Q: What is the Ombudsman Program, and how do they help people living in long-term care facilities?
A: The Ventura County Ombudsman Program advocates for the highest quality of life and care for people who live in long-term care facilities. This includes skilled nursing facilities, assisted living, memory care facilities, as well as board and care homes. The term Ombudsman is actually a Swedish word that means “advocate.”
The Ombudsman staff are trained, certified, and mandated by federal and state authority to identify, investigate, and resolve complaints made by or on behalf of residents and to provide services to help safeguard their health, safety, welfare, and rights.
Trained Ombudsman are mandated to make unannounced visits to long-term care facilities to observe care and advocate for those who need it. This helps ensure facilities know someone is paying attention to how they treat their residents.
The Ombudsman Program also offers pre-placement counseling to help guide people looking for facility placement and responds to complaints about long term care facilities. If you or someone you care about has a complaint about a facility, you can call the Ventura County Ombudsman at 805-656-1986. The Ombudsman can help with all sorts of concerns including ones about residents’ rights, the quality of care, restraints and privacy issues.
Our local Ombudsman program also provides community education and support. They are currently planning a symposium called “Dementia Beyond Drugs and Disease.” They understand that many facilities fall short of meeting the needs of people with dementia. This symposium will focus on implementing a strengths based and person-centered approach to caring for people with dementia. It will be held on March 6th, 2025, from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m., at the Residence Inn by Marriott in Oxnard.
The keynote speakers will be Dr. G. Allen Power and Tony Chicotel. Dr. Power is a board-certified internist, geriatrician, and Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Rochester who has written several books including “Dementia Beyond Drugs” and “Dementia Beyond Disease.” Chicotel is a leading legal advocate for elder rights and a Senior Attorney at California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform (CANHR).
If you are a family dementia caregiver, or a professional in the field, this symposium will equip you with practical strategies to implement a new approach to dementia care. A person-centered approach means each person’s unique needs are recognized when developing a plan of care. It can be a challenge in a group setting, but when done right, it can significantly reduce challenging behaviors and the need for medications to manage them.
To learn more or buy your ticket, please go to https://ombudsmanventura.org/news-events/dementia-beyond-drugs-and-disease-symposium/
If you live outside of Ventura County and want to find a local Ombudsman near you, go to https://www.aging.ca.gov/Programs_and_Services/Long-Term_Care_Ombudsman/ or call 800-231-4024.
Our most frail and vulnerable older adults often live in facilities and deserve the very best advocacy. People who are reliant on others for care need to know that they have an agency like this there to support them and ensure someone is looking out for their best interests. It is important everyone knows this is available to them if they, or someone they love, are ever in long-term care.
Martha Shapiro can be reached at Senior Concerns at 805-497-0189 or by email at mshapiro@seniorconcerns.org.
