Leadership Council of Aging Organizations Consensus Statement on Older Americans Act Reauthorization

Introduction by LCOA on its consensus recommendations:

The Older Americans Act (OAA) is the major federal discretionary funding source for home and community-based services for older adults. Programs supported through the OAA include home-delivered and congregate nutrition services, in-home supportive services, transportation, caregiver support, community service employment, the long-term care ombudsman program, services to prevent the abuse, neglect, and exploitation of older persons, and other supportive services. These programs provide vital support for those older adults who are at significant risk of losing their ability to remain in their own homes and communities, or who need support and protection in long-term care facilities.

In addition, OAA funds resource centers that support the work of the aging services network, these resource centers address a variety of needs, including access to benefits, elder justice, multigenerational service and volunteering, legal services, financial literacy, long-term care ombudsman training, and targeted services to minority and special populations in need.

To develop and implement the wide array of OAA services, a system of federal, state and local agencies and organizations, known as the Aging Network, was established. The core of the Aging Network is the U.S. Administration on Aging (AoA), 56 State and Territorial Agencies on Aging (SUAs), 629 Area Agencies on Aging (AAAs), 246 Title VI Native American and Native Hawaiian aging programs, and more than 30,000 community-based service provider organizations. This critical aging infrastructure is the backbone of our nation’s home and community-based long-term services and supports system offering assistance to older adults. The Aging Network’s activities also benefit other populations such as people with disabilities and caregivers.

Supported by the OAA, the Aging Network has successfully served millions of older adults in the community and in long-term care facilities since 1965, and is positioned to assist the country’s growing aging population to remain healthy, active, and in their communities. With each reauthorization, the OAA has been adapted to meet the changing needs of this growing population, the changing role of family supports, and expanding research and technological advances, often with inadequate funding. Further, the Aging Network and its services have the potential to save the Medicare, Medicaid, and Veterans Administration programs billions of dollars each year by enabling older adults to stay in their homes and communities and out of hospitals and long-term care facilities.

This current reauthorization provides an opportunity to reassess the successes and shortcomings of the OAA’s ability to serve older Americans, particularly those with the greatest social and economic need. In these times of fiscal restraint, the Leadership Council of Aging Organizations (LCAO) offers in this document recommendations for improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the OAA in its delivery of core services and how it interacts and coordinates with other federal programs that serve older adults.

In order to maximize effectiveness, community-based services provided through the Aging Network must be coordinated and integrated with the various federal health care services that older adults receive. In addition, they must work hand in glove with other programs at the state and federal levels such as the Low-Income Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), fraud prevention programs, Senior Corps and other programs promoting community service, transportation programs, the State Health Insurance Assistance Program (SHIP), the Adult Protective Services Program and other elder abuse-related programs.

The goal of the following LCAO recommendations is to authorize the AoA, the Assistant Secretary, and the programs and staff across the nation to fulfill their promise by giving them the tools, direction and flexibility to provide the services that the aging population of our nation demands. Our focus is on person and family-centered care with local flexibility to serve the needs of unique communities and sub-populations. LCAO’s recommended improvements do not require major changes to the OAA’s core services or eligibility requirements. LCAO strongly believes that increasing the authorized funding for all titles of the OAA is necessary; however, provision of adequate funding is just one of the ways that we propose to improve and expand services. Additionally, any new programs added to OAA should be given specific authorization levels.

With the population of older individuals expected to grow exponentially in the coming years, the aging network faces incredible challenges associated with the influx of older individuals into OAA programs. The LCAO, which has played a significant leadership role in past reauthorizations, is committed to a reauthorization that will strengthen the OAA for both the older adults currently receiving services and for the boomers who, in 2011, have begun turning 65 years of age.

We urge Congress to update and improve the Older Americans Act, while providing the funding needed for OAA programs to keep older Americans independent and productive, thereby saving federal and state government resources. Therefore, the LCAO makes the following recommendations to strengthen and enhance the OAA.

Full Document

National Council on Aging: Ask Congress to Protect Services for Vulnerable Seniors

Congress is currently proposing massive cuts in programs that provide jobs, affordable housing, and volunteer opportunities for older Americans.

