The Iowa Attorney General’s office received a grant to address elder abuse in Iowa. Assistant Attorney General Chantelle Smith is managing the grant. Efforts under the grant have included training to law enforcement, the judiciary and victim services advocates regarding the serious problem of elder abuse, as well as the devastating consequences of elder abuse to those who are victims. In addition, a coordinated community response team has been established and a multidisciplinary team is being formed to combat the problem of abuse of elder Iowans.

Since we are a grant partner, the Office of the State Long-Term Care Ombudsman has been assisting the effort by providing administrative support, assisting with trainings and participating on the coordinated community response team and multidisciplinary teams. I think this is a very worthwhile effort for anyone who cares about this serious issue that impacts Iowa’s elder population.

Long-term care professionals play an important role in the coordinated community response that is working to combat elder abuse in Iowa. Unfortunately, there is not currently a good representation of long-term care facility professionals for this effort. If you are interested in learning more about how you can participate, please contact Chantelle Smith at chantelle.smith@ag.iowa.gov.

Cindy Pederson, JD

• UI Learn offers a free "Family Involvement in Care" online learning module to help empower family members to establish partnerships with formal care providers in order to provide coordinated, person-centered care. The 10-part series covers topics such as communicating with providers, negotiating on behalf of your loved one, how to ask difficult questions, managing medications and more: 
  https://learn.uiowa.edu/browse/igec/courses/gec-1002

• The National Long-Term Care Ombudsman Resource Center has an issue page dedicated to abuse, neglect and exploitation in long-term care facilities that includes fact sheets, articles, links and other resources:
  http://ltcombudsman.org/issues/abuse-neglect-and-exploitation-in-long-term-care-facilities#resident-to-resident

• The Long-Term Care Community Coalition recently published a new issue alert on infection control and prevention. Despite strong regulatory requirements to safeguard residents, infections continue to be a leading cause of death, needless suffering and expense among nursing home residents:
  http://nursinghome411.org/ltccc-issue-alert-infection-control-prevention/

• The Alzheimer's Association recently released its 2018 Dementia Care Practice Recommendations, which were developed to better define quality care across all care settings and throughout the disease course and are intended for professional care providers who work with individuals living with dementia and their families in residential and community based care settings: https://alz.org/dementia-care-practice-recommendations/#recommendations

• CMS's National Partnership to Improve Dementia Care in Nursing Homes has released an updated Antipsychotic Medication Use Data Report. Since 2011, CMS has been tracking the progress of the National Partnership by reviewing publicly reported measures, specifically the percentage of long-stay nursing home residents who are receiving an antipsychotic medication (excluding residents diagnosed with schizophrenia, Huntington's Disease or Tourette's Syndrome):
  http://theconsumervoice.org/uploads/files/general/AP_package_20180118_Final.pdf

• Questions about what should be submitted to the Office of the State Long-Term Care Ombudsman during the discharge process should be addressed to the facility's legal counsel or trade association. Facilities may submit discharges to the OSLTCO using the form found on the Iowa Health Care Association's website: https://www.iowahealthcare.org/default.aspx

• So that we can better serve our Volunteer Ombudsmen, it was decided that certification will now be based on a calendar year. According to the Iowa Administrative Code, all Certified Volunteer Ombudsmen shall complete 10 hours of continuing education the first year and a minimum of six hours thereafter. Each of our current Volunteer Ombudsmen are in their second calendar year (or more) of serving. Continuing education may include, but is not limited to: (1) Scheduled telephone conference calls with representatives from the OSLTCO; (2) Governor’s Conference on Aging; (3) area Alzheimer’s disease conferences; (4) elder abuse conferences; (5) courses related to aging conducted by a local community college or university, or via the Internet; (6) other events as approved in advance by the OSLTCO. Volunteer Ombudsmen are responsible for reporting continuing education hours to the OSLTCO or designee within 30 days following the completion of the continuing education event. If a Volunteer Ombudsman attends a scheduled telephone conference call with the Office, this will automatically be added to the database. If a Volunteer Ombudsman attends another form of continuing education, the Continuing Education Reflection Form will need to be completed. If a hard copy is completed, please mail a copy to the Office or email it to volunteervop@iowa.gov.

• To capture the thoughts of our Volunteer Ombudsmen regarding CEU training, we ask that they please submit feedback via the Continuing Education Reflection Form. 

Presentation: "Legal Basics: Elder Financial Exploitation"
Presented by the National Center on Law & Elder Rights (January 2018)

Download

Recorded Webinar: "Elder Abuse and Resident-to-Resident Aggression"
Presented by the New Jersey Lon-Term Care Ombudsman Program (September 2017)
View

The mission of the Office of the State Long-Term Care Ombudsman is to protect the health, safety, welfare and rights of individuals residing in long-term care by investigating 

complaints, seeking resolutions to problems and providing advocacy, 

with the goal of enhancing quality of life and care.
 
Please feel free to forward this newsletter to others who may be interested.

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