Volunteer Opportunity Details:

Volunteer Ombudsman visit facilities and advocate for residents' rights. quality of care and qualitiy of life. We visit residents, observe the environment, receive complaints, and help to resolve problems that may arise. Vulnerable elders often won't or can't speak for themselves, and the ombudsman is a voice to speak for them.

What Makes a Good Day in a Nursing Home?
While visiting a nursing home, residents were asked what makes a good day for them. A good day means activities, being treated with respect and dignity, good food, and pleasant surroundings. It means a trip out into the community. A good day means getting the care they pay for and being treated as an individual who has the right to make personal choices. A good day means caring staff responding to their needs and not treating them like a child. A good day is when family and friends come to visit.

Volunteer ombudsmen are advocates for seniors in long term care and concerned about the daily lives of the residents. The job of an ombudsman is to advocate for residents’ rights, quality of care and quality of life. Ombudsmen spend time with residents, listening, building trust, and helping to find solutions to problems on residents’ behalf.

James, 79, spends much of his day in a wheelchair due to a stroke. “A good day is being able to move around and do things,” he says. “I used to feel sorry for myself when I first got here. I just wanted to sit in my room. But I had to change my attitude to survive. Now I visit with other residents, especially new ones. I read, watch TV, go outside when it’s sunny, play Wii. I like to do things. You can’t just sit around and feel sorry for yourself. If you do, it’s all over.”

Residents of nursing homes depend on others for their care, often their most basic needs. It’s never easy to make that kind of change from a life of freedom they’re used to. I’m inspired by the positive attitudes of many of the people I meet. James faces his challenges with grace and determination, but many residents are vulnerable and need someone to speak for them.

Margaret. 98, blind and in a wheel chair, lives in an assisted-living facility. I notice Margaret has a pile of books on tape next to a tape player with raised symbols for open, play, rewind, volume and eject. “The ombudsman helped get the Commission on the Blind to get me this tape player,” Margaret says. “I can’t see,” she says, “but I can still learn.”

Not all residents can or will speak up for themselves. Choice should be at the center of good care. The focus of good facilities is resident-centered, paying attention to the likes and dislikes of residents as well as their daily needs. Good facilities give residents a life and provide services and activities that maintain the resident’s highest practicable well-being.

Some residents are sadly resigned to their situations, feeling their lives are no longer in their control. They just go along with the way things are. They don’t not know what their rights are as residents of long term care facilities. That’s where the volunteer ombudsman comes in. Ombudsmen keep the facilities on their toes. To find out more about the ombudsman program, contact Jan Noyes at the Area Agency on Aging in Coeur d’Alene, 667-3179 or jnoyes@aaani.org.

Training is 1 day a week, from 9 a m to 3 p m, for 7 weeks. At present, periodic trainings are in Coeur d'Alene and Sandpoint. Volunteers must be fingerprinted and cleared before being assigned facilities. Personal transportation is necessary as is attendance to all training days and volunteer meetings once every 6 weeks following the training. It is expected that volunteers will commit to at least 12 hours a month visiting facilities.

This opportunity is sponsored by: Area Agency On Aging

Contact Person: Jan Young, Program Manager, (phone), (email) View all agency contacts

Address:

2120 Lakewood Drive Suite B Coeur d'Alene, ID 83814 (See a map)

Directions:

From Hwy. 90 take Northwest Blvd. exit. At first stoplight turn left onto Ironwood Drive. Drive short distance to Lakewood Dr. and turn right. 2120 is the first building on left side of street.