Negotiations are now taking place on a historic budget-cutting bill that will likely be voted on the first week of April.

The House has already passed a bill that would:

• Cut the Senior Community Service Employment Program (SCSEP) by 64%—eliminating jobs for more than 83,000 poor seniors in need of work and potentially shutting down the program in many communities across the nation.
• Eliminate funding for Senior Corps, “firing” more than 450,000 senior volunteers nationwide and denying vital services to vulnerable older adults, children, and their families in communities across the nation.
• Reduce by two-thirds Section 202 Supportive Housing for the Elderly at a time when 1.3 million seniors have worst-case housing needs and increasing numbers are homeless.

Tell your Senators and Representative to reject cuts in jobs, housing, and volunteer programs for seniors!
Please use the sample letter below, edit it to put it in your own words, or make it even more powerful by adding a personal story about how an older adult you know is struggling to get a job or affordable housing or would be denied help or volunteer opportunities under Senior Corps.
Let your elected officials know that their constituents need help!

Recipients

• Your Senators
• Your Representative

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Senior Service America - A Guide for Providers: Engaging Immigrant Seniors

How can providers help older immigrants join the workforce?
How can older immigrants contribute to their new community?

To help answer these questions, Senior Service America and the Center for Applied Linguistics have produced A Guide for Providers: Engaging Immigrant Seniors in Community Service and Employment Programs. This publication offers practical advice, activities and resources designed to help older immigrants reduce their isolation, and build communications and job-related skills.

Publication of the book comes at a time of accelerated immigration. The 2000 Census estimated the foreign-born population in the United States at about 31 million -- 11 percent of the total population. Providing services to and opportunities for older immigrants is more important now that ever before.

• Preface
• Introduction
• Chapters
• Download a complete copy or select chapters

This publication was made possible through the collaborative efforts of many individuals and organizations who care deeply about aging and the growing diversity of our nation.

• About our partners
• Acknowledgements

Request your free copy.

Senior Service America - A Guide for Providers: Engaging Immigrant Seniors

DoL, AoA Listening Session on Reauthorization of the Senior Community Service Employment Program

SAVE THE DATE! – Monday, April 26th

Assistant Secretary of Labor (DOL - Employment and Training Administration), Jane Oates, and Assistant Secretary for Aging (HHS – Administration on Aging) Kathy Greenlee, will be conducting a joint listening forum via webinar format on Monday, April 26th from 1:00 to 3:00 EDT.  The purpose of the webinar will be to solicit input on reauthorization of Title V of the Older Americans Act, Senior Community Services Employment Program (SCSEP), and other senior workforce issues.  Additional details including how to access the webinar will follow early next week.   

Experience Works: Overlooked and Underserved

In a new study of more than 2,000 low-income unemployed workers age 55 and older, 46 percent need to find jobs so they don’t lose their homes or apartments, and approximately half (49 percent) have been looking for work for more than a year.

In July 2009, there were two million unemployed workers age 55 plus; the unemployment rate for this age group was the highest since the Bureau of Labor Statistics began tabulating data by age in 1948.

The perfect storm - a recessed economy, increased competition for jobs, and age-related employment barriers - has created a crisis for America’s older low-income workers, according to the new study conducted by Experience Works, the nation’s largest nonprofit provider of community service, training and employment opportunities for older workers.




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Read Executive Summary

Senior Community Service Employment Program Proposed Rule

SUMMARY: The Employment and Training Administration of the Department of Labor (Department) is issuing this Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) to propose changes in the Senior Community Service Employment Program resulting from the 2006 Amendments to title V of the Older Americans Act, and to clarify various policies. Key proposed changes include

• the introduction of a 48-month limit on participation,
• regular competition for national grants, and
• an available increase in the proportion of grant funds that can be used for participant training and supportive services.

Comments on this proposed rule are welcome according to the dates listed below.

DATES: Interested persons are invited to submit comments on this proposed rule. To ensure consideration, comments must be received on or before October 14, 2008. Comments received after that date will be considered to the extent possible. Comments should be limited to the proposed changes and additions to the current regulations, all of which are discussed in the preamble to this NPRM, or to other changes to the current regulations which flow from the 2006 Amendments.