COUNTYWIDE : Health Watchdogs Befriend the Elderly

Peace Alvarez, a 73-year-old retired nurse practitioner, painfully remembers how few people came to visit her elderly patients in Los Angeles. Now an Ojai volunteer, Alvarez spends a few hours each week helping peers confined to old-age homes.

For Joan Conlon, the decision to join Alvarez and other volunteers also came from watching the lonely faces in the homes. Conlon visits her bedridden father daily, noting the absence of other families.

“There were a lot of people without visitors,” said Conlon, who volunteers in the Santa Paula and Fillmore areas. “I just want to take them all home with me.”

The women are two of 20 volunteers who help serve as watchdogs for the county’s 87 old-age facilities, including convalescent hospitals and board-and-care homes. Motivated by their compassion for shut-ins, members of the Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program check in with patients and administrators weekly to ensure quality care.

“Nursing home residents very often are afraid to complain,” program director Shirley Radding said. “We’re a presence there. We can relay their problem in a confident manner.”

The volunteers, who also mediate complaints from families and administrators, work with the state Department of Health Services. But most concerns are handled internally by the staffs of the facilities, Radding said.

“We just want to see that the patient gets the best care . . . and that their rights are observed,” Radding said.

The ombudsman program, mandated by the federal government in 1978 by the Older Americans Act, has been operating in Ventura County for a decade.

This week, training begins for prospective volunteers in the Simi Valley and Thousand Oaks areas. Trainees must complete 36 hours of instruction before they are certified by the state. Volunteers can call 656-1986 for more information.

Once certified, volunteers make unannounced visits to the facilities to inspect the kitchen and cleanliness of the rooms. They talk with the patients, making sure they are alert, and check for sores or other signs of abuse.

“They need somebody there who stands for them,” said Alvarez. “The days can be awful long when you’re shut in. . . . I’m there for their health.”