|
June 23, 2015
Get Ready for the Consumer Voice Annual Conference
November 4-7, 2015
.png)
Conference Sponsorship: A Great Way to Present Your Organization
Being a conference sponsor provides your organization with the opportunity to not only support the activities of long-term care activists, advocates, ombudsmen, consumers and researchers, but also to be appreciated for your own contributions. What’s more, sponsors qualify for benefits, get to be an active conference participant and do good by helping to underwrite and reduce conference costs for attendees, especially consumers.
Specifically, your organization’s support will:
- Enable long-term care residents to participate free, providing them the unique opportunity to network with other residents from across the country and empowering them to work for quality long-term care;
- Assist family members who otherwise could not attend, enabling them to learn how to organize and continue independent family councils;
- Underwrite conference meals to hold down participant costs; and
- Bring together passionate people who are committed to making positive changes in long-term care.
Sponsors receive special benefits based on their level of giving including access to exhibit tables, the opportunity to add information to attendee bags and free registrations and passes to pre-conference intensives. To learn more about the benefits of becoming a conference sponsor, view the 2015 Sponsor Kit.
Early Bird Discount on Conference Registration
Receive a $60 discount when you register for the Consumer Voice Annual Conference before July 10th. Register now and take advantage of this great deal!
Conference Session Proposals are Due Friday, June 26
The Consumer Voice is currently accepting proposals for concurrent sessions at the 2015 Consumer Voice Annual Conference. Conference attendees including long-term care consumers - residents and family members, ombudsmen, consumer advocates, physicians, certified nurse assistants, nurses, legal services providers, attorneys, policy experts, social workers, and more!
Share information and results from your latest project or research, a best practice, or advocacy strategy!
Click here for the proposal form and guidelines.
All proposals must be received by June 26, 2015 to be considered.
Sessions that include more than one perspective or speakers from more than one program are encouraged.
Submit proposals as Word or PDF documents to Consumer Voice at info@theconsumervoice.org.
Back to Top
CARE Matters Buttons and Wristbands On Sale Now!
Show your support for this year's Residents' Rights Month theme - CARE Matters - with a button or wristband! These wristbands and buttons would make great gifts for residents, caregivers or volunteers. They are sold in packages of 20, 50 and 100.
20 - $15.00
50 - $40.00
100 - $80.00
20 - $25.00
50 - $50.00
100 - $90.00
*Remember - Consumer Voice members receive a 10% discount. Become a member now and save!
Back to Top
Only One Week Left to Register for Our Free Advocacy Skills Training Webinar
Webinar #3
Delivering Your Message: Utilizing Both Traditional Approaches and Social Media
June 30, 2015, 2-3:30 PM ET
As part of our Consumers for Quality Care, No Matter Where initiative, Consumer Voice will be conducting four FREE advocacy skills training webinars throughout the year. This will be our third advocacy skills training webinar. We welcome anyone and everyone to partcipate - long-term care consumers, family members, individual advocates, long-term care ombudsmen, members of consumer advocacy groups, family/caregiving groups, consumer alliances, and community and senior organizations.
During this session participants will learn how to communicate a message effectively using traditional methods, such as phone, email and letters to the editor, as well as social media approaches, including Facebook and Twitter.
Registration is first come, first served, so register now! To register, click here.
*While the webinars are free, your contribution of $10 or more - or your membership in Consumer Voice - will help support our Public Policy and Advocacy programs. You can join the Consumer Voice here or make a contribution here.
Back to Top
Advocates in Arkansas Celebrate World Elder Abuse Awareness Day
Division of Aging & Adult Services (DAAS) Director Craig Cloud and his team wearing purple wristbands, ribbons and shirts to celebrate WEAAD
The Arkansas Division of Aging and Adult Services participated in World Elder Abuse Awareness Day (WEAAD) on June 15th by wearing purple ribbons, wristbands and clothing. Nine years ago, the Network for the Prevention of Elder Abuse and the World Health Organization at the United Nations launched WEADD due to the alarming rate of abuse, neglect, and/or exploitation experienced every year by an estimated 5 million older Americans.
In Arkansas, adults age 60 or older are more likely than other adults to be abused, neglected or financially exploited. In state fiscal year 2014, Adult Protective Services investigated 3,685 allegations of abuse, neglect or forms of maltreatment. Of the 3,685 total allegations investigated, 2,570 (69.7%) involved alleged older victims. Those numbers are just regarding seniors in the community.
For more information about this year's WEADD celebration across the country, click here.
Back to Top
Article in The Gerontologist Highlights the Importance of LTCOP
A recent issue of The Gerontologist is dedicated to the 2015 White House Conference on Aging. Articles cover a variety of topics including re-imagining long-term services and supports, healthy aging and population aging, dementia care, and caregiver issues, among others. All articles can be accessed free of charge until the end of June. One article, Policies to Protect Persons with Dementia in Assisted Living: Deja Vu All Over Again? makes special mention of the Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program. The article reviews current assisted living practices relevant to residents with dementia and examines the government's role in protecting these individuals in this context. The article covers the critical role of ombudsmen in advancing protection policies for persons with dementia. Read the article here (free through the end of the month).
