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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