§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.

(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.