Governor Stein Proclaims Long-Term Care Residents’ Rights Month

Long-Term Care Residents’ Rights Month

2026

By The Governor Of The State Of North Carolina

A Proclamation

Whereas, individuals, groups, and long-term care facilities across the country will be celebrating Residents’ Rights Month with the theme “Join Us at the Table” to focus on making long-term care residents’ voices heard during daily life and decision-making; and

Whereas, the Federal Nursing Home Reform Act of 1987 guarantees residents their individual rights to promote and maintain their dignity, autonomy, and individuality; and the North Carolina General Assembly enacted legislation to protect the rights of residents living in nursing homes through the Patients’ Bill of Rights and people living in adult care homes through the Residents’ Bill of Rights; and

Whereas, the Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program was created under the Federal Older Americans Act and by the General Assembly to ensure residents of care facilities are afforded the same considerations and opportunities to exercise their basic freedoms that people in the community take for granted; and

Whereas, a concerned person can be an effective advocate for a single resident, the work of more than 370 volunteer Community Advisory Committee members, appointed by local boards of county commissioners, are making significant differences in the lives of residents statewide; and

Whereas, approximately 49,000 people live in nursing homes and 39,000 people live in adult care facilities in North Carolina; and residents should be informed of their rights so they may be empowered to live with dignity and self-determination;

Now, Therefore, I, Josh Stein, Governor of the State of North Carolina, do hereby proclaim October 2026 as “Long-Term Care Residents’ Rights Month” in North Carolina and commend its observance.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and affixed the Great Seal of the State of North Carolina at the Capitol in Raleigh this twenty-fifth day of September in the year of our Lord two thousand and twenty-sixth and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and fifty-first.