Back to Top
Consumer Voice Attends Meeting with Office of Management and Budget Regarding the Requirements of Participation
On Friday, June 19th, Consumer Voice, along with other advocates, attended a meeting with staff of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) within the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) at the White House regarding the pending proposed rule that would update and revise the existing nursing home regulations, also known as the Requirements of Participation. This proposed rule, which is awaiting publication, has been put forward by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. It has not yet been released to the public, but other federal agencies have had the opportunity to comment on the rule. The role of OIRA is to review draft regulations.
This allowed Consumer Voice and other organizations to share concerns regarding any potential weakening of the regulations, as well as recommendations to strengthen the rule, such as requirements for the twenty-four hour presence of a registered nurse in a nursing home, a 4.1 total nursing time per resident staffing standard, and a requirement for informed consent prior to administering antipsychotic drugs to nursing home residents with dementia.
Consumer Voice now awaits the release of the proposed rule, which is likely to be published in the coming months, and will take the opportunity to comment on the rule when it is released. We will also be certain to keep our network informed of the pending rule's progress so that others may take the opportunity to view and comment on the proposed rule when it is published.
Back to Top
Briefly Noted
- NORC has published a new issue of the Ombudsman Outlook. Get it here!
Spotlight on Giving: 40th Anniversary Campaign
For 40 years, we have been the national Consumer Voice calling for quality of care, dignity, and human rights for nursing home residents and all who depend on long-term care services. We have come so far in our fight to achieve quality care, and yet many challenges remain. We invite you to contribute to our special campaign to ensure that all persons who will be dependent on long-term care services are not alone and have advocates and a voice speaking up for their needs and their rights. For more information about the campaign, click here. To donate, click here.
Back to Top
Spotlight on Educational Resources
The Consumer Voice and the National Ombudsman Resource Center have a multitude of resources available online covering a wide range of long-term care topics. Visit the Consumer Voice website and the NORC website to explore all the available resources. Take a look at this week's highlighted resource:
Advance Care Planning for Residents - Roles and Responsibilities of Ombudsmen - This webinar discusses how long-term care ombudsmen can best support a resident who wants to do advance care planning, or for those residents whose wishes are not being respected by the facility, family, or friends, as well as what resources are available for information sharing and advocacy. Speakers included Charles Sabatino, Director, American Bar Association Commission on Law and Aging; and Maria Greene, NORC Consultant.
Back to Top
|
In this Issue
Get Ready for the Consumer Voice Annual Conference
November 4-7, 2015
CARE Matters Buttons and Wristbands On Sale Now
Only One Week Left to Register for Our Free Advocacy Skills Training Webinar
Advocates in Arkansas Celebrate World Elder Abuse Awareness Day
Article in The Gerontologist Highlights the Importance of LTCOP
Consumer Voice Attends Meeting with Office of Management and Budget on Requirements of Participation
Briefly Noted
Spotlight on Giving: 40th Anniversary Campaign
Spotlight on Educational Resources
4.1 It CAN Be Done!
As part of our nursing home staffing campaign, Better Staffing: The Key to Better Care, Consumer Voice is advocating for a minimum of 4.1 hours of nursing care per resident per day. To show your support of this campaign, individuals can send us a photo with the slogan "4.1 - It CAN Be Done" by tweeting us pictures @ConsumerVoices, posting on our Facebook or emailing your photos to info@theconsumervoice.org. Get the word out and encourage consumers to participate by sending in their photos too!
Calendar of Events
Friday, June 26: Session proposals for Consumer Voice Annual Conference due
Tuesday, June 30: Delivering Your Message: Utilizing Both Traditional Approaches and Social Media, Advocacy skills training webinar from the Consumer Voice
Tuesday, July 28: Identifying, Preventing and Responding to Bullying in Long-Term Care Facilities, 3:00pm ET, Webinar from NORC
Thursday, August 27: How to Grow, Support, and Activate Your Network, Advocacy skills training webinar from the Consumer Voice
October: Residents' Rights Month, CARE Matters
November 4-7, 2015: Consumer Voice 39th Annual Conference, Crystal City, Virginia
Your Car Can Help Promote Quality Care - It's Easy!
Do you, a loved one or friend have a car that you or they would like to dispose of? Now, Consumer Voice can help – and your used car can help Consumer Voice! By working with our car disposal agency, Vehicle Donation to Any Charity (V-DAC), the proceeds from the sale of your car become a contribution to Consumer Voice.
Donating your car is easy - V-DAC comes to the location of the car and picks it up (whether the car can be driven or not). Provide the car's registration and title, and V-DAC will send you a contribution letter with the amount of the donation that was made.
Note: We are actually registered with the service as “NCCNHR” so when asked which charity you would like to benefit, just say or type in “NCCNHR.”
Here is a link to our page on the V-DAC site http://v-dac.com/org?id=52-1122531 and you can get started there – or just call 877-999-8322 toll free. And to discuss your donation with Consumer Voice, just write to us at info@theconsumervoice.org or call (202) 332-2275 x209
Join the conversation and follow us on social media!
Last Week's Most Popular Post:
Wednesday, June 17:
How bad can nursing home care be? The Sacramento Bee has put together a major series of stories on California nursing homes, with particular focus on the state's largest chain.
Last Week's Most Popular Tweet:
Wednesday, June 17:
Nursing homes argue they can improve themselves, should have less regulation. Read these articles. What do you think?
Long-Term Care Resources & News
Read past issues of The Voice here.
Support Consumer Voice While You Shop Online
.jpg)
|
