Ombudsman

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•  That's a fancy title: Ombudsman. What does it mean?

  The person with this designation is appointed by an agency to investigate grievances against individuals or administrations.

  The State of Texas appoints an Ombudsman to oversee various nursing homes, rehabs, assisted living, and memory care facilities.

  Most of us who have loved ones in these facilities don’t know an Ombudsman exists, and it’s too bad. A good one can come in handy.

  In the reception/office area of a facility, the information for the appointed Ombudsman is legally supposed to be available. This liaison’s information was not available at our daughter’s second facility, a memory care institution.

  When she was in assisted living, she had a wonderful Ombudsman. This lady was often present at the facility. Her name is Alice, and she ate lunch with the residents. She’d asked how they were doing. She became friends with them and knew all of them of name.

  I had to call her once for assistance with Shelley, and Alice went immediately to check the circumstances. She found Shelley was innocent of an accusation, and she remedied the situation.

  Fast forward to the present memory care facility. Shelley was attacked by a resident. I tried to discover who the Ombudsman was for the facility. No one knew. Rats!

  I called Alice from the former facility, and she gave me phone numbers to call. I located the Ombudsman for the new facility. He had excuses for his lack of visibility.  Covid. Isolation. And of course, some of these reasons are valid, but why didn’t anyone know about him?  No picture or info was in the front reception area, and that’s an infraction.

  This man was supposed to help me with getting information to the state about an attack made on Shelley’s life, and he did, to a degree.

  The State of Texas sent inspectors and the memory care facility went through major changes.  In fact, it has now changed hands.

  A professional Ombudsman is a good person to develop a relationship with. (I know, I know, some writers avoid ending a sentence with a preposition, but it is grammatically correct.)

  If your loved one is in a facility, find out who the Ombudsman is for that establishment.  If the personnel don’t know who it is, shame on them, and shame on the Ombudsman. 

• Texas offices for Ombudsman