A Survey of Grass Roots Advocacy Organizations for Nursing Home Residents

The aim of this study was to examine the role that grass roots advocacy organizations play in safeguarding nursing home residents. The article (1) describes citizen groups with respect to functions, structure, permanence, and assessment procedures; (2) examines the relationship between the grass roots groups and the official ombudsman programs; and (3) identifies distinctive models of citizen organizations. The findings suggest that these organizations provide supplemental manpower to the official ombudsman programs by increasing their capacity to carry out their oversight duties, circumventing political roadblocks and overcoming bureaucratic intertia, and improving program performance through their scrutiny, criticism, or presence as an alternative.