Long Term Care Ombudsman Research Paper

Discovering the Long-Term Care Ombudsman Field The California State Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program is a federal, state and county mandated program centered around the representation of residents in long-term care facilities. Long-term care ombudsmen are volunteers who confidentially advocate for residents with their complete support.
The role of an ombudsman is to receive, investigate, identify and resolve problems of those residing in nursing facilities. Ombudsmen also look for resources in the community to assist and residents, their families, along with caregivers. One of the main roles of an ombudsman is to monitor facilities and address any complaints residents or their families have. Long-term care ombudsmen in San Bernardino County

One particularly horrifying event that occurred was in August 1970 when residents in a nursing home in Baltimore died from salmonella food poisoning. The unconcern for the seriousness of this incident shown by writers of the Washington Post demonstrated a need for federal regulations for the standard of care given by nursing homes.
Thus, in 1971 President Nixon and the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW) established the Office of Nursing Home Affairs (ONHA) to oversee any programs involving nursing homes. The Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program was one initiated by ONHA to “improve the quality of care in America’s nursing homes and to respond to complaints submitted… about abuse and neglect of nursing home residents” (Hunt & Nadell, 2007, p.

Since the United States is a melting pot for a plethora of various cultures, many care facilities are home to people of diverse backgrounds. Therefore, an ombudsman must be familiar with the diverse populations they serve as well as overcoming the differences. Two things we talked about that I thought were of great importance were giving respect and understanding the difference between culture barriers and culture shock
Culture is not only interesting but also very important to sociologists. Knowing and understanding the values of certain cultures not only helps us to avoid saying/doing the wrong thing, but it also helps us to show respect. Working in the field with older adults who already expect to receive respect attesting to their age, conveying respect when there are culture barriers is even more important. An ombudsman is an advocate for the resident, but if they cannot respect that resident they cannot expect to encourage others