Project Details
Creating Aging-Friendly Communities Online Conference
The Center for the Advanced Study of Aging Services hosted an innovative online conference -- Creating Aging-Friendly Communities - with more than 750 people participating from around the world. This unique conference synthesized current knowledge regarding proven strategies for helping communities respond effectively to the aging of their populations. There were over 30 separate presentations on topics ranging from rethinking transportation and housing options to how to create lifelong career and learning opportunities. Featured speakers included: Josefina G. Carbonell, U.S. Administration on Aging; Sandra Markwood, National Association of Area Agencies on Aging; Jennie Chin Hansen, AARP; Jody Kretzmann, Asset-Based Community Development Institute; Judy Goggin, Civic Ventures; and numerous other nationally-recognized authorities on aging and community development. In addition to live events and pre-recorded presentations, participants were able to use a variety of online communication modalities to share best practices and actively engage with others, including instant messaging, virtual meeting rooms, and structured collaborations. Finally, participants had easy access to key research findings, reports and web site links.
Demand for the conference far exceeded the Center's initial estimate of 300 registrants, and it became necessary to restrict participation to 750 participants representing 47 states and spanning 17 countries. To facilitate further dissemination, conference materials are now available for the general public at www.agingfriendly.org. This web site includes access to conference presentations, networking opportunities and links to practical tips, models, tools and training materials. In addition, the Center has created a list serve on the web site to keep conference participants and others informed about new resources as they become available.
The web site also provides an opportunity to participate in the Community of Practice (CoP), and intensively-supported process that includes monthly expert speakers, access to peer-to-peer and expert technical assistance with leading experts in aging and community development, monthly community case studies, monthly issue challenges to help address significant problems and opportunities communities face, and ongoing networking opportunities.
This innovative online conference is made possible through generous funding from Helen Andrus Benedict Foundation, MetLife Foundation, The California Endowment and Sierra Health Foundation.
Related publications on this topic by Center Staff:
Creating Aging Friendly Communities Conference Final Report
Structural Barriers to Developing ‘Aging-Friendly’ Communities
Archstone Foundation Family Caregiver Support Project
The Center is pleased to announce its receipt of generous funding from the Archstone Foundation to conduct a two-year study of family caregivers in California. This project will provide important information regarding the utilization and impact of caregiver support services, and will assist policymakers and program managers to improve services for California's caregivers.
The project will collect information from a randomly-selected sample of caregivers, including those who receive services and those who do not, who previously were identified in 2002 as part of a household survey in collaboration with the California Department of Aging (CDA). In particular, the project will: (1) examine whether local caregiver support programs meet caregivers' needs as those needs change over time; (2) identify barriers that inhibit service use or contribute to unmet needs, and recommend strategies for overcoming those barriers; (3) document the impact of service use for caregivers (e.g., better health & psychological well-being) and for care recipients (e.g., delayed institutionalization, less vulnerability to abuse or neglect, better end-of-life care); (4) examine the service needs of California's ethnically and racially diverse caregiver populations, and identify strategies for meeting those needs; (5) assess whether implementation of the National Family Caregiver Support Program (NFCSP) meets caregivers' needs and improves their knowledge of local caregiver support programs; and, (6) identify ways to improve the utility and effectiveness of the NFCSP.
This information will be invaluable for planners, policy-makers, and service providers, in California as well as the United States. Indeed, no other existing data source provides comprehensive information regarding caregiver needs and service utilization patterns, from a randomly-selected household sample of service users and non-users, representing the racial and ethnic diversity of California.
The project is being conducted in collaboration with an Advisory Group, consisting of key stakeholders and experts regarding the needs of caregivers. The Center and the Advisory Group met in early June to discuss earlier research findings and begin planning the early stages of the survey, as well as to develop recommendations for the implementation of the California Strategic Plan on Aging. As project findings become available, the Advisory Group will assist us to identify policy-relevant and programmatic recommendations and facilitate their implementation locally and statewide.
Click on the link(s) below to read more about, download pdfs, or order hard copies of reports that have been produced under this project:
Archstone Foundation Website
Caregiving in California: Final Report of the University of California Family Caregiver Support Project
Profile Of Family Caregivers 2002-2004
Summary of Major Findings: Year One
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Care Management and LTC Integration
For the past several months, the Center for the Advanced Study of Aging Services has been working with the California Center for Long-Term Care Integration CCLTCI in its effort to assist the State and Counties with the implementation of AB-1040 (1995).
Downloads:
Click on the link(s) below to read more about, download pdfs, or order hard copies of reports that have been produced under this project:
Case Management in Long-Term Care Integration (2001)
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Strategic Plan for an Aging California (SB 910)
The Strategic Planning Initiative for Older Californians was initiated through the signing into law of SB 910 in 1999. This law called upon the Secretary of California’s Health and Human Services Agency to develop, by July 2003, a statewide strategic plan for California to address the impending demographic, economic, and social changes triggered by California’s aging and increasingly diverse population. The University of California was asked to assist in the development of this strategic plan through its California Policy Research Center (CPRC) by producing detailed background information and analysis. Professor Andrew Scharlach served as the chair of a SB 910 Working Group, a group of research experts convened by the CPRC. Access the State’s Strategic Plan by clicking on the link below.
