AARP Hearing Center
More than two million Americans rely on nursing homes and assisted living facilities for essential services, from housing to healthcare. The Long-Term Care Ombudsmen Program (LTCOP) is the sole federal program dedicated to receiving and addressing the complaints of these residents. In 2024, the LTCOP processed over 200,000 complaints. The LTCOP depends on a dedicated network of volunteer ombudsmen — yet concerning trends in volunteerism and workload have emerged in recent years. If these trends continue, they may limit the effectiveness of the program going forward. Read the full report.
Key Takeaways
- The Long-Term Care Ombudsmen Program (LTCOP) provides independent and resident-directed support to address concerns in nursing homes, assisted living communities, and other settings.
- Volunteerism drives the LTCOP yet reported volunteer hours declined by more than half since 2016, from more than 600,000 hours to less than 300,000 hours in 2024.
- Loss of LTCOP volunteer capacity coincides with increasing need for their support. There were more complaints in 2024 than 2016 and specifically more complaints related to resident care.
- Individual ombudsmen face increasing pressures and on average are responsible for more beds per capita, increasing from 350 beds in 2016 to 603 in 2024.
- The LTCOP provides an important support for family caregivers and other family members of long-term care recipients, who make about one in four complaints ombudsmen receive each year.
MORE FROM AARP
The Costs of Long-Term Care: Public Perceptions Versus Reality in 2006--AARP Fact Sheet
These key findings from the similarly titled AARP report show that, in the five years since AARP's original survey, age 45+ Americans' perception of long-term care costs is essentially unchanged and they still know less about it than they think they do.