Caregivers

The ADvancing States, in partnership with the National Alliance for Caregiving, created an infographic that depicts an overview of statistics on the experiences of caregivers in the United States, documenting their growing contributions to providing care to older adults and persons with disabilities in light of limited resources for caregiver services.

ACL recently published a new report sharing new information and insights on Older Americans Act (OAA) services, reveals major OAA milestones, and key information on the impact and necessity of services for older adults. This report includes highlights from OAA Title III programs in 2018.

The Research & Training Center on Disability in Rural Communities has released a report on the effects of social isolation and loneliness have on people with disabilities living in rural and urban areas. Findings from the research report include: -People with disabilities report more than double the rates of social isolation and loneliness than people without disabilities -Rural people with disabilities report significantly fewer social connections but similar rates of loneliness compared to urban people with disabilities -Structural barriers related to employment and transportation may play a role in social isolation and loneliness disparities among people with disabilities

Health care stakeholders can use this Playbook Collection to understand recent evidence behind telehealth-delivered interventions and learn about practical strategies to support effective implementation of these programs for people with complex needs.

On Thursday, October 21, 2021 CMS launched a new “one-stop shop” for state Medicaid agencies and stakeholders on Medicaid.gov to advance transparency and innovation for home and community-based services. Through this new webpage, state Medicaid agencies and stakeholders can access information about states’ plans to enhance, expand, and strengthen home and community-based services across the country using new Medicaid funding made available by the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARP).

CMS is inviting states to participate in a Medicaid learning collaborative. The learning collaborative is an opportunity for states to develop new solutions and identify promising practices to improve the delivery of supports and services for people with I/DD and their aging caregivers. The collaborative will consist of six monthly virtual learning sessions between November 2021 and April 2022.

CMS has made vaccination data available in a user-friendly format to help people make informed decisions when choosing a nursing home for themselves or a loved one. CMS and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are using this data to monitor vaccine uptake among residents and staff to identify facilities that may need additional resources or assistance.

The RAISE Family Cargiving Advisory Council has released its RAISE Act Report to Congress on September 22, 2021. The report includes 26 key recommendations to help develop a national strategy to support family caregivers, including ways that public and private sectors can support the community's changing needs as the nation adapts to COVID-19.

The Administration will require COVID-19 vaccination of staff within all Medicare and Medicaid-certified facilities to protect themselves and patients from the COVID-19 Delta variant. On Thursday, September 9, 2021, CMS, in collaboration with the CDC, announced that emergency regulations requiring vaccinations for nursing home workers will be expanded to include hospitals, dialysis facilities, ambulatory surgical settings, and home health agencies, among others.

States received approval for temporary changes to their HCBS programs from CMS, within the Department of Health and Human Services to enable states to limit in-person contact to reduce the spread of COVID-19. This GAO report describes the temporary changes to Medicaid HCBS programs and examines CMS’s monitoring and evaluation of the effects of those changes.