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News and Views

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A Balancing Act: State Long-Term Care Reform, AARP’s newly released report is chock full of information on state efforts in long-term care. Read the report (PDF)

How Can We Improve Long-term Care Financing? by Howard Gleckman from the The Center for Retirement Research at Boston College looks at flaws in our current long-term care systems and reviews the advantages of other potential approaches including public-private financing. Download the full report (PDF)

2007 Profile of Older Americans has been released by the US Administration on Aging. Download the full report (17 pages, PDF).

The National Health Policy Forum announces the publication of Community-Based Long-Term Care: Wisconsin Stays Ahead (PDF).

National Commission for Quality Long-Term Care (NCQLTC.org) issues report. (PDF)
NCQLTC, a non-partisan group chaired by Bob Kerry, former U.S. Senator from Nebraska, and Newt Gingrich, former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives from Georgia, has released national survey results on the need for system improvements and final report and recommendations for change “From Isolation to Integration: Recommendations to Improve Quality in Long-Term” December 3, 2007.

The Kaiser Family Foundation resources on nursing home quality.
In addition to a joint briefing on nursing home quality since the passage of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1987 (OBRA 87), the Kaiser Family Foundation has released new opinion poll results, reports and updated fact sheets on Medicaid and long-term care services.

Emergency Preparedness: Get Ready: Set Your Clocks, Check Your Stocks campaign of the American Public Health Association offers free disaster preparedness tips for households, online at www.getreadyforflu.org/clocksstocks. Materials include a list of what should be in an emergency stockpile, information on rotating stored food and water and games for kids. For the first time, bilingual materials are available as well, with both a stockpiling information fact sheet and a supply checklist in Spanish.
Maui Partnership has a new name and exciting future! See news from the Aging with Aloha Annual meeting.
Pathways to Positive Aging partnership is excited to share their work in support of the Community Ambassador for Seniors program in Fremont, CA, and the launch of the new website http://www.capseniors.org
Congratulations to the Connecting Caring Communities of Milwaukee County partnership in Wisconsin. Stephanie Sue Stein tells us the National Association of Area Agencies on Aging (n4a)’s recently awarded Connecting caring Communities top ($2500) prize for Innovations in Aging.

Two Community Partnerships for Older Adults have been selected 2008 Program Champions by the US Administration on Aging. The June 2 Program Champion features for Illinois is the Aging Well partnership in Lyons Township. The June 9 Program Champion from Virginia is the Aging Together Partnership in the Rappahannock-Rapidan region. Read more about the Champions!
Please join us in congratulating Stephanie Sue Stein of our Connecting Caring Communities Partnership in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Stephanie was presented the Milwaukee Aging Consortium's Leadership award by former Wisconsin Governor, Tommy Thompson! Read the full story!
Take a break with the Zimmers!

Improving Transitional Care as older adults move from the hospital to the community is subject of a report on work that grows from the work of the San Francisco Partnership for Home and Community-based Care and Support. Download Transitional Care Blueprint for Change: Recommendations to Improve Transitional Care Services from Hospitals in San Francisco in PDF.

Aging with Attitude art exhibition mounted by the Blueprint for Aging partnership
The Care for Elders partnership in Houston has released their new work on preparing for the future. See what's new!
Aging Together Partnership secures state funds and is recognized as a Best Practice in Virginia http://www.vda.virginia.gov/pdfdocs/2008-CCOA-Award-Announce.pdf (PDF format).

Community Partnerships for Older Adults and their achievements are among the resources accompanying the Roanoke Time’s “A Growing Crisis of Care.” The story of “Tommy” is the first installment in “Age of Uncertainty” a new series developed by Beth Macy and the Roanoke Times. Be sure to read the paper’s editorial on the need for individuals and communities to plan to meet the future needs of older adults.

Overview of Community Planning Strategies
Hear the Community Partnerships for Older Adults program and community partnership experience with community-wide strategic planning presented by Elise Bolda as part of the on-line Creating Aging-Friendly Communities conference earlier this year. View the presentation.

Which is having a greater impact on Medicare - rising health care costs or growing older adult population? Read the NY Times editorial on the need for comparative research.

