Policy Tools & Information

National Consumer Voice for Quality Long-Term Care Public Policy: Featured Issues and Actions


Protecting the Elderly from Dangerous Bed Rails

The Misuse of Antipsychotics Among Nursing Home Residents

Protecting Medicaid, Americans' Only Long-Term Care Safety Net

Medicare's Role in Long-Term Care

Reauthorization of the Older Americans Act

Strengthening the Long-Term Care Ombudsman Provisions of the Older Americans Act

The Dangers of Tort Reform for Long-Term Care Consumers

Pre-Dispute Arbitration Agreements in Long-Term Care Facility Admission Contracts

Improving Nurse Staffing and the Direct Care Workforce

Better Care Through Better Wages

Medicaid Managed Long-Term Care

Residents' Rights in the Nursing Home Reform Law

Long-Term Care Provisions in the Affordable Care Act

Other Public Policy & Advocacy Resources


Consumer Voice Positions Resolutions & Publications

Advocacy Toolkit

Federal Legislation

Government Reports

State Resources Publications & Legislation

Outside Publications & Resources

Policy Advocacy News

Using Public Data

 

Consumer Voice Positions, Resolutions & Publications


  • Consumer Voice Nurse Staffing Standards
  • Consumer Voice Resolutions 1986 - 2010 (by topic)
  • The High Cost of Poor Care: : The Financial Case for Prevention in American Nursing Homes (April 2011)
  • History of Consumer Voice Resolutions  
  • The Faces of Neglect: Behind the Closed Doors of Nursing Homes
  • Nursing Homes: Getting Good Care There
  • Piecing Together Quality Long-Term Care: A Consumer’s Guide to Choices and Advocacy: This consumer guide, developed in March 2011, educates people with disabilities and older adults about their options for long-term services and supports and empowers consumers to be self-advocates for quality long-term care. The guide includes tips from consumers as well as information and resources to assist people currently living in nursing homes to move back into the community. The guide is available in several formats, including an HTML version, a PDF version and audio portions of the guide; a hardcopy is also available for $20.
  • Jessica Brill Ortiz, program manager, and Becka Livesay, program associate – communications and outreach, presented an overview of the Consumers for Quality Care, No Matter Where initiative at the 2011 Aging in America conference in San Francisco. The presentation detailed the Consumer Voice’s work with advocates across the country to empower consumers to be self-advocates for quality care while building a bridge between the aging and disability communities. In keeping with this work, the presentation outlines the steps taken to make the consumer guide easily accessible to persons with disabilities on the Consumer Voice website using low-cost and effective technology. Also highlighted were three citizen advocacy groups’ work to develop and distribute a state-specific guide aimed at educating and empowering older adults and persons with disabilities in need of long-term-care services to make informed decisions and become self-advocates for quality long-term care.  The Consumer Voice is in the process of developing a “How To” document to help citizen advocacy groups across the country produce and disseminate their own guides.  Access the presentation slides online.

Advocacy Toolkit


Federal Legislation


Government Reports


State Resources, Publications & Legislation


Outside Publications & Resources


Alzheimer’s Disease and Other Dementias

Discharge Planning

Home & Community-Based Care 

  • The Center for Personal Assistance Services (PAS) presents data, publications, presentations, links, webcasts and policy and legislation in the following areas:
    • Need for PAS - Analysis and description of trends and needs of the population of PAS consumers, including those who are employed or seeking employment.
    • Home and Community-Based Services - Federal and state initiatives related to the Olmstead decision, waiting lists, Olmstead litigation and other initiatives; identification of gaps in programs and services; and analysis of state PAS policies and barriers to PAS.
    • Workers and Caregivers (PAS Workforce) - Tools and supports for unpaid caregivers that reflect the changing needs of caregivers as they age; strategies that lead to a PAS workforce that is geographically diverse and that maximizes workforce recruitment, retention, compensation and benefits, professional training, development, and networking; and evaluation of interventions and labor resources, such as job training services that help to improve workforce capacity of PAS providers.
    • Economics & Workplace PAS - Understanding the personal costs of PAS; analysis of tax reimbursement polices relating to PAS.
    • Emergency Preparedness - Analysis of strategies to coordinate and secure PAS services during national and regional emergencies.

LGBT

  • Stories from the Field: LGBT Older Adults in Long Term Care Facilities
    The National Senior Citizens Law Center (NSCLC), in collaboration with Lambda Legal, the National Center for Lesbian Rights, the National Center for Transgender Equality, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and Services & Advocacy for GLBT Elders (SAGE), has published a report on the experiences of LGBT elders in long-term care facilities based on a survey seeking to better understand the experiences of LGBT older adults in long-term care settings. The report includes hundreds of stories and comments from LGBT elders across the country as well as policy recommendations and pertinent resources. For more information, please visit
    www.lgbtlongtermcare.org.

Nursing Homes

Long-Term Care

Pharmaceuticals

Workforce

  • PHI California Direct Care Workforce Fact Sheet
  • Understanding Direct Care Workers: A Snapshot of Two of America's Most Important Jobs - Certified Nursing Assistants and Home Home Health Aides (March 2011)
    This chart book highlights findings from two new federally sponsored national surveys: the 2004 National Nursing Assistant Survey and the 2007 National Home Health Aide Survey. Both surveys represent a major advance in the data available about two of America’s most important jobs -- certified nursing assistants working in nursing homes and home health aides work in home health and hospice care settings. The chart book is intended to help multiple audiences understand these jobs, issues, and challenges; and establish useful benchmarks as goals toward which improvement efforts might aspire. This chart is also available in
    PDF.
  • The PHI State Data Center
    This web-based tool hosting state-by-state profiles of the direct-care workforce, including nursing home aides, home health aides and personal care assistants. The data center provides charts with direct-care workforce statistics for each state. The website also features information on workforce size and projected employment growth, trends in wages for each direct-care occupation and information on health insurance coverage rates and reliance on public assistance; it provides links to legislation and regulatory developments pertaining to the workforce, state-based initiatives and other efforts to improve the quality of care and direct-care worker jobs, employer best practices and other resources.

 

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