The National Consumer Voice for Quality Long-Term Care
The National Citizens' Coalition for Nursing Home Reform offers information on getting the best care in nursing homes, regulations that protect nursing home residents, and other useful information for caregivers.
The National Consumer Voice for Quality Long-Term Care (formerly NCCNHR) was formed in 1975 as the National Citizen's Coalition for Nursing Home Reform because of public concern about substandard care in nursing homes. TheConsumer Voice is the outgrowth of work first achieved by advocates working for Ralph Nader and later for the National Gray Panthers. Elma Holder, Consumer Voice Founder, was working with The Long-Term Care Action Project of the Gray Panthers when she organized a group meeting of advocates from across the country to attend a nursing home industry conference in Washington, DC. At that meeting, representatives of 12 citizen action groups spoke collectively to the industry about the need for serious reform in nursing home conditions. The consumer attendees were inspired to develop a platform of common concerns and motivated to form a new organization to represent the consumer voice at the national level. Most of the original members had witnessed and endured personal experiences with substandard nursing home conditions.
View Consumer Voice's brochure here.
The solid base for the Consumer Voice is its 200 member groups with a growing individual membership of more than 1,000. Members and subscribers to Consumer Voice's information resources from nearly all 50 states comprise a diverse and caring coalition of local citizen action groups, state and local long-term care ombudsmen, legal services programs, religious organizations, professional groups, nursing home employees' unions, concerned providers, national organizations and growing numbers of family and resident councils.
The Consumer Voice provides information and leadership on federal and state regulatory and legislative policy development and models and strategies to improve care and life for residents of nursing homes and other long-term care facilities. Ongoing work addresses issues such as:
• Inadequate staffing in nursing homes, particularly all levels of nursing staff;
• Poor working conditions, salaries and benefits for long-term care workers;
• Maintenance of residents' rights and empowerment of residents;
• Support for family members and development of family councils;
• Resources for and support to Citizen Advocacy Groups (CAGs);
• Development and support for the long-term care ombudsman program;
• Minimizing the use of physical and chemical restraints;
• The high cost of poor care, such as pressure sores, dehydration, incontinence, and contracture of residents' muscles andÂ
• Accountability to taxpayers for nursing home expenditures and failure to fulfill government contracts.
