October is National Long-Term Care Residents’ Rights Month. Across the country, residents of nursing homes and other long-term care facilities will honor the individual rights of long-term care residents by celebrating Residents’ Rights Month. Residents’ Rights Month is an annual event held in October by the National Consumer Voice for Quality Long-Term Care (The Consumer Voice) to celebrate and focus on awareness of dignity, respect, and the value of long-term care residents.
This year’s theme – Join Us at the Table-, highlights the central role that food, mealtime, and community play in residents’ daily lives. Food is essential to residents’ health, providing the nutrition and dietary requirements they rely on. But its significance extends beyond that. Food is comfort, culture, identity, and connection — a daily experience that shapes dignity and quality of life.
Residents have the right to self-determination and to use their voice to make their own choices. By listening to residents’ voices, we honor their lives and experiences as well as treat them with dignity and respect; staff and residents can enjoy relationships that enhance their day-to-day lives; and the long-term care facility can operate more effectively in its daily activities when based on and developed with consumer involvement. When working together, the care can be truly individualized and focused on each person’s needs and preferences.
The Nursing Home Reform Law, passed in 1987, guarantees nursing home residents their individual rights, including but not limited to: individualized care, respect, dignity, the right to visitation, the right to privacy, the right to complain, and the right to make independent choices. The Nursing Homes, Assisted Living and Residential Care Facilities are where residents have made their homes and have maintain their rights as U.S. Citizens. Residents’ Rights Month raises awareness about these rights and pays tribute to the unique contributions of long-term residents.
The National Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program has worked for more than 50 years to promote residents’ rights daily. More than 3,500 volunteers and 2, 000 paid staff are advocates for residents in all 50 states plus the District of Columbia, Guam, and Puerto Rico.
Authorized under the Older Americans Act and administered by the Administration of Aging, the program also provides information on how to find a facility, conducts community education sessions, and supports residents, their families, and the public with one-on-one consultation regarding longterm care.
To learn more about Residents’ Rights in Long Term Care Facilities or the Ombudsman Program contact one of your local Ombudsman Supervisors —Tiffany Wingfield, 580-775-7478 or Gina Smith, 580-775-7794.
You can also call the SODA Area Agency on Aging, 580920-1388 or call Senior Info. Line 1-800-211-2116 or write to P.O. Box 709, Durant, OK. 74702. Ombudsman Supervisor is available to speak to your group or organization upon request.