Link to Ventura County Star article.

I want to pass this link onto you regarding a class action suit here in Ventura County involving informed consent. The Ventura County ombudsman office investigated and filed this complaint with Department of Public Health and it was substantiated.

I want to thank CANHR for bringing the problem of toxic drugs to the forefront and partnering with us a year ago to educate the public on the adverse effects of antipsychotic drugs for elderly persons with dementia.

This is a huge step forward for least medicating. Thank you to everyone who has supported this effort!

Sylvia

Fundraiser – Print This ——Flyer (18)

I am pleased to announce a fundraiser with California Pizza Kitchen (TO) on May 24th to benefit the Ventura County Ombudsman Program. Just print out the attached flyer and present it to your server anytime on May 24th and 20% of your check will be donated to the Ventura County Ombudsman Program. Enjoy great food, and make a contribution to a vitally important program that serves our elderly and disabled neighbors in long term care facilities in Ventura County.
We thank you in advance for your support.

Cordially,

Sylvia

p.s. A special thanks to Susan Ashcraft, Ombudsman Volunteer for her initiative and follow-through in putting this special fundraiser together with CPK.

I am so excited to share some very special news with you!!! Many of you may
recall that a little over a year ago the Ventura County Ombudsman Program
and California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform hosted a symposium in
Oxnard, “Toxic Drugs – The Problem with Drugging as First Resort in Dementia
Care”. It was the first of its kind in California and was well attended by
250 providers and interested parties. I have attached the flyer announcing our event if you didn’t get a chance to attend.

Many of you who did attend our symposium may recall that it was not well
received by everyone and actually created a bit of indignation on the part
of some. It did create controversy, most significant causes do, and much of that was reported in the Ventura County Star at the time.

But because of the perseverance of CANHR and other local ombudsman advocates the trend continued, and last fall, two more symposia, based on the model we created in Oxnard, were held in northern California with almost 1,000 attendees.

Since then, this subject has garnered attention and late last year became
the focus of national attention, with experts appearing before the senate in Washington to give testimony about the inappropriate use of anti-psychotic drugs for elderly persons with dementia.

I cannot tell you how exciting it is to share this press release from CANHR with you.

Thank you so much for standing with us and for your support!

Best
Sylvia

Sylvia Taylor-Stein
Executive Director
Long Term Care Services of Ventura County, Inc.,
2021 Sperry Avenue Suite 35
Ventura, CA 93003
T: 805.656.1986 ext 102
Fax: 805.658.8540
www.ombudsmanventura.org
a 501 (c) 3 non profit organization

CALIFORNIA ADVOCATES FOR NURSING HOME REFORM

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE March 28, 201

ADVOCATES FOR NURSING HOME RESIDENTS APPLAUD NEW FEDERAL CAMPAIGN TO END USE OF ANTIPSYCHOTIC DRUGS AS CHEMICAL RESTRAINTS

Advocates for nursing home residents who have been working for many years to eliminate all misuse of antipsychotic drugs for nursing home residents
applaud the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’s
(CMS’s) new national initiative to address the drugging epidemic.

CMS’s “National Initiative to Improve Behavioral Health & Reduce the Use of Antipsychotic Medications in Nursing Home Residents” will be announced via webcast on March 29, 2012 at 10:00 a.m. PST. “We thank former CMS Administrator Donald Berwick for his leadership in responding so forcefully to this national disgrace and for setting the wheels in motion to implement this long- overdue initiative,” said Janet Wells, Director of Public Policy, The National Consumer Voice for Quality Long-Term Care.

CMS is developing a national action plan that includes raising public
awareness of misuse of antipsychotic drugs, regulatory oversight, technical assistance, and research. The Initiative will be launched with a video streaming event at 1 p.m. EDT, March 29.

http://surveyortraining.cms.hhs.gov/pubs/VideoInformation.aspx?cid=1098

Several hundred thousand nursing home residents with Alzheimer’s Disease or other dementia are given one or more antipsychotic
drugs. The HHS Office of Inspector General reported last year that
the overwhelming majority of Medicare claims for antipsychotic drug were
inappropriate.

“Hundreds of thousands of nursing home residents are inappropriately given
antipsychotic drugs each day, despite the Food and Drug Administration’s
‘Black Box’ warnings that these drugs can kill residents who have dementia,” said Michael Connors, Long-Term Care Advocate with California Advocates for
Nursing Home Reform. “Too many nursing homes use antipsychotic drugs as a
way to control residents when they don’t have enough well-trained staff who know their residents well and can give them the time and attention they
need,” he said.

Richard Mollot, Executive Director of the Long-Term Care Community Coalition in New York, agreed that “poor staffing levels and inadequately trained staff lead to the gross misuse of drugs as chemical restraints.” He continued, “The word needs to get out that chemical restraints are as
dangerous for residents as physical restraints.”

“Nursing home staff who take the time to understand what residents are
communicating with their behavior can provide care to their residents
without using chemical restraints,” said Claire Curry, Legal Director, Civil Advocacy Program, Legal Aid Justice Center, Charlottesville, Virginia. “We have seen good care like this in some facilities and know that all facilities can do the same.”

“Federal law, to a large extent, already prohibits the drugging of
residents,” said Toby S. Edelman, Senior Policy Attorney, Center for
Medicare Advocacy, Washington, DC, “but the law is too timidly enforced.
CMS needs to dramatically step up strong enforcement of the law to ensure
that all residents get the care and services they need. CMS needs to ensure that no resident receives antipsychotic drugs except in full compliance with the law.”