Download:
Strategic Plan for
An Aging California Population
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National Family Caregiver Support Program
The California Department of Aging (CDA) has asked the Center for the Advanced Study of Aging Services to assist it in the implementation and evaluation of the new federal, National Family Caregiver Support Program (NFCSP). The NFCSP was approved by Congress in December 2000 and includes $125 million of new funding as part of the newly reauthorized Older Americans Act. The NFCSP is intended to provide critical support needed by families to assist them in maintaining their caregiver roles for their older family members who are ill or who have disabilities and also older adults who have primary care responsibilities for young children.
The federal funds have been awarded to State Units on Aging who will work in partnership with area agencies on aging to implement the new program. California, like many other states, will need to perform a statewide assessment of caregiver demographic characteristics, caregiver needs, resources available, resource deficiencies, and associated infrastructure/program development requirements, in order to create effective statewide policy.
The Center's role includes development of a profile of California's caregivers and care receivers, an analysis of the state's caregiver support resources, guidance regarding best practices and potential short-term and long-term data collection activities, and examination of the impact of the new NFCSP. One of the Center's primary steps in the project's implementation will be meeting with important stakeholders and experts in this area to solicit input in the development of the project.
Click on the links below to access articles and reports that have been produced under this project:
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A Training Curriculum for Social Work Students
The Consortium for Social Work Training in Aging (CSWTA) was one of six national sites to be funded by the John A. Hartford Foundation of New York to strengthen MSW social work training in gerontology to increase the numbers of professional social workers trained to serve older adults. The grant focuses on field education training within public sector aging service systems and consists of a consortium of three academic programs and six practicum sites in the San Francisco Bay Area, including the schools of social work at the University of California at Berkeley, San Francisco State University, and San jose State University and the department of adult and aging services in Alameda, Contra Costa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara and Sonoma counties. In all, 37 MSW students (see list) form the three participating schools of social complete training in department of adult and aging services (DAAS).
Although student stipends are no longer available from the Hartford Foundation, student continue to be interested in the public sector training settings. In addition, the participating DAAS continue to use the training model that was developed and refined over the four-year grant period. The training model is unique in that it incorporates a series of rotations through all DAAS programs, enabling students to become familiar with the full range of its operations, including: adult protective services, the Area Agency on Aging, and a variety of case management and in-home support services for elderly and disabled adults. The training model was tested and shown to be very effective in providing comprehensive training in aging services. The entire process has been documented in a curriculum manual for training social work students in county DAAS.
Click on the link(s) below to access reports that have been produced under this project:
A Training Curriculum for Social Work Students
The Consortium for Social Work Training in Aging
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Personnel Needs in Aging Services
Characteristics of personnel who provide services to a rapidly growing and increasingly diverse population of older adults were examined through a statewide survey of Area Agencies on Aging and county adult and aging services departments in California.
Substantial gaps were found in the professional education and training of current aging services personnel, with only 42% of adult protective service workers, 36% of case managers, and fewer than 10% of other personnel having masters degrees in social work. Key barriers to hiring aging services personnel included a lack of qualified and properly educated applicants, inadequate salaries, and insufficient numbers of ethnically diverse applicants.
Results suggest the following needs: (1) increase the number of social workers, especially those trained and experienced in gerontology; (2) develop programs to recruit and train aging services workers, (3) increase emphasis on gerontology in University courses and programs, (4) create incentives and training programs for professional development and (5) increase funding, especially to offer more competitive salaries. Such efforts to improve the education and training of social workers will better prepare them to assess clients' biopsychosocial needs and develop and coordinate interventions to meet their complex needs, cope with change and loss, and navigate a complex service system.Findings from the study will contribute to a new State Plan on Aging, as mandated by SB 910, and will help to formulate state policies and programs to better meet current and future needs associated with California's aging population.
Click on the link(s) below to read more about, download pdfs, or order hard copies of reports that have been produced under this project:
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Quality Assurance in Long-Term Care
The overall goal of the project is to assist the California Department of Health Services, insurers, and care management agencies to assure the quality of care management services provided as part of the California Partnership for Long Term Care.
In particular, this project will examine quality assurance with regard to each of the following components of case management:
The reliability of the eligibility assessment
Adequacy of the care plan
The implementation and monitoring of the care plan.
In each of these areas, the project will develop a set of quality assurance indicators which can be used to assess and improve care management procedures. These indicators will serve as the basis for recommendations to case management provider agencies, insurance carriers, and the State of California regarding strategies for assuring quality in long-term care case management services for elderly persons.
Click on the link(s) below to read more about, download pdfs, or order hard copies of reports that have been produced under this project:
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