The population of senior citizens in Pennsylvania has been growing for some time, and the number of residents 65 and older now exceeds 2.1 million. Our state ranks fifth among the 50 states for the percentage of seniors within its borders.
Many of these seniors will require nursing home care at some point in their lives, and the quality of that care is a great concern to family members. Cases of elder abuse have made news in recent years. Government regulation and inspection can accomplish only so much, so we are pleased to learn of a program that trains the residents themselves to be advocates for better care.
As reported last week by the Post-Gazette’s Gary Rotstein, the program is called Pennsylvania Empowered Expert Residents, or PEERs. It has trained 2,200 residents in the state on how to address concerns with their care facilities instead of remaining quiet or relying on the county government.
The program offers 10 hours of training about the rights of residents and how to work with an institution’s chain of command to address problems.
“The sad thing,” said Dennis Govachini, who coordinates the program in Allegheny County, “is I have to go train people about rights they didn’t know they have.” Most residents would never speak up about their problems without this training.
Unfortunately, only six of the 62 nursing homes in Allegheny County have signed up to participate in this voluntary program. Administrators of the other homes should be rushing to sign up so that their residents can learn to deal with problems in constructive and appropriate ways.
While this program is not appropriate for the severely impaired or short-term residents, it can have a significant impact on the quality of life for long-term residents.
First Published: January 15, 2017, 5:00 a.m.