Ombudsmen programs available to help victims of elder abuse

By: Andrea Siebert, Megan Deierling and Ryan Landolph

Ombudsmen programs in the state of Ohio are available for all elders and provide services as advocates for those who file a complaint for abuse, neglect or misappropriation among other issues.

“We are not regulators; we are problem solvers,” said Beverley Laubert, Ohio’s long-term care ombudsmen. “We work closely with regulatory and law enforcement agencies, so when we do see abuse and need to call upon those other resources, we do that.”

In the state of Ohio, there are 12 regional programs run by Laubert, with 85 paid employees plus volunteers. Her office handles about 11,000 complaints per year statewide from residents of long-term care facilities, such as nursing homes, assisted-living facilities and community-based services.

The most frequent complaints that ombudsmen attempt to assist elders with are, according to Laubert: discharge, which is usually from a nursing home; failure to respond to request of assistance, which is something such as taking too long or refusing to respond to a resident’s call light; not being treated with dignity and respect; and care-planning, which involves addressing an elder’s needs.

Overall, these complaints of elder mistreatment typically involve the intentional usage or absence of an act by a person that is meant to cause harm. However, elder abuse is a multi-faceted term that applies to many different ways that elders are exploited.

“Abuse, neglect and misappropriation are the big three,” said Robert Cain, the executive director at The Gables of KentRidge, an assisted-living facility in Kent. “Abuse can be verbal, physical or sexual. Neglect involves not providing the care that is needed or refusing to do something that someone needs to keep them healthy. Misappropriation would be taking something from someone.”

Many complaints of elder abuse result from the inexperience and lack of staff members of long-term care facilities.

“What is seen in the industry, in all these facility types, is a terrible turnover problem,” said Sam McCoy, the vice president for elder rights at Direction Home Akron Canton Area Agency, who also oversees three of the twelve regional ombudsmen programs. “There is often not enough staff on hand at a nursing home to be responsive and proactive in watching a resident.”

The turnover problem exists due to the type of work that is done in these facilities. McCoy, the former nursing home employee, says that staff positions like caregivers and nurse aids are “tough jobs” that do not pay well and have limited career expansion opportunities.

With staff members constantly coming in and out, it makes it difficult for new employees, who are desperately needed, to get the adequate training to properly assist the residents.

“Maybe (staffers) are not fully informed what the job is,” said Laubert. “They do not get enough support and leadership from the professional nurses and leadership of the provider, and not enough training is part of it.”

However, some nursing homes and assisted living facilities have plans in place to make sure their employees are also being proactive to ensure the safety of their residents.

Cain says The Gables of Kent Ridge has extensive training to educate their employees before they are allowed to assist the residents.

“Before they actually work with residents, (the staffers) are trained,” said Cain. “Once they have completed our educational training, which includes videos, each department head educating them on each topic, quizzes and a skills checklist, specifically, our care partners and our nurses would then follow someone on the actual floor for a few days. From there, after they have done that training, they start to back it down, where they start doing the work with that trained person watching them do it. Then, once they have really got that down to a tee, then that is when we feel they have been educated and we check off each item. We check off each item as they have been educated and demonstrated that they know how to do it.”

Ombudsmen are also looking out for the staffers at the facilities, as new plans are currently in motion to help administrators with their resident-staffer relationship.

“We are about to launch a project in nursing homes in Ohio called the ‘Person-Centered Staff Engagement Project,’ said Laubert. “We are really trying to have an impact on the problem of staff turnover and helping nursing homes really engage their staff.”

Along with the Person-Centered Staff Engagement Project, Laubert says that training with facilities will begin to rise, while local ombudsmen continue to provide additional support.

Much of the work that the Ohio ombudsmen have already done recently has been extremely visible and made significant dividends. The complaints are still out there, but things are beginning to become better.

“I was surprised that the number of abuse, neglect and exploitation cases has declined over the years,” said McCoy.

Regardless of numbers, even those that are improving, Laubert and the ombudsmen will continue to work the same way.

“When something bad happens, we have to just jump in there and raise the voice of the person who is being abused and just make sure that we take notice,” said Laubert.

ElderAbuse from Megan Deierling on Vimeo.

Find out about long term care facilities, the policies put into place to avoid elder abuse, and how to report it. https://t.co/3jWFb8OhMh

— Megan Deierling (@m_deierlingTV2) March 24, 2017

Programs are available to help victims of elder abuse…find out more information about them here: https://t.co/T1hVJF0xM9 #RPP

— Ryan Landolph (@Ryan_Landolph) March 24, 2017

What are the policies and regulations in place to protect and prevent elder abuse? Find out here: https://t.co/jFOYX7VdkX #RPP

— Andrea Siebert (@ASiebert_TV2) March 24, 2017

 

Who did what:
-Megan – set up two phone interviews, put together the video
-Andrea – set up in person interview, infographics and sidebars
-Ryan – wrote the story, put everything together on the site