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The Older Americans Act (OAA) created the primary vehicle
for organizing, coordinating and providing community-based
services and opportunities for older Americans and their
families. All individuals 60 years of age and older are
eligible for services under the OAA, although priority
attention is given to those who are in greatest need. The
Senior Community Service Employment program offers part-or
full-time employment to low-income persons who are 55 years
of age or older.
The OAA established a network, headed by the U.S.
Administration on Aging, comprised of State Units on Aging,
Area Agencies on Aging, tribal organizations, local service
providers, and volunteers. For over 35 years, the aging
network has worked cooperatively to implement a variety of
programs aimed at meeting the needs of older Americans in
the communities they serve.
The following provides an overview of the range of
supporting services available to older residents in their
communities through the OAA and other federal, state, and
local programs. For further information on the services
listed contact your local Area Agency on Aging utilizing the
Eldercare Locator. Useful links for additional
information are provided where applicable.
Access Services help assure that elderly
Americans are linked with appropriate services in the
community as needed.
- Transportation. Transportation is
one of the most common needs expressed by older people.
Senior transportation programs make it possible for
individuals who do not drive or whose physical condition
prohibits them from using public transportation to
obtain rides for essential trips, such as medical
appointments, business errands, shopping and senior
activities. Door-to-door transportation is available in
many places.
Resource Links:
- Outreach. Outreach, through
door-to-door canvassing, extensive public announcements
or other means, is an effort to familiarize people to
services and benefits available to them. Outreach also
identifies homebound or isolated people in need of
services. Once they are identified they are assisted in
receiving appropriate services.
- Information and Referral.
Information and referral/assistance programs assist
older persons, their families and community agencies who
need information
but don't know where to turn. Many State Agencies on
Aging have toll free statewide 800 numbers that assist
with linking older persons with appropriate services.
Anyone, regardless of age, may telephone the Area Agency
on Aging for information on services and resources
available in the community to individuals 60 and over.
- Escort. Escort service provides
support for older people with limited mobility to obtain
needed services. Escort service is often provided by
volunteers. It might mean picking up an individual at
their home, accompanying them to a doctor's appointment
or spending the afternoon together running errands.
- Case Management. Case management
services are aimed at providing a single access point in
the community to reduce the distance an individual must
go to initiate entry into the service system. Drawing
upon a variety of resources, the case manager meets with
the individual, assesses his or her needs, and develops
a service plan to meet those needs. Once services are
initiated, a case manager can provide follow-up to
assure that needed services are being provided.
Resource Links:
- In-Home Services encompass a wide
range of supporting services offered to individuals who
are homebound due to illness, functional limitations in
activities of daily living, or disability. Their
availability often is credited for allowing people to
remain in the community.
- Home Health. Home health care is
recognized as an increasingly important alternative to
hospitalization or care in a nursing home for patients
who do not need 24-hour day professional supervision.
Many people find it possible
to remain at home for the entire duration of their
illness or at least to shorten their hospital stay. In
many cases readmission to the hospital can be prevented
or delayed. A variety of health services are provided in
a home health care program in the patient's home, under
the direction of a physician.
Resource Links:
- Homemaker. Homemaker service is
extended to individuals who are unable to perform
day-to-day household duties and have no one available to
assist them. Services include light housekeeping,
laundry, limited personal care, grocery shopping, meal
preparation, and shopping assistance.
- Chore Service. Chore service is
available to persons who are physically unable to
perform tasks, such as heavy cleaning, minor repair or
yard work, and unable to secure assistance from family
or friends nor have the means to
pay privately.
- Home Delivered Meals. A hot,
nutritionally balanced meal is delivered five days a
week to individuals who are physically unable to prepare
their own meals and do not have anyone else to prepare
meals for them.
Resource Links:
- Friendly Visitors and Telephone Reassurance.
These programs, which have different titles in different
communities, provide regular personal or telephone
contact for older persons who are homebound or live
alone. Usually a volunteer provides the service. Besides
developing friendships, perhaps a more important aspect
of these programs is the volunteer's ability to identify
needs of the individual as they occur and notify those
who can help.
