A program that provides advocates for people in long-term care in Oregon is looking for volunteers.
KLCC’s Rachael McDonald spoke with Debbie Boures, deputy state long-term care ombudsman, and a long-time volunteer ombudsman in Eugene, Bonnie Rutledge. Rachael started by asking Debbie to describe the program.
Debbie Boures: We're an independent state agency, and we work with residents living in long-term care facilities, nursing facilities, assisted living, residential care, memory care, and adult foster. We're there to help, ensure their rights are respected, resident rights, and also do consumer education. Often when people move into a facility, they don't know what to expect, and so we're there to help them navigate if they want that assistance and or if issues arise.
Rachael McDonald: And you are here in Lane County and you also cover other counties?
Boures: Yeah, I'm the deputy for Lane County, and also Linn and Benton Counties. At this time in Linn and Benton counties, there are 31 assisted living, residential care, memory care, and nursing facilities and 39 foster homes, So, one person obviously can't visit all of those places, so we need volunteers. And in Lane County, there are 60 assisted living residential care and nursing facilities, and 65 adult foster homes. So, without volunteers, we couldn't do what we do.
McDonald: Bonnie, Can you talk about how you got involved in this program?
Bonnie Rutledge: It was kind of a natural bridge after being around my mother, who was a fiercely independent woman, but moved from her own home into a retirement community. I noticed the change where she was not willing to advocate for herself, thinking she might be asked to move. So that little bit of practice that I had became a natural bridge, when she passed, to helping other seniors who have moved into even more restricted facilities like assisted living or memory care, and not knowing what they can advocate for, for themselves. So, after listening to them for a little while and getting to know them, if they want me to, I can be their voice and go talk to the admin in their place to get a resolution for their problem.
McDonald: What would you say to people that might be interested in getting involved, in terms of why would you choose to do this work?
Rutledge: Again, I got into it because of my mother and realizing just what is in the thought processes of a person who is moving into a facility that is not their home that they've owned for 50 years. And realizing that they don't know what their rights are and that they should be treated with dignity and respect, most of all places are, but occasionally there is an issue with that, and we need just to let them know that. Somebody is there for them. A lot of them don't have family anymore. I had several residents, they were the youngest in their family, so all of their siblings were gone. Of course, they had no parents. And so you become a go-to person for them just for even minor issues: telephone numbers, that sort of thing.
McDonald: Debbie, how can people get involved?
Boures: Well, first of all, I wanna say you don't have to have any particular skill set, so you don't have to feel like I'm not an expert in long term care. : How could I do this? You need to have a willingness to learn, ask questions. We're all always asking questions, and have the compassion and maybe persistence, to assist residents. I think a lot of people feel like it's a really rich experience, really rewarding. And, that's maybe why they do it. Some people come to it because they're looking at the system as a whole and how we can advocate for changes within the whole system. So some people come with that idea too.
McDonald: In terms of how many volunteers you need, is the ideal to have a volunteer for each facility?
Boures: Oh my gosh, that would be amazing. Yeah, that would be amazing. So, as I said, in Lane County right now, there's 60 congregate facilities. There's nine volunteers. So, you can see that we do not have someone assigned to every building. So, yeah, it's ideal when we can have someone there because, as I mentioned, you're going weekly, you're meeting people. It's important for residents to see that you're coming back. You know, a lot of people come in and out of the lives of people living in long-term care, so they're hesitant sometimes to open up about issues. But once they see, oh, this person just keeps coming back, OK, maybe I want to open up and get some help on this issue.
Debbie Boures is deputy state long-term care ombudsman and Bonnie Rutledge is a volunteer ombudsman.
Click here for information on upcoming volunteer trainings.