Hear or read the views of those with early onset dementias - NPR broadcast Sufferers of Early Onset Alzheimer's Describe Life with the Disease, by Susan Dentzer (US Public Broadcasting Corporation. Online Newshour. Jan. 10, 2008). In addition to the print transcript, the story is available in MicroMedia Flash streaming video, and RealPlayer & .mp3 audio formats, running time, 11 minutes, 38 seconds.

Brookdale Foundation Grants
The Brookdale Foundation is offering grants for community-based social model respite programs for elders with Alzheimer’s disease and their families. Grants have the potential to be $7500 in year one and $3,000 in year two.

More information is available at their Web site: www.brookdalefoundation.org.

Target Store Grant Opportunities
Target Stores are accepting applications for its local store grants program supporting initiatives that bring arts into schools, promote a love of reading and the prevention of family violence. (There might be connections to intergenerational, or elder abuse programs.) Average grants range from $1,000 to $3,000. Target also offers each store limited funds for Target Gift card donations for other unique opportunities outside the program’s focus areas. For more information, go to www.target.com

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) welcomes subscribers to their Aging Initiative List serv. Click here to join the "Aging_Initiative" Listserver!

Health Data Interactive (HDI)
Information on aging as well as on the health of children and younger adults is now available through the Health Data Interactive (HDI) website. The National Center for Health Statistics has merged the Trends in Health and Aging (THA) and Health Data for All Ages (HDAA) web-sites.

HAP Launches New Long-Term Care Center
The Health Assistance Partnership (HAP) Long-Term Care Center contains four fact sheets for beneficiaries and caregivers who are interested in learning more about long-term care: What Is Long-Term Care?, How Do You Pay for Long-Term Care?, What Is Long-Term Care Insurance?, and What Is the Long-Term Care Partnership Program? http://www.hapnetwork.org/long-term-care/

Ageism is part of attitudes of people in many countries and cultures. This issue brief on ageism prepared by the Canadian Network for the Prevention of Elder Abuse offers definitions, concrete suggestions for how to move forward and links for further reading.

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We encourage the reproduction of this material and ask that you credit Community Partnerships for Older Adults Community Partnerships for Older Adults is a national program of The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation within the University of Southern Maine
© 2007 Community Partnerships for Older Adults

Strategic Planning - Strategic planning will help you create a bold vision for the future, strengthen new partnerships, forge creative and innovative linkages between stakeholders, and ultimately better address the needs of older adults in your community. A community-wide strategic planning process will benefit from the wisdom of a diverse array of participants and ensure greater likelihood of success.

Inclusion & Diversity - Including older adults and caregivers is crucial to growing and sustaining successful community partnerships. It is especially important to seek participation from traditionally excluded groups such as those defined by race and ethnicity, low income, lack of English language proficiency, and sexual orientation. While many factors can challenge a partnership’s efforts to embrace diversity and build productive relationships, receiving input from a broad array of community members helps to ensure equality in decision making and leads to long term care and supportive services that are more responsive to a community’s diverse needs.

Fiscal Strategies - Developing a fiscal strategy is an important and challenging part of improving the system of long term care and supportive services for older adults in your community. The array of funding options requires that community partnerships be strategic in their aims. This area of the Resource Center reviews relevant funding sources and provides resources to help you make the most of them.

Communications - Have you ever thought about how many times a day someone tries to influence you to think a certain way, to buy a certain product, to support a cause or to change your behavior? These days there are so many ways to reach you—from cell phones and Palm Pilots to instant messaging, cable TV and customized publications—that a reasonable reaction is to simply tune everything out. It’s a world of sound and fury.

Evaluation - While the success of a community partnership may seem self-evident, a systematic evaluation holds members to a higher standard, revealing more than what we see with the naked eye. This section offers an introduction to evaluation. It covers the basic principles of evaluation design and implementation, as well as some topics likely to be important for community partnerships working to improve long term care and supportive services.

Partnership Evolution - A partnership generally consists of multiple organizations and individuals working together under a common vision. Who will be in the partnership varies from community to community, yet the purpose is universal: to create a mutually beneficial and well-defined relationship to sustain results that are not possible alone.