Residents’ Rights Month

Residents' Rights Month
October 2026

About Residents’ Rights Month

October is Residents’ Rights Month, an annual event designated by Consumer Voice to honor residents living in all long-term care facilities and those receiving care in their home or community. It is an opportunity to focus on and celebrate the dignity and rights of every individual receiving long-term services and supports.

Residents have the right to self-determination and to use their voice to make their own choices. This year’s theme, Join Us at the Table, highlights the central role that food, mealtime, and community play in residents’ daily lives. Food is comfort, culture, identity, and connection – a daily experience that shapes dignity and quality of life.

“I am trying to help by speaking out so that someone quiet and afraid will be spoken for.”
- Debbie, nursing home resident

History of Residents' Rights Month

Originating as Residents' Rights Week in 1981, Residents' Rights Month has been expanded to raise awareness of residents' essential rights.

At the Consumer Voice Conference in 1981, nursing home residents determined the need for time set aside to celebrate residents and their rights, separate from the annual National Nursing Home Week (now National Skilled Nursing Care Week) events. Consumer Voice (then NCCNHR) organized a successful petition drive to persuade Congress to designate a “Residents’ Rights Day.” Senator Claude Pepper (D-FL) and Senator David Pryor (D-AR) responded by introducing a Congressional Resolution for that purpose. Consumer Voice was also successful in making arrangements to take five nursing home residents to the White House to meet with President Jimmy Carter’s Special Counselor on Aging, Dr. Harold Sheppard.

Since 1981, Consumer Voice has preserved the tradition of celebrating Residents’ Rights, and, in 2011, Residents’ Rights Week was expanded to Residents’ Rights Month, held annually in October. This expansion provides additional time for residents/facility staff, family members, community advocates and ombudsmen to conduct educational programs and festive events to call attention to this important topic.

Resident's Voice Challenge

Residents’ Rights Month is observed in October, but the time to start celebrating is now! Share your voice through essays, poems, or artwork.

Creative writing and artistic expression are meaningful and compelling ways to highlight the importance of residents’ rights and how these rights can be carried out in all long-term care settings. The Resident’s Voice Challenge encourages residents to submit essays, poems, artwork, drawings, or videos related to the theme.

LEARN MORE

HOW TO PARTICIPATE
HOW TO SUBMIT

Get Creative

This year’s theme encourages residents to share their experiences, preferences, and traditions around food and dining, and for those around them to listen to their stories, uplift their voices, and work collectively towards ensuring that meals reflect dignity, choice, respect, and community.

To highlight these stories, Consumer Voice will be creating a recipe book featuring a selection of residents’ recipes, meal traditions, and the memories that surround them.

We’re seeking:

1) Favorite personal or family recipes using our recipe collection form

2) Artwork or photos depicting favorite foods or meals

-AND/OR-

3) Short descriptions of what your favorite meals mean to you.

If there are favorite facility recipes that residents help prepare, we’d love to see those too!

Individuals whose entries are selected for inclusion in the book will receive a complimentary copy of the book.

Use these questions to inspire you:

➜ What is your favorite recipe and why is it meaningful to you?

➜ What is one food, tradition, or dining experience that matters to you and why?

➜ How does your facility engage and include residents in menus and mealtime?

➜ What makes your meals and dining experience positive?

We also welcome audio and video recordings, long-form essays, or photos to be featured on our website, emails, and social media.

HOW TO SUBMIT

Printable Recipe Collection Form

Fillable Recipe Collection Form

Send Submissions

Read the full Resident’s Voice Challenge Criteria before submitting.

Email submissions to info@theconsumervoice.org by July 10, 2026. Include a mailing address with your submission for residents to receive certificates of participation.

Recipe collection forms can be mailed or sent via email. They are available in both printable and fillable formats.

Video submission options:
- Upload your video to YouTube and send us the link.
- Email us the MP4 video file. If the file is too large to email, let us know at info@theconsumervoice.org, and we can arrange the transfer of large files.
- Learn about more options for submitting your video entry here.
- Each person included in the video must sign and submit a release form.

Artwork submissions:
- Take a high-resolution photo of your artwork and email the JPG or PNG file as an attachment to info@theconsumervoice.org. Do not send images in the body of the email, as the file is sometimes compressed.

Mailed submissions:
- Submissions can be mailed to: Consumer Voice, 1025 Connecticut Ave. NW, Ste. 1000, Washington, DC 20036. Mailed submissions must be received by the submission deadline, July 10, and will not be returned.

Submit