The quest for quality is a shared desire of family members and professional caregivers in Florida's nursing homes. The Family Forum is dedicated to providing information, support, and advocacy to further the partnership for long term care.

• The Long Term Care Continuum
   
• FHCA's Quality Credentialing Program
   
• Volunteer Opportunities
   
• Planning Ahead - Consumer Guides to Nursing and Assisted Living Facilities
  Information for individuals and families seeking nursing facility or assisted living services. Includes tips on what to look for in a provider and a checklist to help evaluate nursing facilities and assisted living.
   
• Locate a Florida Nursing Facility
  A complete listing of member nursing facilities in Florida including facility name, address, services offered, and contact information. Search for facility by county, city, or services.
   
• MEDLINEplus website
  MEDLINEplus will direct you to information to help answer health questions. MEDLINEplus brings together, by health topic, authoritative information from National Library of Medicine, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), other government, non-profit and other health-related organizations. Preformulated MEDLINE searches are included in MEDLINEplus and give easy access to the medical research literature. It also provides you with a database of full-text drug information and an illustrated medical encyclopedia.
   
• Friends & Families Advocacy Center website
  Families 4 Care Advocacy Center's mission is to provide you with the tools to promote state and federal legislation that ensures quality long term care for our nation's frail elderly and persons with disabilities. In addition to providing a similar letter-writing capability, the Families 4 Care Advocacy Center offers the opportunity to track state and federal legislation; sign up to receive updates on one or more of our issues; volunteer to testify at hearings, attend a rally, speak with the press; access issue-specific resources ( e.g. issue briefs, research and data).
   
• A Guide for Families
  Learn how to prepare yourself and family for the transition. Information includes a guide with numerous tips on how to make this sometimes-challenging conversation - and decision - easier. Information is provided to help guide you, as a family member of a new resident, myths and realities of living in a nursing facility, and advanced directives.
   
• What Consumers Want to Know When Selecting a Nursing Home
  The My InnerView 2008 Study on Consumer Choice compiles the opinions of long-term care residents, short-term patients, caregivers, professionals and the public at large in determining what consumers need to know when making a well-informed choice about long term care.
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• My InnerView 2008 National Survey of Consumer and Workforce Satisfaction in Nursing Homes
   
• Disaster Preparedness Guide for Elders
   
• Health Care Advanced Directives
  Advanced Directives is YOU planning for YOUR personal health care future in case you are ever physically or mentally incapacitated and suffering from a terminal condition. Florida Health Care Association believes that that every capable adult has a basic right of self-determination concerning choices about their own health care, and that includes the right to choose or refuse medical treatment.
   
• Consumers Can Prevent Medication Errors
   
• Speak Up: Help Prevent Medical Errors in Your Care
   
• Paying for Long Term Care Find out more about how to finance long term care services through Medicare, Medicaid, private pay, or long-term care insurance.
   
• Considering a Career in Long Term Care If you are looking for a way to make a real difference in people’s lives, then consider employment and career options in long term care. Read on and consider joining the long term care profession.
   
• Nursing Home Compare From the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, a tool to provide detailed information about the past performance of every Medicare and Medicaid certified nursing home in the country. This is a national comparison tool.
   
• Nursing Home Guide The state agency responsible for monitoring Florida’s nursing homes publishes this guide as part of the Agency for Health Care Administration's efforts to provide information to consumers faced with difficult health care decisions. This web site allows you to search for a nursing home by geographic region or by the characteristic of the nursing homes.
   
• Glossary of Terms
   
• Articles and Stories by Family Members