 |
Project Details
Creating Aging-Friendly Communities Online Conference
The Center for the Advanced Study of Aging Services is hosting an innovative online conference -- Creating Aging-Friendly Communities. This online conference is designed to support individuals and organizations in their planning to make communities more aging-friendly.In addition to presentations from nationally recognized authorities on aging and community development, the conference will feature real-time and time-independent interactions that facilitate networking and creative problem-solving, including instant messaging, virtual meeting rooms, and structured collaborations on attendee-defined topics.
Participants will hear presentations by speakers such as: 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.
Click on the links to hear Welcoming Remarks by Assistant Secretary of Aging Josefina Carbonell, Week One Keynote presentation by Professor Andrew Scharlach and Week Two Keynote presentation by Jennie Chin Hansen, President- Elect, AARP
The Creating Aging-Friendly Communities online conference is intended for everyone interested in making their communities more aging-friendly, including municipal & state government, policy makers, community organizations, transportation & housing experts, businesses, urban planners, foundations, and citizens. Conference attendees will realize the following conference benefits:
- Explore over 25 different presentations
- Engage with national experts
- Discover what other communities are doing
- Network to explore and solve community issues
- Identify approaches that work
- Access practical tips, models, tools, and training materials
This innovative online conference is made possible through generous funding from Helen Andrus Benedict Foundation, MetLife Foundation, The California Endowment and Sierra Health Foundation.
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
^ TOP OF PAGE
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:
 Adobe Acrobat Reader 5 required for viewing PDF files
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)
^ TOP OF PAGE
Developing a Strategic Plan for an Aging California (SB 910)
On Friday, April 20, 2001, the Center for the Advanced Study of Aging Services at the University of California, Berkeley, and the California Council on Gerontology and Geriatrics jointly sponsored a one-day conference on the aging of California at the Berkeley Radisson Marina Hotel. Bay Area educators, service providers, program managers, and policy makers came together to discuss a strategic plan for responding to the needs of California's aging population.
Downloads:
Adobe Acrobat Reader 5 required for viewing PDF files
^ TOP OF PAGE
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. The Principle Investigator for the Project is the Center's Director, Andrew E. Scharlach, Ph.D., Kleiner Professor of Aging. Additional information about the project is available by contacting the Center staff by phone at 510/642-3285 or by e-mail at tdalsa@uclink4.berkeley.edu.
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:
- Unmet Needs and Barriers to Service Use by Family Cargivers (also available as PPT) - Paper presented at the National Gerontological Social Work Conference in New York, NY.
- Exploring Family Caregivers Services (also available as PPT) - Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Society for Social Work and Research in Miami, FL.
- Caregiving from coast to coast - Presented at the 58th Annual Scientific Meeting of the Gerontological Society of America, Washington, DC.
- A stress process model of family caregiver coping mechanisms: Respite and counseling service use - Presented at The 58th Annual Scientific Meeting of the Gerontological Society of America, Washington, DC.
- California's Grandparents Raising Children - What the Aging Network Needs to Know as it Implements the National Family Caregiver Support Program (2001)
- Family Caregivers in California (2001)
- Implementing the National Family Caregiver Support Program - a slide presentation given at the National Council on the Aging and American Society on Aging Conference (April 4, 2002)
- Local Caregiver Needs Assessment Under California's Family Caregiver Support Program (2002)
- Major Caregivers in California: An Inventory Analysis Under California's Family Caregiver Support Program (2002)
- How to Assess the Needs of Family Caregivers - a slide presentation given at the Third International Conference on Family Care (October 13, 2002)
- Results of a Statewide Survey of California Caregivers - presentation given at The 55th Annual Scientific Meeting of The Gerontological Society of America, Boston, MA (November 2002)
- Building a Broader Framework of Caregiver Resources in California - presentation given at the C4A Annual Meeting and Allied Conference (November 2002)
- California's Family Caregiver Support System: Findings and Recommendations Final Report (January 2003)
- A Profile of Family Caregivers: Results of the California Statewide Survey of Caregivers (January 2003)
- A Profile of California Grandparents Raising Grandchildren (January 2003)
- Identifying Important Characteristics and Needs of Family Caregivers in California - presentation given at The 7th Annual Conference of the Society of Social Work and Research, Washington, DC (January 2003)
- Service Needs of Ethnically Diverse Caregivers in California - presentation given at the 2003 Joint Conference of The American Society on Aging and The National Council on The Aging, Chicago, IL (March 2003)
- Evaluating Caregiver Programs (September 2003)
- An Empirical Model of Caregiver Formal Service Utilization - presentation given at The 56th Annual Scientific Meeting of The Gerontological Society of America, San Diego, CA (November 2003)
- Ethnic Differences in Family Caregiving in California - slide presentation given at the Society for Social Work and Research Annual Conference (January 16, 2004)
- Family Caregiving in California: Experiences Across Diverse Racial and Ethnic Groups - slide presentation given at the 2004 Joint Conference of the American Society on Aging and The National Council on The Aging, San Francisco, CA (April 2004)
- Conducting Focus Groups with Culturally Diverse Family Caregivers - slide presentation given at the 2004 Joint Conference of the American Society on Aging and The National Council on The Aging, San Francisco, CA (April 2004)
^ TOP OF PAGE
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:
^ TOP OF PAGE
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.
We would love to hear from anyone who is doing related work or is interested in these topics. Write to Andrew Scharlach at scharlac@uclink.berkeley.edu.
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:
^ TOP OF PAGE
|
|
