Aging/Older Adults

This report presents Medicaid long-term care expenditures data in Federal Fiscal Year 2008 (Oct 2007 - Sept 2008). Table 1 shows national data from 1996 - 2008. Other tables present state-by-state data for nursing homes, ICF/MR, state plan personal care, state plan home health, 1915(c) waivers, 1115 waivers that provide HCBS, and other Medicaid services.

Interested in how self-directed options in the 1915(c) Medicaid Aged and Disabled Waiver program are succeeding? In June of 2008 PPL, a nationwide company that provides financial management and supports for self-directed programs, conducted a survey of all 241 participants enrolled in Personal Options for the West Virginia Bureau for Medical Services. The attached report, includes results and summary.

What are some of the highlights and milestones of the CLP programs? Review the presentations given at the The Gerontological Society of America Annual Meeting on November 19-22, 2009. Officials from the Administration on Aging and representatives from Connecticut, Georgia, Massachusetts and New York on presented.

The Alzheimer's Association, through its Campaign for Quality Care, recently released Dementia Care Practice Recommendations for Professionals Working in a Home Setting. This report is Phase 4 of the Campaign and it covers the topics covered in Phases 1-3. The evidence-based recommendations in Phases 1-3 covered good dementia care, food and fluid consumption, pain management, social engagement, wandering, falls, physical restraints, and end-of-life-care practices and issues.

NCST developed this resource to provide background information on mobility for older adults with disabilities and profiles five individuals who have successfully made the transition from personal vehicle to public transportation. The packet includes a profile template and a model release form that service providers can use to create personal profiles of senior transit users in their own communities.

The National Aging in Place Council launched a new Web site last week in conjunction with Aging in Place Week 2009. The site helps link older adults with services in their neighborhood. Visit the site to find local chapters, service providers and ideas and news. In the September 2009, AoA granted over $4.5 Million dollars for Community Innovations for Aging in Place, further assisting growth in this service area.

Developed with aging and transportation professionals in mind, this paper provides an overview of the challenges and opportunities involved in senior transportation. Addressing the need to increase public knowledge about options for older people, promising practices in coordination, cooperation, integration, volunteer programs, financing, and using technology to improve services are addressed. The paper also provides an extensive list of annotated references.

The purpose of this report is fourfold: 1) to present a brief overview of the results of the Systems Change grants awarded from FY 2001 through FY 2004, 2) to describe the remaining challenges to community living that Grantees identified, 3) to provide Grantees’ recommendations for actions needed at the state and federal level to further improve their long-term care systems, and 4) to discuss the key lessons learned regarding factors that are needed to improve states’ long-term care systems.

One goal of long-term care policy is to increase the use of HCBS and to reduce reliance on institutional care. The use of nursing homes as measured by the number of residents in facilities on a single day has declined over the past two decades. Despite the centrality of this issue for balancing efforts, there has been no systematic effort to examine the reasons. This report begins to fill the gap by conducting descriptive analyses of factors. In most cases, analyses were to extend to 2007.

Express Lane Eligibility refers broadly to the ability to help make eligibility determinations for public assistance programs based on information provided through other government programs or agencies. The term is used to describe a variety of activities. This issue brief examines practical considerations for Express Lane Eligibility in programs for older adults.