Community Corner

New Jersey's Advocates for the Aging

Aided by volunteers, James McCracken, Ombudsman for the Institutionalized Elderly, protects and befriends residents of nursing homes and assisted-living facilities.

As New Jersey's Ombudsman for the Institutionalized Elderly, James McCracken has what some might define as an impossible job: protecting the more than 30,000 nursing home and assisted-living residents in the state from abuse, neglect, and exploitation.

Clearly, it's not a job he can do alone. That helps explain why McCracken is hoping to double the number of volunteer advocates he works with. His office also has an 11-member investigative team comprising former state troopers and nurses who are dispatched to a facility to gather information and intervene if they find something wrong. (Last year there were 2,648 verified complaints, about the same number as the year before.)

But McCracken's investigative team typically tracks down tips and reports of suspected abuse. His volunteer advocates help him learn more about conditions at long-term care facilities. Right now, the program includes about 180 volunteers, up from some 145 when he came onboard. His goal is to reach 300 over the next two years, covering at least 80 percent of New Jersey's 369 nursing homes and 214 assisted-living facilities.

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Volunteer advocates receive 32 hours of training and are assigned to a facility, which they visit for four hours a week. They get to know the staff and the residents, and become the eyes and ears of the ombudsman, advocating on behalf of the elderly residents.

Yes, they follow up reports about abuse and fraud. But they are also there to assist in a myriad of ways, helping one resident file her taxes, finding a baseball fan to share the room of another, and simply talking about opera once a week to a lonely senior.

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The volunteer advocates, "work hard in the facilities to resolve complaints before anything ever happens. Frankly, that is why they are so important," McCracken said. "The volunteer will get a complaint from a resident or a staff member, and they will look into it and get it resolved before it escalates."

Perhaps a resident is unable to sleep with a noisy roommate; the volunteer will "talk to the social worker and facilitate a room change," McCracken said. Residents confide to volunteers about issues they hesitate to rise with the staff -- since it may be an attitude or behavior of a staff member that they're unhappy with.

McCracken's investigative team tends to deal with grittier problems. Cases might include a resident who has been hit by a staffer or fellow resident, verbal abuse or bedsores that indicate substandard care. Financial exploitation of the elderly is a growing issue.

The summary of an actual intervention can help put in perspective some of what the investigators deal with: "Received a call from the daughter of a resident. The daughter overhead an aide yelling at the resident in the next room to 'shut up . . . and eat your dinner.' The aide's comments were laced with profanities." That complaint resulted in the aide being fired and reported to the state board that certifies nurse's aides.

Once the complaint has been confirmed, the investigator "makes sure the issue has been resolved properly, and that there are procedures put in place to make sure the resident is free in the future from being subject to having this type of thing happening again," McCracken said. "We talk to the resident and make sure they are satisfied that the facility took the issue very seriously and appropriate action has been taken so they are not living in fear anymore."

Continue reading this story in NJ Spotlight.

NJ Spotlight is an online news service providing insight and information on issues critical to New Jersey.


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