Services in the Community enable many
hundreds of thousands of older persons maintain dignity and
independence within their homes and communities. Community
resources available for the elderly include:
- Adult Day Care. Adult day care
programs offer a lower cost alternative to
institutionalization for newly or chronically disabled
adults who cannot stay alone during the day, but who do
not need 24-hour inpatient care. Designed to promote
maximum independence, participants usually attend on a
scheduled basis. Services may include nursing,
counseling , social services, restorative services,
medical and health care monitoring, exercise sessions,
field trips, recreational activities, physical,
occupational and speech therapy, medication
administration, well-balanced meals, and transportation
to and from the facility. Adult day care can provide the
respite family members require to sustain healthy
relationships while caring for their elderly loved one
at home.
Resource Links:
- Senior Centers. Literally thousands
of senior centers are operating in the United States. A
vital link in the service delivery network which older
persons may avail themselves of, senior centers are
functioning as meal sites, screening clinics,
recreational centers, social service agency branch
offices, mental health counseling clinics, older worker
employment agencies, volunteer coordinating centers, and
community meeting halls. The significance of senior
centers cannot be underestimated for they provide a
sense of belonging, offer the opportunity to meet old
acquaintances and make new friends, and encourage
individuals to pursue activities of personal interest
and involvement in the community.
- Legal Assistance. Legal services
help older persons experiencing problems in civil
matters to obtain advice, counseling, information or
representation. Services are provided either by a
licensed attorney or trained paralegal. Types of matters
for which help is typically sought include health care,
income, public benefits (Social Security, Medicare,
Medicaid, SSI, food stamps), employment, consumer
complaints, nursing home resident rights, utilities,
guardianship/conservatorship, wills and estates.
Resource Links:
- State Health Insurance Counseling and
Assistance Programs. Known as SHIP, this
program is comprised of 53 state programs and nearly
15,000 trained volunteers who offer unbiased, one on one
counseling to assist Medicare beneficiaries understand
their health insurance benefits and options.
Resource Links:
- Housing. Housing services are aimed
at providing older persons with a wide variety of
assistance related to financing, building, maintaining
and locating housing. Services include housing
counseling, information and referral, landlord-tenant
dispute resolution, tenant group supports, home equity
conversion, carpentry, minor electrical and plumbing
repairs, low cost weatherization material. In some areas
short term shelter is provided to elders who are in need
of emergency housing due to fire, theft, physical or
mental abuse or other similar situations beyond their
immediate control.
Resource Links:
- Energy Assistance. State energy
assistance programs foster, encourage, support and
enhance community initiatives leading to energy
self-sufficiency, energy conservation and the expanded
use of renewable resources. These programs can provide
low-income elderly homeowners and renters with funds to
help pay home utility and heating costs. Eligibility
requirements may vary from state to state.
Resource Links:
- Self-Help/Support Groups. Mutual
support groups lend peer support and help for those who
have encountered life threatening illness or chronic
disability, either personally or as a family member.
- Respite Care. The provision of
short-term relief (respite) to families caring for their
frail elders offers tremendous potential for maintaining
dependent persons in the least restrictive environment.
Respite services encompass traditional home-based care,
as well as adult day health, skilled nursing, home
health aide and short term institutional care. Respite
can vary in time from part of a day to several weeks.
Resource Links:
- Protective Services. Adult
protective services are designed to meet the needs of
individuals who are severely or functionally
incapacitated to the point where they can no longer
manage their personal and financial affairs and who have
no relative or friend to provide the necessary
assistance. Services include investigations and
intervention of elder abuse, including physical and
emotional abuse and neglect by a caretaker. Protective
service workers provide crisis intervention, counseling,
information and referral to clients and liaison with the
court system.
Resource Links:
- Residential Repair and Renovation.
These programs help older people keep the condition of
their housing in good repair before problems become
major. Volunteers might come to an individual's home and
patch a leaky roof, for instance, repair faulty plumbing
or insulate drafty walls. These programs could help
seniors who are temporarily in a long term care facility
and who expect to return home to secure their home
environment while they are away.
Resource Links:
- Employment. Employment services are
designed to increase older workers' employment
opportunities in the general labor market as well as in
community service. Income eligible persons 55 and over
are recruited, trained and referred to job openings with
local employers. The ultimate goal is to place the older
worker in non-subsidized employment.
Resource Links:
- Crime Prevention/Victim Assistance.
Many communities have active crime prevention programs
to reduce elders' vulnerability to crime. In some areas
police refer senior crime victims to the local Area
Agency on Aging for counseling, help in obtaining lost
identification or emergency financial assistance.
