Prayers and thoughts, prayers and thoughts. I could paper the walls with them. But while enduring an eight-week, full-frontal immersion course in California’s broken nursing home system, our family needed hands-on help. In the middle of the night, I would awaken in tears. My friend Myra led me to Paula Wolfson, elder care consultant at the Palo Alto senior center Avenidas, and to Jewish Family and Children’s Services. Gabe Kralik, a state-certified nursing home ombudsman, provided other resources. Our crisis began April 12, when my 69-year-old brother, who lives with us, told us to call 9...