.
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  Right?
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  And that will take you to our website and that will help you find the district Ombudsman for the different districts.
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  The district ombudsman say you were living in the Barren River District and you were in a nursing home in that district.
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  And you needed to find the ombudsman for that district.
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  You could go to our website,
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  you could find the information for the Barren River District.
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  Ombudsman contact that person and they would be able to put you in touch with the particular volunteer ombudsman who served your facility or that person could come herself to help you.
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  The way it should work is that a facility should have an ombudsman assigned to it and that ombudsman should regularly visit the facility and get to know the residents.
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  So if a resident has an issue,
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  they're comfortable reaching out to this person that they've gotten to know who's introduced themselves as the ombudsman for the particular facility and the ombudsman is probably provided information so that the residents can contact them pretty easily,
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  facilities are also required to post information in their facility about how to contact an ombudsman.
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  And and this is something that you know,
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  perhaps your listeners can check if they,
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  if they visit people who are in long term care communities,
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  make sure that they can find,
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  you know,
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  a picture or a plaque of some sort that gives them information about how they can contact an ombudsman.
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  So if the resident is not necessarily able to make that contact,
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  can someone else like a family member or a friend?
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  If they see something that is concerning,
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  can they make the contact?
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  Most definitely.
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  Yes,
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  family members are welcome to contact ombudsman.
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  And there will be instances when family members would have too,
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  if for instance,
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  the the person living in a long term care community is living with dementia,
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  okay,
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  they may not perceive a problem,
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  but their family member visiting them may recognize,
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  wait,
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  this is something that needs to be addressed and I might need some help with this.
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  So yes,
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  the family member can reach out to the ombudsman,
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  the staff at a facility could reach out to an ombudsman.
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  If they felt like something wasn't going the way that they thought it should be,
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  they could contact the ombudsman and the ombudsman could I could try to help them with an issue,
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  The ombudsman really works for the residents,
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  but they are available to help with with other issues that arise in the long term care community.
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  Okay,
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  So you mentioned that there is 36 hours of training that the volunteers go through.
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  Is this 36 hours that happens over the course of a week?
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  Or does it happen over the course of A year?
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  Or how long does this?
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  36 hours take?
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  Right,
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  so the 36 hours,
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  that's what's required to become a certified ombudsman.
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  So it's done differently in all of the different districts,
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  you know,
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  some of it is classroom training.
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  So during this time of covid a lot of that has moved to zoom and it's been classroom training by zoom.
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  Prior to that,
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  it was,
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  you know,
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  often done in person.
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  The district ombudsman would,
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  you know,
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  reserve a space and,
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  and they would come together and,
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  you know,
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  ideally,
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  hopefully we can go back to that system at some point because then people who are involved in the training,
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  they benefit from being in the room together and hearing the questions that each one of them poses.
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  Zoom is a little bit Different.
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  You know,
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  people are more or less comfortable with the whole,
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  you know,
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  idea of,
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  of zoom,
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  it does require about 16-20 hours of classroom training,
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  about seven or eight hours of independent learning,
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  doing some reading on your own of of the materials that that you would be provided.
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  And then it does require 10 hours of training in the field where you actually would go out with someone who was already an ombudsman and shadow them and see how they,
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  you know,
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  see what they did when they went to the nursing homes.
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  You know,
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  one of the things that ombudsman do that just seems so small,
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  that is really so important.
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  When they go to visit a resident in a nursing home or a personal care home,
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  they knock on the door.
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  They don't assume that they can just walk into that room because that room is that person's home.
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  And so,
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  you know,
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  we wouldn't just walk into somebody's home,
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  we would knock on the door so that,
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  you know,
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  just small things that show the respect for the individual.
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  When you move into a nursing home,
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  you're still a complete person and you still do all the respect that any other person is do.
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  Certainly.
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  So once you decide to become a certified volunteer ombudsman,
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  what type of ongoing commitment is required.
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  Okay,
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  so after the initial training,
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  after the 36 hours of training and you take the competency test,
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  then you're an official certified Ombudsman.
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  The the expectation would be,
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  you would be assigned to probably anywhere from 1 to 4 long term care communities and the expectation would be that you would visit them regularly and it's really up to the individual ombudsman to determine what that means for some of the ombudsman in our state,
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  That means that they visit their communities every week.
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  You know,
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  they may spend,
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  say they have three communities,
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  you know,
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  maybe they'll go and they'll spend an hour,
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  an hour and a half in each community each week and just take the time to visit the residents.
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  One thing that a lot of people may not be aware of is that 60% of people living in nursing homes don't have any visitors.
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  They don't have family or friends who are regularly visiting them.
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  So the ombudsman sometimes might be the only person from the outside who's coming to visit some of the residents,
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  so they're really provide.
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  You know,
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  they're feeling a very important role.
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  You know,
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  hopefully they become a friend to the resident and then they are available when the resident has issues.
