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Committee hears bill to require dementia training for state long‑term care ombudsman staff and volunteers
Summary
Senate Bill 88 would add dementia‑specific training requirements to the statute governing the state long‑term care ombudsman; proponents — including the ombudsman, the Alzheimer’s Association and clinicians — said formalized dementia training would improve investigations and resident advocacy.
The Kansas Senate Public Health Committee heard Sept. 20 on Senate Bill 88, which would add required dementia and memory‑care training to the state long‑term care ombudsman statute (K.S.A. 75‑7306). The bill would require the State Long Term Care Ombudsman and regional ombudsmen to receive training that includes understanding warning signs of dementia, person‑centered dementia care, effective communication, behavioral‑symptom recognition, alternatives to restraints, safety issues including wandering, referrals to local resources and protocols for reporting incidents of abuse.
Haley Ordoyne, the State Long Term Care Ombudsman, testified she supports dementia training but asked the committee to focus the statutory language on the ombudsman’s resident‑rights mission. “Our primary focus [is] what does the resident want because it is about the resident rights,” Ordoyne said, and recommended statutory language be tailored to the ombudsman’s role as a resident‑directed advocate rather than to provider‑level clinical interventions.
Jamie Gideon, Kansas director of public policy for the Alzheimer’s Association, and several family caregivers and clinicians spoke in favor. Gideon said 65 percent of nursing‑home residents have some cognitive impairment and cited a projected 41 percent national increase in Alzheimer’s prevalence by 2050; she said resources and national training curricula are available at no cost to the state ombudsman program.
Nurse practitioner Tiffany Nacarato and family members described personal caregiving experience and urged the committee to adopt the bill. Laurie Beck, a volunteer community educator, said trained ombudsmen and volunteers are vital for investigating complaints and protecting resident rights.
Questions from senators focused on whether the topics proposed in the bill duplicate existing federal training standards for ombudsmen. Ordoyne and Gideon said current federal training standards cover dementia awareness but the bill would ensure consistent, dementia‑specific content in state law and preserve training across future office leadership. Ordoyne recommended narrowing the statutory checklist so items relate directly to the ombudsman’s resident‑rights and referral role (for example, knowing about wandering history and referral resources, but not directly performing clinical interventions).
SB88 was heard; the committee did not take final action on Sept. 20.
