Aging/Older Adults

ACL released the first Research Agenda for Adult Protective Services (APS). The goals of the Research Agenda include: • Providing guidance to researchers, APS programs, and funders to help advance the field • Highlighting gaps in research in order to inform the APS field • Helping build a cohesive body of evidence for the APRS field. ACL, in collaboration with a panel of adult maltreatment experts, identified and ranked 61 high-priority APS research questions for the Research Agenda.

ACL released a report of data collected by the National Adult Maltreatment Reporting System. This report details the finding from the fourth year (2019) of data collected by NAMRS. NAMRS is the only comprehensive national initiative compiling data on the abuse, neglect, and exploitation of older adults and adults with disabilities as reported to adult protective services. Data collected by NAMRS include quantitative and qualitative responses on many areas within adult protective services.

NGA recently published a policy memo including a detailed table that provides an overview of state actions to address COVID-19 in long-term care facilities. The table includes notable actions from states with helpful links to relevant guidance and resources for each state. Updates on additional state actions and examples will be added to the table regularly and states are encouraged to contact NGA with changes.

Altarum recently published a special report highlighting the impact COVID-19 restrictions has had on nursing home residents. The report is the result of a survey that directly polled residents about their pandemic experience in 365 nursing homes in 36 states.

The Juanita C. Grant Foundation, in partnership with the National Council on Aging, is convening for a virtual Town Hall Meeting to develop strategies and initiate a Call to Action for communities of color to connect at the local level through trusted sources, in preparation for a COVID-19 vaccine prioritizing older adults. This flyer offers helpful resources for advocates in preparing communities of color for the COVID-19 vaccine.

The Center for Health Care Strategies published a brief highlighting six states – Alabama, Idaho, Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Virginia – who have participated in innovative work to boost the support network for family caregivers. The brief includes lesson learned from each of the states’ programs and policies that support family caregivers. Additionally, the brief describes four elements that are essential to making effective changes to family caregiver support programs.

AARP has released its fourth iteration of the Long-term Services and Supports Scorecard. This scorecard ranks states and DC in order from 1 to 51 on a wide range of issues pertaining to older adults and people with disabilities. The LTSS scorecard has five domains that states are ranked within, and each of those domains has multiple indicators that are used to derive the overall score.

This brief draws from interviews with states operating new and long-standing MLTSS programs to identify six major trends in the refinement of MLTSS and underlying LTSS delivery systems nationally. The states examined in this brief are strengthening their Medicaid MLTSS programs to serve more LTSS beneficiaries and facilitate the development of integrated care programs that reduce service fragmentation for Medicare-Medicaid enrollees, particularly through Medicare Advantage D-SNPs

During the Friday September 25, 2020 MACPAC meeting, MACPAC presented on the Management of HCBS Waiver Waiting Lists. The talk included background information on Medicaid and HCBS Waivers, data on HCBS Waiver waiting lists, and strategies for reducing or eliminating waiting lists. The slides from this presentation are included here.

CMS has released a new report on community transitions that occurred under the Money Follows the Person (MFP) program from 2008 to the end of 2019. The report states that during this time, states transitioned 101,540 people to community living through MFP. In the most recent year (2019), MFP grantee states transitioned a total of 4,173 individuals. The report includes additional information on transitions broken down by population and state.