10.07.21
Advocating Kindness
Tammy Davis, Business People magazine
Excerpt
The Long-Term Care Ombudsman program promotes and protects residents’ rights through advocacy, respect and kindness.
If there is one thing Aisha Arrington wishes people would remember, it’s that nursing home residents are people; they just can’t care for themselves without help. For this group that is often ignored, neglected or forgotten, having an advocate can make a huge difference in their quality of life. As executive director of the Long-term Care Ombudsman Program in northeast Indiana, Arrington takes that personally.
“Human beings – that’s who we are advocating for,” says Arrington. “What pulls at my heart is that we’re serving a population of people that is now one of our most vulnerable populations.”
Mandated through the Older Americans Act of 1965, each state must have an ombudsman program to promote and protect the rights of long-term care residents. Arrington oversees Indiana’s Region 3 serving nine counties in the state’s northeast corner.
“What we do all day long is answer calls that involve questions about care, complaints about care and residents’ rights,” explains Arrington. “We support the resident to have the quality of life they want to have for themselves. That’s not up to the family or the facility.”
Read full article on BusinessPeople.com.
