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A family council is an organized group of relatives and friends of a nursing home’s residents who met on a regular basis to discuss issues and concerns regarding the home.

The main purpose of most family councils is to protect and improve the quality of life in the home and to give families a voice in decisions that affect them and their loved ones in the facility. Specific purposes vary greatly from council to council. Some examples include:

• Support for families
• Education and information
• Discussion an action on concerns and complaints
• Services and activities for residents
• Joint activities for families and residents

Effective family councils benefit families, residents, and the homes in which they are involved. Family councils allow families to give each other the support, encouragement, and information they need. No one knows as well as a family member how difficult it is to place a loved one in a nursing home. Even after placement, families continue to share similar concerns, problems and questions. Council involvement helps provide family members an opportunity to express their ideas and concerns and a way to work for positive change.

Residents of the home are also likely to benefit from the family council. Family involvement helps make a nursing home more homelike. Residents also benefit from council efforts to improve the quality of life in the home. Family council involvement can especially benefit residents who are physically or mentally unable to voice their concerns and needs for themselves.

The nursing home also receives benefits. Councils allow the nursing home staff to deal directly with family concerns and ideas, to convey information to families, and to establish meaningful lines of communication. The nursing home administrative staff may be able to use the family council as a sounding board for new ideas.

Some family councils are initially started by nursing home staff, often at the administrator’s request. Other councils are started by interested families or friends or by nursing home volunteers or community leaders.

Although the organizational structures of family councils vary greatly, there are some common features of most councils. Family councils are run by friends and relatives of the home’s residents, choose their own topics, have elected leadership, meet on a regular basis, and have some method for exchanging information with nursing home staff. Two structures are common:

1. Town Meeting Model – If the group of interested families and friends is small, the council usually invites all families to each meeting. Planning, decision making, and other basic tasks are carried out at these meetings.

2. Executive or Planning Committee – If the group is large, a committee may be needed to plan and make decisions that would be too time consuming to deal within meetings of the full council. The committee may meet monthly and plan bimonthly or quarterly events or projects to which all families are invited.

A family council is not "family night." Family night is a name used in many nursing homes for occasional educational or social functions planned and hosted by the nursing home staff for families and friends of the home’s residents. While these programs may be beneficial, they are different than a family council which is run by the relatives and friends themselves.

Yes. All citizens have constitutional rights to organize and meet to discuss issues of concern. Michigan law also gives family members of nursing home residents the right to present concerns without retaliation. Medicare and Medicaid certified nursing homes must allow family councils to operate and must provide meeting space in the facility for their activities.

If you need more information about resident councils, please contact the Long Term Care Ombudsman officer nearest you. An excellent guide to organizing and operating a family council, "Family Councils in Action," has been written by the Advocacy Center for Long Term Care (formerly named the Minnesota Alliance for Health Care Consumers).
It is available for $29.95 by writing the Advocacy Center at:
2626 East 82^nd Street, Suite #220,
Bloomington, MN 55425
or telephone (612) 854-7360
or toll free 1/800 657-3591.

Rev: 97, 98, 99, 03/00, 10/00, 03/04