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  You know,
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  For example,
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  ombudsman may assist in all manner of concerns from something relatively small,
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  like maybe your roommate is playing her music too loud and you've asked her repeatedly to turn it down,
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  but she won't.
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  So you might need someone else to help you with that.
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  They may respond to issues involving the unappealing nature of the food being served and and I heard stories from across the state where sometimes the food,
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  how the food was provided to a nursing home was changed and then the new way that it was being done did not make the residents happy.
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  Many residents,
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  you know,
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  spoke up against this and involved the ombudsman and they were able to make some changes to their food service because the food like that's really pretty important when you're very important.
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  You know,
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  like it's important for all of us.
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  But I think especially when you're living in a long term care community,
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  we want to make sure that they're getting the best food they can.
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  Ombudsman may also be asked to help with much more serious matters.
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  You know,
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  there there are still instances of neglect and abuse that happen in long term care communities.
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  And an ombudsman may be asked to help with those kinds of issues.
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  The ombudsman's been never proceeds with an investigation into an issue without the express permission of the resident or the residents representative,
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  if the resident is unable to give permission.
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  So an ombudsman will never investigate anything unless the resident gives permission.
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  And that's that's a really important point,
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  because the ombudsman perhaps in visiting residents may see things that they think this seems to be a problem.
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  But if the resident does not want that problem investigated.
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  It cannot happen.
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  I think that is important to note because the resident or the residents family still has control.
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  Exactly.
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  Yes.
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  Yes.
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  You know,
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  and the,
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  you know,
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  it's important to remember that the ombudsman really works for the residents.
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  Exactly.
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  So who would someone contact if they were interested in learning more about the program.
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  Perfect,
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  That's just what I was about to talk about.
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  Good.
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  Yeah.
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  So you are welcome if you're interested in learning more about the program.
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  If if you're interested in perhaps becoming a certified volunteer ombudsman,
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  you are welcome to contact us by going to our website somebody dot org.
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  It's O M B U D D Y dot org.
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  Very easy.
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  Our phone number is included there.
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  And you can also send us a message on the contact us page and no matter where you are in the state,
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  if you contact us through our website,
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  we'll be able to connect you with the district ombudsman in your area.
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  So you know that that's the best way to reach us.
• 15:55
  And we will of course link all of your resources in our show notes so that if anybody wants more information than they can,
• 16:02
  of course go to that your website or the other sites that you've provided and we can share those in the show notes.
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  So that people will have that information.
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  Right,
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  okay.
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  Yeah.
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  And the the other websites I provided information for our the the national organizations that really support the work of the Ombudsman.
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  And so there,
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  you know,
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  you're welcome to go to those websites and you'll find a wealth of information about ombudsman about,
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  you know,
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  reports of what,
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  you know,
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  different ombudsman are doing around the country.
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  Um Ombudsman do really important work and a lot of it is sort of behind the scenes,
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  you know,
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  you don't you don't hear a lot about ombudsman.
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  And if if I can just spend a minute,
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  um,
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  I would really be remiss if I didn't add a few thoughts on the benefits of volunteering for the volunteer.
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  Sure.
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  Yes,
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  definitely.
• 16:56
  Yeah.
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  Recent studies of volunteers who are over the age of 55 found significant decreases in levels of depression and functional limitations among people who were actually regularly volunteering.
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  Volunteers reported a significant decrease in feelings of isolation,
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  which I think is particularly important.
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  Right now,
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  Volunteers reported being more physically active and we're more engaged in social and community events.
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  Volunteering gave them a shared sense of purpose and they strengthen their ties to their communities.
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  So many volunteers reported that their circle of friends increased and they reported improved levels of companionship,
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  which again,
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  I think is probably something that's pretty vitally important right now.
• 17:51
  Yes,
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  I agree.
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  So,
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  overall volunteering seems to lead to positive health effects and increased involvement in one's community,
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  which,
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  you know,
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  to me are,
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  you know,
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  all good.
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  Exactly,
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  you can't go wrong there.
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  So there's a saying that you may have heard before and and I'll repeat it here.
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  Those who can do those who can do more volunteer.
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  I think that's a wonderful way to wrap up this show because we definitely do encourage volunteerism in so many facets of our extension programs and I know that this isn't just another extension of that.
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  So thank you kim for taking the time to share with us today.
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  And I hope that our listeners will reach out in all the many different ways that you have given the opportunity to do that and find ways to volunteer with you or if they need the services of the ombudsman,
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  they will reach out and and use those as well.
• 18:49
  Yes,
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  definitely.
• 18:51
  And and thank you so much for giving me a few minutes to talk about the importance of ombudsman in our state.
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  And yes,
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  as you said,
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  you know,
• 18:59
  if people are interested in becoming certified volunteer ombudsman,
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  we'd love to hear from you or if you're somebody who needs the services of an ombudsman,
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  we definitely want to hear from you.
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  Thank you for joining us.
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  And if you are listening,
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  I hope that you will join us again on talking facts.
• 19:16
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