RECOMMENDATIONS
It is difficult to prioritize any one issue as being more important than another - all the issues are interconnected. Food and nutrition impact physical and mental well-being. Transportation impacts access to every other service. However, it is not prudent or possible to tackle all of the issues at the same time. Therefore, it is recommended that, of all the recommendations in the assessment, the following three issues be addressed first.
1. Comprehensive Plan
Possibly, the most important step the community can take now is to establish a community planning body charged with developing and implementing a comprehensive community-wide plan to meet the needs of the older adult population. This plan should address the two key points of this report. First, older adults want to live as independently as possible in their own homes. Second, the older adult population is increasing and the composition is changing. The level and complexity of care needed by older adults is likely to increase and the community would be well served to plan now for this increase.
A comprehensive plan should:
- Identify strategies that prevent and delay disability.
- Ensure the availability and accessibility of community based care and in home supports.
- Advocate for shifting resources to support community based services.
- Expand and leverage resources to meet the increasing need.
- Create a seamless continuum of services.
- Prioritize issues to be addressed. Based on information collected for this report the issues of transportation and housing (including repairs and modifications) should be addressed first.
2. Housing
A service provider focus group conducted as a part of this process identified affordable and accessible housing as the single most important issue facing older adults. In addition, a local survey of older adults found that home repair and modification is top on the list of services they need.
Addressing the housing needs of older adults requires making housing safer and affordable. Planning in this area should also address this report's finding that local home repair and modification programs are overburdened and uncoordinated. Consideration should be given to developing centralized home modification and repair services.
3. Transportation
Focus group participants and respondents to surveys conducted as part of the assessment also identified transportation as a critical issue for older adults in this community. Existing transportation services are not coordinated or centralized. To improve current services, consideration should be given to developing a centralized dispatch for transportation services. An alternative is to create a tiered system in which each transportation provider addresses the needs of certain groups. For example, transportation services could be organized according to the destination of the older adult, or by their level of ability/disability. This would help reduce overlap in services and increase efficiency. Efforts to improve transportation should be coordinated with existing public and non-profit providers currently working on this issue.
Summary
The Austin American-Statesman identified addressing the needs of older adults as a top priority for our community in 2001. The Aging Services Environmental Scan (ASES) is a resource for the community to use in addressing the needs of older adults. While more research needs to be conducted to fully understand the needs of older adults, the information in this report is intended to help prepare the community for meeting the needs of this growing population.
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