Questions Hover Over Popular Ombudsman Program
(From CaliforniaHealthLine.org) Usually, committee meetings in Sacramento are pretty sparsely attended affairs. You have committee members listening, bill presenters talking and sometimes as many as half a dozen lobbyists stepping up to briefly weigh in.
But at a recent Senate Health Committee hearing, when it came time for people to enter their support into the record, the line of advocates went far past the usual half-dozen -- it stretched all the way to the back of the chamber, where a knot of people waited to join the queue.
They were all there to state their support for the Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program.
There are 35 local ombudsman programs in California, with about 1,200 volunteers visiting approximately 9,300 senior housing sites, nursing homes and assisted living facilities across the state. The program is run by the Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program, a state agency within the Department of Aging.
At the same time, many questions have been raised about the program's size, scope and duties. Just how much responsibility should be given to volunteer advocates? How should the state structure this organization? Should it be an independent agency? And from where will funding come?
Money, Money, Money
The governor cut all general fund money for the program in 2008, totaling $3.8 million. Lawmakers later restored almost half of it, $1.6 million, to keep the program afloat...
Read the full article [here].
Biography
Jeff Thompson is a certified international mediator. He is also a law enforcement detective in New York. His law enforcement role include a being a communication and conflict specialist, interfaith dialogue, developing and implementing community engagement programs, and designing training workshops.
Jeff is currently a PhD candidate researching nonverbal communication and mediation at Griffith University Law School. He also received his MS in Negotiation and Dispute Resolution from the Creighton University School of Law. Jeff has presented and trained on the topic of conflict, mediation, communication and nonverbal communication internationally and has been published and featured with numerous international media organizations. He currently writes also at PsychologyToday.com.
(All posts by Jeff Thompson represent his personal reflections and opinions as a mediator and not that of any organization.)
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