When long-term care residents don’t have family nearby to look out for them, advocacy can come in the form of certified ombudsman volunteers.

But the need for volunteers has grown around the nation, said Carol Scott, the National Ombudsman Resource Center’s long-term care program and policy manager.

“What’s happened over the last 12 years is that the number of volunteers is now about half of what it was,” Scott said. “It went from 10,000 volunteers to now around 4,000 nationwide.”

The COVID-19 pandemic prompted many longtime volunteers to step away. For those near the point of aging out of volunteering anyway, the fear of going into facilities where the virus was spreading was the last nudge they needed to hang it up.

“We really got slammed during the pandemic,” Scott said.

In Minnesota, certified ombudsman volunteers complement the Minnesota Office of Ombudsman for Long-term Care’s regional staff to address resident complaints, resolve concerns and educate them on their rights.

“We work to protect the health, safety, welfare and rights of some of the state’s most vulnerable residents who live in these settings,” said Cheryl Hennen, Minnesota’s ombudsman for long-term care.

State-level, long-term care ombudsman programs are federally mandated. The Health Services and Mental Health Administration piloted programs in Idaho, Michigan, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Wisconsin in 1972, followed by a 1978 amendment to the Older Americans Act establishing them in each state.

Minnesota has good care providers, Hennen said, but ombudsman programs serve as a resource for residents to air concerns without fear of retaliation.

Residents in these settings often are dealing with change, she said, and may struggle to use their own voices to advocate for themselves.

“When you’re in a setting when you’re relying on other people to provide care of your most private needs, it can seem like the power imbalance is off,” she said.

Complaints are kept anonymous and nothing is brought forward without a resident’s permission. Ensuring every facility in the state has an ombudsman advocacy presence requires volunteers, Hennen said, since staff can’t cover them all.

“Within certain communities, we’re doing targeting of where we need volunteers the most,” Hennen said. “Spreading word around the state is welcome.”

Quarterly ombudsman visits to facilities are the minimum goals. Having enough volunteers allows for multiple visits per month, fostering more trust between residents and the ombudsman.

Increased trust doesn’t only benefit residents who don’t get visitors, Scott said.

“Just because you’re coming in and visiting, you may not be aware of what the facility is supposed to be doing,” she said.

Complaints handled by an ombudsman range from food options to mistreatment to appealing an eviction. Regardless of the issues, the ombudsman program started as a way to ensure residents in long-term care settings have local advocates on their side.

“The idea was to involve the community in looking in on the residents at the facility,” Scott said. “And the best idea was that a volunteer who lives in the neighborhood or in the town or county would be able to visit several times per month.”

She’s hopeful the volunteer numbers will bounce back.

Some states are showing signs of rebounding, Scott said, although they still have ground to make up to get back to where they were a decade ago.

To volunteer for a long-term care ombudsman program in your state, find contact information using the National Consumer Voice for Quality Long-Term Care’s searchable tool: theconsumervoice.org/get_help