Department of Health
and Human Services
Administration on Aging
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Services for Seniors
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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