Revise The Federal & State Ombudsman Act & Long Term Care Facilities

COVID leaned against the Long Term Care Doors -- 

Let's Push Them Fully Open State by State

Not every State has an Ombudsman Program even though it's a Federal Law. 

Individual State Interpretations of the Law give power to the facility rather than to the individual and the family. 

Financing is basically on the State level so if OTHER programs need money, guess which programs are usually cut back or even eliminated -- THE AGING.

It's time to adopt a new approach to keeping Long Term Care aka Continuum of Care, divisions of care in different or the same facility from Independent Living to Assisted Living OPEN and 

IF YOU'VE PROVIDED OR ARE PROVIDING CARE FOR A LOVED ONE

You know the cost in time and money. 

You also know the challenges of everyday care giving.

In their home, your home, Adult Day Care or Residential Care, there's usually one primary care giver, a family member, who becomes THE VOICE of the aging family member.

You also know, as we found out, there is little if any financial support, in home assistance or other programs; they are poorly funded, sporatic in provision of services and dependent on "allocations" either from the private sector or the goverment -- almost always, the State where the aging person lives.

If you've experienced major medical costs: eye, hip, gallstone, escar or other, and depleted savings to a point where you need Medicaid... .

LET THIS BE A WARNING IF YOUR LOVED ONE IS ON "MEDICAID" . . .

You will have a representative from the DHSS who meets with the Senior and "IF" there's no diagnosis of "mental incapacity" it's highly unlikely you will be told of the meeting or meetings, the existence of the "representative" or receive any paperwork which has included interviews, assessments and even recommendations.

If the Senior does not live in your home, you may not be told about contact being made, an interview done or any other processes or procedures including the DHSS making determinations and evaluations and then working to convince YOU the Senior needs a "Respite" while knowing that means they sign themselves into a facility and it's good luck your trying to get that changed.

OR, like we experienced, you fall victim to someone from a group, organization or facility YOU TRUST. Usually a she but can be a he, comes into your life perhaps at a time of significant challenge/need. Ours came in when both my mother and my husband were needing caregiving.Mom for LBD and my husband for medical challenges from mistakes made by medical practitioners.

TAKE HEED, AMERICA. We are a system of variance in services and that's a critical area for many as we've seen throughout the COVID challenge.

LTC doors may have "reopened" but they're still covered with false, misleading and deceptive practitioners who care more about profitability and raising their net worth than ensuring expenditures provide needed individual services and recognizing some parts of life should not turn people into multi millionaires.