Someone was yelling from a room down the hall. The ombudsman visiting the assisted living facility found Joan sitting on her bed quite upset, her call button out of reach. An aide had helped her dress for dinner and told her she would be right back to help her into her wheelchair. The aide forgot to return. When the ombudsman located the aide, she said she was sorry, but there were only two staff on the second floor and they were very busy.

Joan was frightened by her experience and lost her trust that she'll be taken care of. Staff let her down, and perhaps staff was let down by not being provided enough support to do their best job. Because of Joan's experience and other problems due to low staffing, the ombudsman advocated for additional staff and two new aides were hired.

Ombudsmen are advocates for long-term care residents. We are basically problem solvers. We visit all the facilities and every complaint is looked into. Sometimes even the facilities ask us to help solve a problem. Those are the facilities that know our goals are parallel ... to make certain the residents are treated with respect, kindness and concern so their quality of care and quality of life are the best possible.

Joan's problem stemmed from lack of adequate staff. How does understaffing in a long-term care facility affect the quality of care of the residents who call it home? Let me count the ways.

Residents don't get personal care when it's needed; they often have to wait too long for their call lights to be answered leading to embarrassing and even dangerous results; medications are mismanaged; residents get left in the bathroom too long; food is delivered cold; bathing schedules get side-stepped; staff doesn't notice a changing condition of a resident; residents get lonely and isolated when a caregiver doesn't have time to talk; caregivers burn out and accidents happen.

There are caregivers and long-term care facilities that put resident care first and the bottom line second. Of course, all facilities want to make money - it's business. To a facility mostly interested in the bottom line however, understaffing is an effective way to save money. But what about the residents' quality of care and quality of life?

To give quality care a facility must provide each resident with the necessary care and services to attain or maintain their highest physical, mental and social well-being. Each resident should have a plan of care outlining his/her needs and how they are to be addressed. It's unacceptable when just adequate care instead of excellent care becomes the standard.

Families expect their loved ones to be taken care of, but if they suspect care is deficient, their complaints may be ignored or criticized as meddling. Some facilities have their routines and practices in place and dislike having them disrupted or criticized. It is those facilities that get the most complaints and it's the ombudsmen who answer the calls and follow through on the complaints. Being an ombudsman is a worthy and satisfying way to volunteer. Join us.

A new volunteer ombudsman training is scheduled for seven Tuesdays, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sept. 9 through Oct. 21. To find out how you can be a part of this extraordinary team, contact Jan Noyes at (208) 667-3179 Ext. 243 or [email protected].