17 Graduate as Nursing Home Ombudsmen

With cake and speeches, an unusual group of volunteers who help the elderly celebrated the largest graduating class in their program’s history this week.

The 17 people, certified as the San Fernando Valley’s newest long-term care ombudsmen, will soon be making regular rounds at some of the Valley’s 450 nursing homes and long-term care facilities to ferret out cases of abuse and neglect.

They will become part of a force of 42 volunteers in the Valley who will be companions for nursing home residents and watchdogs over their providers.

Estelle Harris, recruiter and training coordinator for WISE senior services, the local nonprofit agency that runs the ombudsman program throughout Los Angeles County, said the program is nearly always short of volunteers.

“We would like to have one for every nursing home,” Harris said. Even with this year’s increase in volunteers, the program is still short of the staff it needs, she said.

Harris attributed the new interest in the program to increased publicity and recruiting efforts by the American Assn. of Retired Persons, which sent out mailings to members locally.

The volunteers are carefully screened. Harris said recruiters seek people who are diplomatic and good listeners. Volunteers undergo 36 hours of training in working with the elderly and in the laws that protect them.

Members of the new graduating class, which received certificates at the ombudsman office in Reseda earlier this month, displayed a range of professional skills and interests.

Their numbers included Marjory Harty, a retired school worker who said she signed up because she has been looking for a way to spend her time since retirement.

“I’ve visited nursing homes and I could sure see the need,” she said. “You get to know people, and they tend to be so frightened, so dependent.”

Besides, Harty said, “You never know if you’ll be there one day.”