Policy and Research Needs to Maximize Independence and Support Community Living Workshop Summary (2016) / Chapter Skim
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2 The Importance of Community Living and Maximizing Independence to Individuals and Society
2 The Importance of Community Living and Maximizing Independence to Individuals and Society
Pages 7-16
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From page 7... ...
, gave a keynote presentation on the history and current state of the federal government's efforts to support community living and independence. Gretchen Alkema, the Vice President for Policy and Communications at The SCAN Foundation, then discussed the contrast between how Americans perceive issues of aging, disability, and independence and the realities of these issues.
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From page 8... ...
This question demonstrates how many people incorrectly assume that CMS oversees all things related to aging and disability -- in fact, it does not -- and it highlights the need to continue to educate both those inside and outside of the federal government on the importance of developing policies and providing funding to integrate services in a way that supports community living and independence. CMS, Greenlee explained, interfaces with state Medicaid agencies, which are essentially insurance finance companies and not program agencies.
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From page 9... ...
Greenlee noted the tremendous support that The John A Hartford Foundation and The SCAN Foundation have given as ACL has worked to change the network of services it supports and to make previously free services more sustainable in an uncertain funding climate.
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From page 10... ...
, people will have to know that they are buying something that has an outcome that they want," she said. "I am convinced that this particular pathway will secure the future of community-based organizations once they can prove it." For example, quantifying the value of providing homedelivered meals as a form of health support after a hospital discharge would require research demonstrating the associated positive health outcomes and health care savings.
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From page 11... ...
She asked the workshop audience to continue to increase the visibility of these topics because "if this is only an internal conversation within the federal government, we can't solve the connectivity that we are all looking for." AMERICAN PERCEPTIONS AND THE REALITIES OF AGING, DISABILITY, AND INDEPENDENCE Gretchen Alkema Vice President of Policy and Communications, The SCAN Foundation How Americans think about aging and disability matters, Gretchen Alkema of The SCAN Foundation told the workshop audience. It affects the conversations that those working in the field have with each other, with policy makers at the state and local levels, and with the general public.
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From page 12... ...
Although Americans are beginning to recognize that these issues are part of their lives, they are still not entirely clear about what actions to take, and they sometimes wonder whether anyone else is struggling with the same challenges. Since 2013, The SCAN Foundation, which is interested in aging and dignity with independence, has commissioned the Associated Press– NORC Center for Public Affairs Research to conduct an annual poll of more than 1,700 individuals who are 40 years of age or older to examine Americans' awareness and perceptions of aging and long-term care.3,4 According to the 2015 poll, 47 percent of those surveyed believe it not too likely or not very likely that they have an aging family member or close friend who will need any level of ongoing living assistance in the next 5 years, a perception that Alkema characterized as not being based on reality.
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From page 13... ...
These data underscore the importance of building a long-term services delivery system capable of meeting these projected demands through partnerships between community-based organizations and the health care delivery system. Alkema noted that these data are for individuals ages 65 years and older because there are very few, if any, data available for those under 65 years of age or those who have disabilities.
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From page 14... ...
because of the way functional ability is linked to independence. "It's important for those of us who work in the health space to continue to connect our health care supports and our health-related supports to functional ability," Greenlee said, "because that is what people need to maintain." As an example, she said that diabetes itself does not affect independence so much, but rather it is the loss of a foot because of diabetes that impacts functional ability and thus independence.
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From page 15... ...
In particular, she noted the absurdity of large amounts of money having been invested in research collecting data on disability, functional status, and the use of assistive technology when the research tends to study people only up until they reach age 65 or else the study population only begins at age 65. Greenlee replied that she refers to this as multicultural work.
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