Caseworker - Ombudsman

SUMMARY

The Ombudsman is required to visit every long-term care facility per state designated mandated time frames. This includes not only nursing homes but also personal care facilities, assisted living residences, older adult daily living centers, and domiciliary care homes. The Ombudsman provides information regarding the program to residents, their family members, and administrators.

The Long-Term Care Ombudsman is responsible for receiving, investigating, and resolving complaints and concerns of adults who are consumers of long-term care services, including residents of nursing homes, licensed personal care facilities, domiciliary care residences, and a variety of community-based services. The complaints addressed are often related to the health, safety, and rights of consumers.

The Ombudsman handles incoming contacts relating to consumers who are recipients of long-term care services and work closely with the providers of these services to resolve these complaints. It is essential that the Ombudsman maintain an open mind when gathering information to arrive at a conclusion that considers all the facts presented. Thorough documentation must be completed in a timely manner.

It is important that the Ombudsman work closely with regulatory agency personnel and with administrators of long-term care facilities to ameliorate concerns relating to the care of consumers.

An integral part of the Ombudsman Program is a viable network of volunteers to assist with assistant ombudsman related activities. The ombudsman also works with residents of facilities to help develop and maintain the PEER (Pennsylvania Empowered Expert Resident) program. The Ombudsman will work closely with the volunteers assigned to the various facilities they handle to address concerns and resolve issues.

The worker will be expected to perform other direct service roles as agency needs to dictate.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

• Handles incoming calls that involve issues with adult consumers of long-term care services. Determines the steps necessary to verify reported complaints / concerns, investigates, and begins to resolve the difficulty.
• Makes the necessary contacts to resolve issues (State Ombudsman, Department of Health) Refers complaints to Protective Services, for an investigation, when deemed appropriate.
• Works closely with volunteers and PEERS.
• Maintains case records with current documentation of contacts.
• Visits assigned long-term care facilities as required to provide programming information and make certain that posters are visibly located. Conducts training / in-services to inform residents, staff, and families about the program and about resident rights.
• Provides administrators of facilities with technical assistance in interpreting consumer rights.
• Assists with establishment of, and ongoing functioning of, resident counsels in long-term care facilities.
• Attends training and attends Department of Health and Department of Aging exit interviews.
• Performs other duties, as required, to maintain office functioning. These may include all other direct service roles. When other direct services roles are performed standards and guidelines for these positions are met.
• This position requires the following clearances as a condition of employment : Child Abuse History Clearance, PA Criminal Record History, and FBI Fingerprint Clearance.
• Onsite in-person attendance is required as directed by Supervisor or Administrator.

QUALIFICATION REQUIREMENTS

1 year of experience in public or private social work and a bachelor's degree which includes or is supplemented by 12 college-level credit hours in sociology, social work / social welfare, psychology, gerontology or other related social sciences; OR a bachelor's degree with a social work / social welfare major; OR an equivalent combination of experience and training including successful completion of 12 college-level credit hours in sociology, social welfare, psychology, gerontology or other related social sciences.

PHYSICAL DEMANDS

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodation may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

Ability to sit, stand and walk for moderate periods of time. Ability to work in all weather conditions. Occasionally, it may be required to do Medium Level and / or Heavy Level physical work that would include reaching, walking, pushing, pulling and lifting.

They must be able to drive to various appointments throughout Montgomery County on a regular basis.

They must be able to carry a laptop to meet with consumers in order to assess their needs.

They must be able to sit for extended periods of time in order to complete extensive case record documentation. Case documentation is done via a computer and proprietary software.

WORK ENVIRONMENT : The work environmental characteristics described here are representative of those an employee encounters while performing the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential function. The noise level in the work environment is usually moderate.