Resource Links:
- Volunteer Program. Volunteers have
always played an integral role in the OAA system. This
partnership is built on the dedication of volunteers
giving time to serve in a broad range of capacities such
as providing escort services,
delivering home bound meals, serving meals at nutrition
sites, providing I&R and outreach assistance, serving as
friendly visitors, offering telephone reassurance, etc.
A resource for elderly Americans in need of assistance,
volunteer programs also offer meaningful opportunities
for older people to participate more fully in community
life through volunteer service. Among the many volunteer
programs established specifically for the elderly are
the
Retired Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP), Foster
Grandparents and Senior Companion Programs.
Resource Links:
- Nutrition Education. These programs
help older people to identify and understand their
nutrition and health needs. Emphasizing prevention,
programs are designed to improve participants' health
through improved food purchasing, diet, food
preparation, etc.
Resource Links:
- Physical Fitness/Exercise. Programs
are designed to assist older people stay physically
active and healthy. An exercise expert, for example,
might come to a senior center, nursing home, hospital or
other facility in the community to lead exercises geared
especially to older people. Or transportation might be
provided to the local YMCA/YWCA or other community venue
for older persons to attend special exercise classes.
Resource Links:
Services Provided to Support Caregivers
under the National Family Caregiver Support Program include:
- Information to caregivers about
available services.
- Assistance to caregivers in gaining
access to services.
- Individual counseling, organization
of support groups, and caregiver training to caregivers
to assist the caregivers in making decisions and solving
problems relating to their caregiving roles.
- Respite care to enable caregivers
to be temporarily relieved from their caregiving
responsibilities. In-home respite, adult day services,
and institutional respite on an intermittent, occasional
or emergency basis.
- Supplemental services, on a limited
basis, to complement the care provided by caregivers.
Services such as home modifications, assistive
technology, Emergency response systems,
equipment/supplies, and transportation.
Resource Links:
Services to Residents of Care Providing
Facilities are designed to protect and improve the
quality of life of elderly persons living in institutions
and to support relatives and other caregivers.
- Long Term Care Ombudsman Program.
Long term care ombudsmen, state and local, work
cooperatively with nursing homes and board and care
facilities to improve the quality of life for residents.
They serve as patient's rights advocates, investigating
and negotiating resolutions to concerns voiced by
residents in matters of resident services and care. Many
states have designed statewide toll free hotlines to
improve access to and enhance the quality of state long
term care ombudsman programs. Additionally, they assist
assisted living and nursing home staff to meet the needs
and concerns of those who use their facilities, educate
the elderly and the community about assisted living
facilities and nursing homes so there will be a better
understanding and use of the long term care system,
identify gaps in services provided, and advocate for
needed improvement in legislation and/or policies
affecting care in these facilities.
Resource Links:
Support for Azheimer's Disease Patients and Their
Families. Alzheimer’s disease affects as many as 4
million Americans. While most older persons with Alzheimer's
disease live at home, usually with a spouse or adult child
as caregiver, it is a major
predictor of institutionalization. Older persons with
Alzheimer's account for as many as one half of all elderly
in institutions.
Increasingly, communities, hospitals and long term care
institutions are recognizing the devastating effect caring
for Alzheimer's patients has on the family. Separate day
care
programs are being developed to meet the needs of the
Alzheimer's patient while providing respite for the family.
Other types of services being offered include family support
groups,
physical therapy to maximize physical functioning, speech
therapy, laboratory services, dietary consultation for
patients and their families, hospital based home care, and
public information to
promote a better understanding of the disease.
Resource Links:
Senior Medicare Patrol
Senior Medicare Patrols is an AoA-led effort which uses
innovative, proactive partnerships across the federal, state
and community levels to identify and report health care
waste, fraud and abuse. Senior Medicare Patrol projects
teach volunteer retired professionals, such as doctors,
nurses, accountants, investigators, law enforcement
personnel, attorneys and teachers, to help Medicare and
Medicaid beneficiaries to be better health care consumers.
Resource Links:
Pension Counseling
AoA pension counseling projects are designed to reach
out, educate, and promote pension awareness and protection
among older individuals as well as to encourage better
financial planning.
Resource Links:
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TTopics covered in
this article include; services for seniors, senior citizen
resources,
longterm care, medicare, long term care,nursing
homes,
long term care insurance, long term health care, long term care, health
insurance, logterm care facility,nursing home, medicare, insurance,
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