There is a great wealth of resources available "out there" that many are not aware exists.

The National Council on Aging is a national advocacy group with many resources and partnerships with nonprofit, governmental, and business groups.

National Advocacy Groups for people living in long-term care facilities, their families and advocates:

• National Consumer Voice for Quality Long-Term Care
• The Pioneer Network
• AARP (American Association of Retired Persons)

New York Long Term Care Community Coalition is a national coalition advocating for policy and practice excellence in the treatment of the vulnerable elderly and disabled in all settings. 

Center for Medicare Advocacy, Inc. (CMA) is dedicated to helping consumers understand Medicare and the current issues related to both policy and quality, and helping consumers advocate for Medicare coverage.

In this 2015 article, an Ombudsman lends her still-relevant perspective on the benefits of accessing the Ombudsman program. 

Consumer Voice breaks down the federal regulations governing the operation of the states’ Long-Term Care Ombudsman programs and provides related information and resources here.

The National Consumer Voice is on Facebook!

The Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program serves as the advocate for residents in various long-term care settings. Access a national resource center here, and find your state’s Ombudsman offices here. 

The Consumer Voice has a Podcast series focused on “Pursuing Quality Long-Term Care”, available in two formats:

• Apple podcasts
• From the Consumer Voice web site 

Justice In Aging has a page hosting all their recorded webinars, issue briefs, fact sheets, and other publications on a variety of advocacy topics related to the exercise of rights, including benefits, admission, care and treatment, eviction, and others.

New York’s LTCCC hosted recent webinars on:

• resident legal rights to action in cases of abuse/neglect
• Rules protecting residents from wrongful eviction from facilities such as assisted living, which receive Home and Community Based Settings (HCBS) financing from Medicaid

The Consumer Voice created a fact sheet detailing the rights of Resident Councils in nursing homes, from the National Consumer Voice on Quality Long-Term Care.

Information about Family Councils and how to establish & operate one.

Consumer Voice has initiated a newsletter for residents, to empower them to be their own advocates (families can also benefit from this resource).

To help people think about what makes “quality of life” for themselves or for a loved one, Consumer Voice has developed a simple questionnaire in fillable pdf format with a sample to help with ideas or to get the conversation started.

The National Center for State Courts, with the assistance of the American Bar Association Commission on Law and Aging, has produced an online training on how to support someone who needs help making decisions and managing life.

TheNational Consumer Voice for Quality Long-Term Care hosted a webinar, “Put a STOP to Poor Care”, with Our Mother’s Voice CEO as a panelist (click on the image of the PowerPoint slide).

The Consumer Voice offers a compilation of long-term care information geared toward promoting effective advocacy and consumer-directed care, as well as legislative activities (this is a free service for which you can register).

The National Consumer Voice for Quality Long-Term Care has developed a number of advocacy tools, and has conducted several webinars, to empower advocates for quality care and supports.

This Consumer Voice fact sheet provides an overview of the concepts of individualized quality care.

The Consumer Voice has developed a new fact sheet offering tips for advocating for quality nursing home care on both individual and systems levels.

AARP published an article on the concepts and principles of Person-centered care, 

A resident of an assisted living facility provides a resident’s perspective on what constitutes “quality of life” in an article published in the New York Times.

A number of brief “fact sheets” from Consumer Voice on how to plan and implement quality care whether in-home, from a variety of sources, or in a long-term care facility are available here.  

The guidebook “Piecing Together Quality Long-Term Care” is available here.

A guide to advocating for individualized quality care when the family is challenged with a loved one with “behavioral issues”.

An eye-opening, award-winning documentary view of assisted living in a NON-person-centered environment is available here.

Click here for a guide to coordinating your own or a family member’s long-term care in a home setting.

Consumer Voice provides several resources on transitioning from a nursing facility to another setting, including a status report on current practices nationwide, tips for successful transitions, and advocacy tools.

The Pioneer Network, trailblazers for culture change in nursing homes, has published a compilation of case studies demonstrating the life-changing outcomes of person-directed care in a variety of nursing homes – for both residents and facilities.

Access workshop materials from the 2015 Consumer Voice annual conference, including a PowerPoint presentation by our Founder and CEO.

The Long-Term Care Community Coalition has published a brief about the importance of staffing levels to quality of care in nursing homes, what the regulations say about “sufficient” staffing, and how advocates can find out about staffing levels.

The National Consumer Voice web site page on public policy, covering a multitude of issues.

Fact sheet on the importance of the Older Americans Act. Though this is an older publication, it outlines significant provisions of the OAA which must be preserved and strengthened each time the Act comes up for reauthorization, every five years. 

The threat of transfer or discharge from a nursing home can be both frightening and stressful for residents and their families.  Consumer Voice has a variety of resources and materials about your rights and what to do next if you've been given a discharge notice.