Esther Houser Inducted Mar 27, 2003

Esther Houser Inducted into Oklahoma Women's Hall of Fame

Congratulations to Esther Houser, Oklahoma SLTCO, on being inducted into the Oklahoma Women's Hall of Fame on March 27!  The other women who were inducted at the same time include two judges, a president of a foundation, and the retired manager of the Mars Exploration Program for a company in the aerospace field.

Esther was nominated by Roy Keen, Division Administrator for Aging Services; Jo Anna Deighton, Founder and President of OK Inch; the Area Agency Ombudsman Supervisors and the State LTCOP Staff, Eleanor Kurtz. Some comments from these nominations follow.

<<...After receiving a Masters Degree in Social Work, Esther returned to Oklahoma and developed the adult protective services program in the Department of Human Services. In 1979 she was asked to develop a new program of advocacy, the Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program. Under her direction the program grew from a one-person staff to a group of 30 paid staff and 200+ volunteer ombudsmen.

Esther has served as the role model for residents' rights in long-term care facilities admirably. She worked as a nurses aide in Norman, Oklahoma [after completing her college education]. She saw first hand what residents and staff experience and the changes that occur for residents during transition from community life to an institutional environment. She served, even then, as a role model for residents' rights....Esther has faithfully and persistently advocated for increased benefits and improved services for residents in long-term care facilities for 25 years. She has testified at legislative hearings for needed benefits like increased personal needs allowance for nursing home residents...She has been a persistent advocate for increased staffing in nursing homes and for demonstration projects and other means of facilities changing the way they provide care, striving for more homelike environments. But mostly, Esther is an advocate for residents...She has taught her program staff that "advocacy is a function of friendship."

Esther has trained numerous individuals: volunteers for the program as well as consumer/family members. She personally sits in on many interviews for Ombudsman Supervisors and provides continuing education quarterly for the area staff. She has taught college classes and seminars upon request for colleges, in conjunction with attorneys and for the trial lawyers association of the Oklahoma Bar association.

Esther works on numerous committees, especially during the legislative session, focusing on improving the systems of long-term care in Oklahoma. She keeps the numerous advocacy groups...informed of proposed legislation and what those bills will mean for Oklahoma's elder population. She is a true personal advocate for residents...and a public policy advocate to improve the system of long-term care...She assists legislators with information on services and advocacy for their constituents.

Ms. Houser was also instrumental in providing information that assisted in the exposure of the corruption at the state Health Department (confirmed by the FBI and the Attorney General's Medicaid Fraud Control Unit) which resulted in the conviction of the Deputy Commissioner of Health and a nursing home operator. This gave way for improvements in the system of long-term care for elders in Oklahoma...

Her job is not a "bed of roses." Because of her role in identifying problems in the long-term care delivery system, she is criticized quite regularly by those who are resistant to change within the system. She has always been willing to advocate for rate increases for facilities when that increase is necessary for the improvements to be made and she has admirably and professionally handled those criticisms that come her way, either against her personally or the program she directs.>>

Esther now chairs the NASOP working committee on Systems Advocacy.