(MENAFN- EIN Presswire) Claudette Royal is the New York State Long Term Care Ombudsman. In that role, she leads a program that helps residents of nursing homes, assisted living, and other licensed adult care homes to understand and exercise their rights. Regional ombudsmen work on behalf of residents and their families to mediate areas of concern, provide education and advocacy, and assist with referral of concerns to the appropriate agencies when necessary. She answered our questions below about how the program works and who it helps.
Can you tell us who the Long Term Care Ombudsman Program (LTCOP) was built for and what are the basic services offered?
LTCOP provides free advocacy services to any individual of any age currently residing in a long term care facility, such as nursing homes, adult homes, assisted living facilities, or family type homes. Ombudsmen help residents and/or their representatives resolve concerns they may have regarding the quality of care and quality of life they receive in these facilities. Concerns can range from not being happy with the meals they are served all the way to being discharged against their wishes. Ombudsmen work at the direction of the resident, with their wishes as the focus.
How many complaints does your program assist with annually?
LTCOP received over 7,000 complaints in our 2022 program year (October 1, 2021 to September 30, 2022) from residents in the 1,400 long term care facilities in the state.
Can you explain the difference between LTCOP and the state Department of Health (DOH), as far as roles within skilled care facilities?
Both agencies investigate complaints. However, DOH looks at whether a facility is meeting regulatory standards and it can issue citations for non-compliance. LTCOP looks at any expression of dissatisfaction which may or may not be regulatory in nature and attempts to work with a facility to resolve issues before they need to be elevated to DOH.
Your program is undergoing some fundamental changes. Can you tell us about those?
Currently LTCOP is heavily reliant on volunteers to provide ombudsman services in facilities. However, over the years the number of volunteers has declined for various reasons such as age, needing to be caregiver for their own family, and the demands of the work involved. We are working to move to a more paid staff model to lessen the burdens on volunteers and improve the experience for them, with a goal of increasing the number of volunteers – again, with more staff support.
How do people reach out to LTCOP?
We have 15 regional programs across the state and anyone can call for information or assistance at 1-855-LTCOP NY (582-6769) or visit our website at ltcombudsman.ny.gov .
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