West Virginia Code 16-5L-9 – Long-term care ombudsman volunteer training and certification
(a) The state long-term care ombudsman shall develop procedures for training and certification of long-term care ombudsman volunteers. The regional long-term care ombudsman shall implement certification training for all ombudsman volunteers in accordance with the procedures developed by the state long-term care ombudsman. No ombudsman volunteer shall perform any of the duties enumerated in section eight of this article prior to the completion of the training program, except as a supervised portion of that training program.
Terms Used In West Virginia Code 16-5L-9
- Long-term care facility: means any nursing home, personal care home, or residential board and care home as defined in section two, article five-c of this chapter. See West Virginia Code 16-5L-3
- ombudsman volunteer: means any uncompensated individual who performs the duties enumerated under section eight of this article: Provided, That the individual has received appropriate certification as set forth in section nine of this article. See West Virginia Code 16-5L-3
- Regional long-term care ombudsman: means any paid staff of a designated regional long-term care ombudsman program who has obtained appropriate certification from the state commission on aging and meets the qualifications set forth in section seven of this article. See West Virginia Code 16-5L-3
- State: when applied to a part of the United States and not restricted by the context, includes the District of Columbia and the several territories, and the words "United States" also include the said district and territories. See West Virginia Code 2-2-10
- State long-term care ombudsman: means an individual who meets the qualifications of section five of this article and who is employed by the state commission on aging to implement the state long-term care ombudsman program as set forth in this article. See West Virginia Code 16-5L-3
(b) Ombudsman volunteers who have satisfactorily completed the training and certification requirements shall be given identification cards valid for one year which shall be presented to employees of a long-term care facility upon request. Every year thereafter, the long-term care ombudsman volunteer shall complete at least seven hours of additional training before a new identification card is issued. Consistent with the provisions of this article and any rules and regulations promulgated pursuant to section twenty-one, certified long-term ombudsman volunteers shall be representatives of the state long-term care ombudsman program.