Aging/Older Adults

Held in May 2005 this national conference was designed to meet the unique training needs of waiver program operators. This year’s conference, titled "The Sun Shines Brighter at Home," offered substantive opportunities to learn about the national initiatives, policy directions and grant programs that shape the current environment. The attached agenda has links to all of the presentation overheads.

The findings from a fourth economic survey of the state units on aging conducted in May 09 revealed that despite the funding provided by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, 60% of states must reduce their agencies' budgets for FY10. While ARRA funding allowed states to maintain food and nutrition programs, over 20% of states indicated they will cut back services and programs include Older Americans Act, disability, Medicaid, and home- and community-based services and supports.

The recession continues to affect state programs for older individuals and adults with physical disabilities. Demand for publicly funded services has grown, and resources, including staff, are stretched thin, according to this new 50-state study. 31 states have cut non-Medicaid aging and disability services programs in FY 2010, and 28 states were expecting to cut these programs in FY 2011. Find the research report, brief, video and compiled State profiles.

ADRC grantees must serve at minimum two target populations by the end of the grant. This document details target populations and pilot sites for the twenty-four grantees.

This document describes the State of Illinois’s plan on aging in accordance to Older Americans Act guidelines. The plan describes the mission, organization, and strategies of Illinois’s Department on Aging to coordinate services for older adults. Amongst some of the goals for FY10-12 is to rebalance long-term care to expand home and community-based services, expand transportation for seniors, promote wellness, and advocate for and protect elder rights.

Nine presentations on ways to translate research and knowledge into improved caregiving are given here. They were first presented at a meeting hosted by the Healthy Aging Research Network in November 2008. Successful models and programs, such as RE-AIM, Alabama REACH, Savvy Caregiver Project, NYU Caregiver Intervention, and Environmental Skill-Building Program are featured. Other presentations deal with funding and policies.

Once a decade this conference meets to make aging policy recommendations to the President and Congress and to assist the public and private sectors in promoting dignity, health, independence, and economic security of current and future generations of older persons. The 2005 session occurred as the first wave of the baby boom generation prepared for retirement, creating an important opportunity to creatively assess aging. You can download the entire final report or selected sections.

This report provides a brief overview of a research study and its methods for both the field research and the quantitative analyses of the Texas Rider 37 program. The authors then present findings and observations from the qualitative study and quantitative analyses relevant to specific research questions. The report concludes with a summary of the findings.

What is the cost of family caregiving to employers? A new report, “MetLife Caregiving Cost Study: Productivity Losses to U.S. Business” estimates the costs associated with replacing employees, absenteeism, crisis in care, workday interruptions, supervisory time, unpaid leave and reducing hours from full-time to part-time to total $33.6 billion. A new online tool allows employers to estimate the financial impact of family caregiving responsibilities within their own businesses.

A new resource for organizations within the Aging Network that are interested in developing a care transitions program, providing information, tools and case studies. Chapters for the toolkit include: Getting Started, Taking Time to Plan, Developing Effective Partnerships with Health Care Providers, Measuring for Success, Building Organizational Capacity, Implementation and Day-to-Day Operations. The toolkit can be downloaded by sections or in its entirety.