Yes, completely free and confidential. Ombudsmen advocate for nursing home and assisted living residents on rights, care quality, improper discharge, and restraint use. The office is independent of Texas HHS. Austin's regional office is Capital Area, reachable at 512-916-6054 or 888-622-9111, option three.
What this means in practice
The independence is the part that matters. The Office of the State Long-Term Care Ombudsman sits outside the Texas HHS system, so an ombudsman is not investigating on behalf of the agency that licenses the facility. That structural separation is why residents will often tell an ombudsman things they will not put in a complaint.
The consent requirement cuts both ways. An ombudsman acts only with the resident's permission or their representative's, which means they cannot simply intervene because an adult child asked. If your parent has capacity and does not want the complaint pursued, that decision holds.
Most families discover the ombudsman only after a crisis. Calling early, while a problem is still a pattern rather than an incident, is far more effective.
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