Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program (OAA, Title VII, Chapter 2, Sections 711/712)
The Purpose of the Program and How It Works
Long-Term Care Ombudsmen are advocates for residents of nursing homes, board and care homes, assisted living facilities and similar adult care facilities. They work to resolve problems of individual residents and to bring about changes at the local, state and national levels that will improve residents’ care and quality of life.
Begun in 1972 as a demonstration program, the Ombudsman Program today exists in all states under the authorization of the Older Americans Act. Each state has an Office of the State Long-Term Care Ombudsman, headed by a full-time state ombudsman. Thousands of local ombudsman staff and volunteers work in hundreds of communities throughout the country as part of the statewide ombudsman programs, assisting residents and their families and providing a voice for those unable to speak for themselves.
The statewide programs are federally funded under Titles III and VII of the Act and other federal, state and local sources. The AoA-funded National Long-Term Care Ombudsman Resource Center, operated by the National Consumers’ Voice for Quality Long-Term Care (NCCNHR), in conjunction with the National Association of State Agencies on Aging (NASUA), provides training and technical assistance to state and local ombudsmen.
Back to top
Data Highlight Extensive Services Provided to Seniors
Program data for FY 2008 indicate that about 9,000 certified ombudsmen volunteers devoted 800,000 hours to serving facility residents and more than 1300 paid ombudsman served in 572 localities nationwide. These volunteers and paid ombudsmen:
- Investigated over 271,000 complaints made by 182,506 individuals and provided information on long-term care to another 327.000 people.
- Resolved or partially resolved 77 percent of all complaints to the satisfaction of the resident or complainant.
- Visited 79% of all nursing homes and 46% of all board and care, assisted living and similar homes at least quarterly.
- Conducted 7,257 training sessions in facilities on such topics as residents’ rights.
- Provided 128,400 individual consultations to long-term care facility managers and staff and participated in 21,000 resident council and 4,900 family council meetings.
The five most frequent nursing facility complaints in 2008 were:
- unanswered requests for assistance;
- inadequate or no discharge/eviction notice or planning;
- lack of respect for residents, poor staff attitudes;
- quality, quantity, variation and choice of food; and
- medications – administration, organization.
The five most frequent board and care and similar facilities complaints were
- quality, quantity, variation and choice of food;
- medications – administration, organization;
- inadequate or no discharge/eviction notice or planning;
- equipment or building hazards; and
- lack of respect for residents, poor staff attitudes.
For more information on ombudsman activities and the types of cases/complaints that they investigated, see 2008 NORS data.
Back to top
Funding History
Title VII Chapter 2 (Ombudsman Program) congressional appropriations in recent years were as follows:
| FY 2005 |
$14,162,000 |
| FY 2006 |
$15,000,000 |
| FY 2007 |
$15,010,000 |
| FY 2008 |
$15,577,000 |
| FY 2009 |
$16,163,730 |
Total program expenditures from all sources, including Title III, Title VII and other federal, state and local sources, in recent years were as follows:
| FY 2004 |
$72,547,000 |
| FY 2005 |
$78,570,000 |
| FY 2006 |
$77,766,000 |
| FY 2007 |
$81,733,000 |
| FY 2008 |
$86,363,495 |
Sources and amounts of funds the states expended from each source are provided in 2007 funding data – Table A-9.
Back to top
Resources and Useful Links
Back to top
For More Information
Questions relating to the Long Term Care Ombudsman Program should be directed to Sue Wheaton.
| Last Modified: 9/15/2009 2:13:59 PM |
|