In August 2010, CANHR launched a campaign to end nursing home misuse of
psychoactive drugs in response to the longstanding, widespread misuse of
these drugs to chemically restrain residents. The campaign features a
special website, educational presentations, consumer advice, administrative and legislative advocacy, stop-drugging blog and much more. For more information about CANHR’s Campaign or the CMS initiative, please contact Michael Connors or Tony Chicotel, (415) 974-5171, or visit CANHR’s website www.canhr.org/stop-drugging.

CLICK HERE (35) for a PDF of press release from CANHR

Contacts:

Michael Connors Tony Chicotel
(415) 974-5171 (415) 974-5171
Michael@canhr.org tony@canhr.org

Claire Curry Richard Mollot
(434) 977-0553 (212) 385-0355
Claire@justice4all.org Richard@ltccc.org

Toby S. Edelman Janet Wells
(202) 293-5760 (202) 332-2275, ext.
205
tedelman@medicareadvocacy.org
jwells@theconsumervoice.org

The Honorable Mariko Yamada, Chair
Assembly Aging & Long-Term Care Committee
1020 N Street, Room 360-A
Sacramento, CA 95814

RE: SB 345 (Wolk) Support

Dear Assembly Member Yamada,

I am writing on behalf of the Committee for an Independent State Ombudsman Office (CISO) to express our strong support for SB 345, which would establish a more independent and improved state long term care ombudsman office.

CISO is a grassroots committee made up of local long term care ombudsman programs, housed in non-profit organizations, and sympathetic advocates. Having witnessed for years, the utter silence and lack of action on the part of the state long term care ombudsman to address and seek remedy for very serious issues that affect vulnerable seniors in long term care facilities, we are seeking legislative action that would establish and ensure, through state law and in compliance with federal law, the independence and autonomy of the state long term care ombudsman office.

In order to understand why this is absolutely essential, we need to see the long term care ombudsman office through the lens of the historical setting and sheer tragedy that created it.

In 1971 a consumer watchdog, named Ralph Nader, petitioned President Nixon regarding a horrific nationwide problem involving elderly residents in nursing homes. Residents were being neglected and abused, and dying painful excruciating deaths. He recounted horrifying accounts where, due to lack of regulation and enforcement, 100% of the residents in two nursing homes died excruciatingly painful, agonizing deaths as a result of fire and e-coli. From these heartbreaking accounts of horrendous pain and suffering, the concept of a watchdog for this vulnerable population was born, and the word “ombudsman” was selected because it is the only word in our language that encompasses the whole spirit and letter of exactly the type of watchdog that would be required.

In 1978 the long term care ombudsman office was created. Its duties, responsibilities, and mandates, were written and clearly spelled out in federal law. Those mandates state that the Ombudsman program must have the ability to speak freely on behalf of care facility residents, and take positions on legislation without interference from licensing or other agencies. In each state the office for this watchdog would be formally known as the Office of the State Long Term Care Ombudsman (OSLTCO).

In California, the OSLTCO is located within the Department of Aging and answers to the Director of the Department of Aging and the Director of the Health and Human Services agency. The Health and Human Services agency also houses the Department of Public Health which licenses skilled nursing facilities and the Department of Social Services which licenses residential care facilities for the elderly. A conflict of interest (as determined by the Federal Older American’s Act) currently exists where the Ombudsman is in a shared agency with programs that license long term care facilities.

As a result, over the years, the State Ombudsman has not taken positions on legislation that affect care facility residents and local Ombudsman programs. This includes efforts to cut funding to the local Ombudsman programs and efforts to stop the overmedication of care facility residents. In both of these examples, the State Ombudsman was not able to provide public testimony or take a public position because its “sister” agencies (Department of Public Health) and the Governor’s office were not supportive of the State Ombudsman’s position. This failure to take action resulted in drastically cutting services to this vulnerable population, dangerous understaffing at the local Ombudsman programs, and the continued drugging of care facility residents.

In addition to its failure to speak up for residents, the state ombudsman office has a history of obstructing local ombudsman programs from addressing abuse and neglect of residents. These problems are well documented in the California Senate Office on Oversight and Outcomes 2009 report, California’s Elder Abuse Investigators: Ombudsmen Shackled by Conflicting Laws and Duties.

As amended, SB 345 would address the lack of independence and advocacy by codifying key advocacy duties established in the federal Older American’s Act, requiring the state ombudsman office to establish an annual advocacy plan in coordination with local ombudsman programs, directing the state ombudsman office to establish a consumer-friendly website, and creating a new process for selecting the state ombudsman.

The Committee for an Independent State Ombudsman Office strongly urges the Assembly Aging and Long- Term Care Committee to vote “yes” on SB 345 as amended.

Sincerely,

Sylvia Taylor-Stein
CISO Team Leader

Cc: Senator Lois Wolk
Members of the Senate Human Services Committee
CISO Committee & Advisors:

Clift Wilson, Manager, Program Services, Ombudsman & HICAP Services of Northern California
Eric M. Carlson, Directing Attorney, National Senior Citizens Law Center
Joan Parks, Administrator, Ombudsman & HICAP Services of Northern California
Karen Jones, Ombudsman Program Coord., Long Term Care Ombudsman Svcs., San Luis Obispo Cty.
Kathleen Johnson, Executive Director, Advocacy Inc., Santa Cruz County
Linda Robinson, Ombudsman Program Coordinator, Advocacy Inc., Santa Cruz County
Michael Connors, Advocate, California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform
Molly Davies, Vice President, WISE & Healthy Aging, Los Angeles
Nina Weiler Harwell, PhD, Associate State Director-Advocacy, AARP
Shirley Krohn, California Senior Legislature
Sylvia Taylor Stein, Executive Director, Long Term Care Services of Ventura County, Inc.,