More eyes will be on long-term care providers in the state after Ohio approved an increase in funding that will help its ombudsman program add more volunteers and increase visits to facilities and residents.
Ohio’s Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program will see a total uptick in state funding to the tune of more than $477,000 over the next two years. The state’s two-year operating budget has allocated about $1.8 million and $3.1 million for the program in 2020 and 2021, respectively.
The additional funding will be used to hire a full-time volunteer coordinator for the program’s regional offices, state officials noted. The state also plans to increase the program’s visits to facilities and residents. Currently, the state’s ombudsman program has about 200 volunteers.
“It’s very likely that if there wasn’t an ombudsman program, senior citizens wouldn’t know they have a set of rights, and a lot of problems would go unaddressed,” said Amity Overall-Laib, director of the National Long-Term Care Ombudsman Resource Center.
