Over the past several years, advocacy for seniors residing within care facilities, such as nursing homes and assisted living homes, have grown in visibility in the public eye. Some of this was due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, regardless of why care advocacy is becoming more well known and respected, it is always a good thing for the elderly to have more voices on their side, championing their rights and needs.
If you’ve ever visited a nursing home, you may have seen something on the public announcement boards about an ombudsman. The ombudsman is an advocate. Depending on where you live, this can be a professional or volunteer role. Either way, the ombudsman’s job is to field concerns and complaints about senior care and then advocate for changes in the facility to help ensure that seniors are getting the care and respect that they deserve.
It’s important to remember that care is always changing. Even for a person receiving care, their needs will change over time and the care administered will need to change as a result of this. Walking through this alone can be frightening.
Senior care advocacy is a behind the scenes job. Sometimes the results go unnoticed. But advocacy helps seniors to live better lives. It helps them get access to the care and resources that they need to thrive during an otherwise tough period of time. Advocates serve in one of the most important jobs in the entire care business.
Everyone deserves to have an advocate on their side. This doesn’t necessarily need to be a professional, either. Just having someone on your side that you know and trust, someone that has your back when things get tough or you’re not able to speak up for yourself, can go a really long way. You’ve probably played this role yourself at various times throughout your life. Whether it’s speaking up for a friend on the playground when you were a kid, helping your kids as they navigate early (or late) childhood, or going into a doctor’s appointment with a loved one to support them, this is something that we naturally do for the people that we love and care about.
Care advocacy doesn’t need to be professional in nature. It doesn’t even need to have the formal appearance of an ombudsman. It can happen on many levels, and you might not even need to leave your own home to get access to it.
We would love to help your family get pointed in the right direction. We know that as senior care professionals, we can’t have the same kind of voice that you can for a loved one. But we can listen to your concerns about care, appraise your unique situation, and then help you get pointed to the resources that will help you out the most. Our professional caregivers are passionate about helping people, and we can help you to get started too with a free consultation.
If you have questions about care or you’re just not sure where to start, please get in touch with us today to get the ball rolling.
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