Holiday Message from the Assistant Secretary

This has truly been an amazing year! We want to thank everyone in the Aging Network for your dedication. Together, we have been able to help millions of older adults realize their desire to live independently.

The passage of the “Older Americans Act Amendments of 2006” was an especially significant event. These Amendments call for changes that promise to modernize the delivery of aging services and long-term care in our country.

The Older Americans Act amendments include new provisions that reflect the core principles of the Administration’s Choices for Independence (Choices) Initiative. Choices for Independence is an integrated set of strategies and tactics that are ideally suited for use by the Aging Network. They advance important changes in our heath and long-term care system. These changes will improve the quality of life for older Americans, their family caregivers, and other populations with disabilities. They also will result in a more cost-effective long-term care system.

Other highlights for 2006 included:

• AoA Choices Summit: AoA thanks everyone who joined nearly 1,300 colleagues for the Choices for Independence: A National Leadership Summit on December 5 - 6, 2006 in Washington, DC. The Choices Summit energized participants as they returned home with new ideas about how to put Choices strategies into plans for action. Aging Network colleagues shared numerous examples of ways they are modernizing their state and local long-term care systems.
• Older Americans Act (OAA) Funded Services: Aging Network organizations delivered valuable services to approximately 9.2 million older adults and their families. These services ranged from meals and nutrition counseling to transportation. They were delivered through a consumer-driven and locally-designed service network. This network is supported by multiple funding streams and is capable for reaching people with low-cost interventions long before they need intensive services.
• Prescription Drugs: Millions of seniors received Medicare prescription drug coverage for the first time and millions now have better coverage. As a result of a partnership with the Administration on Aging (AoA) and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), Aging Network partners reached out to older adults and offered personal assistance with selecting a drug plan based on their needs. This fall, AoA joined CMS in the My Health. My Medicare fall campaign to support prevention and personalized coverage in Medicare.
• Information and Access to Care: Older adults have gained valuable and reliable information and access to long-term care supports through Aging and Disability Resource Centers services offered to older adults in 43 states. This fall the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) announced additional funding to expand these efforts to establish single entry points to long-term care for families who are trying to learn about and access services in their communities.
• Planning for Long Term Care: Older adults nationwide now have access to comprehensive and objective information about long-term care services, risks of needing long-term care, and planning and financial tools to help individuals prepare for their long-term care. This information is available through the National Clearinghouse for Long-Term Care Information at www.longtermcare.gov and the DHHS Own Your Future campaign. This campaign began as a demonstration project in nine states. Congress enacted five additional years of funding through the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 based on the success of the demonstration campaigns. AoA is one of three DHHS agencies that jointly sponsors the campaign.
• Disease Prevention: Seniors in 13 communities can take better care of their health through participation in Evidence-based Disease Prevention Programs made possible because of the continued leadership role that AoA demonstrated in bringing knowledge drawn from rigorous scientific research to community organizations that serve older adults. In 2006, DHHS Secretary Mike Leavitt announced more than $13 million of funding in up to 16 states for a three year effort to mobilize public/private collaborations that will support the delivery of evidence-based programs for more seniors at the community level through a partnership with Atlantic Philanthropies, AoA, and other HHS agencies.

We have accomplished much this year. We begin 2007 knowing that we are on our way to modernizing and rebalancing our nation’s long-term care system.

I wish you and your family a blessed Holiday Season and a Happy New Year!

Josefina G. Carbonell

HHS LAUNCHES NEW WEB SITE PROMOTING

LONG-TERM CARE PLANNING
Essential Planning Tool to Help Americans Own Their Own Future

HHS’ Assistant Secretary for Aging Josefina G. Carbonell announced a new Web site that will make it easier for consumers to get the information they need to plan for long-term care. The National Clearinghouse for Long-Term Care Information Web site provides comprehensive information about long-term care planning, services and financing options, along with tools to help people begin the planning process.

The clearinghouse Web site is designed to increase public awareness about the risks and costs of long-term care and the potential need for services, and to provide objective information to help people plan for the future. The clearinghouse Web site was designed by HHS’ Administration on Aging (AoA), Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE).

The new Web site also supports the “Own Your Future” education campaign, a joint federal-state initiative designed to increase consumer awareness about planning for long-term care. HHS recently announced new federal-state partnerships with several states designed to help Americans take an active role in planning ahead for their future long-term care needs.

For more information about the “Own Your Future” campaign and the National Clearinghouse for Long-Term Care Information, please visit www.longtermcare.gov

Choices for Independence: A National Leadership Summit
Message from the Assistant Secretary

I am pleased that nearly 1,300 colleagues joined us for the Administration on Aging’s (AoA) Choices for Independence: A National Leadership Summit. This was a premiere opportunity for members of the National Aging Services Network to engage in an important dialogue on DHHS’s Choices for Independence initiative. This initiative, the principles of which are included in the newly enacted Older Americans Act (OAA) Amendments of 2006, is a key component in this Administration’s ongoing efforts to modernize and rebalance the nation’s long-term care system. Choices will guide and strengthen the OAA, and its emphasis on consumer empowerment, choice, and control will translate into independence and dignity for older Americans and adults with disabilities.

At the Choices Summit, many participants discovered how they may continue to take a leadership role in helping states, tribes, and communities proactively plan for the future. We selected, Working Together to Build the Future of Long-Term Care, as the theme for the Summit because of the significance of our home and community-based services network in transforming long-term care. Whether or not you attended the Summit, your participation will be critical as we move forward together to develop and implement strategies to better position the network to fulfill its responsibilities of meeting the needs of a rapidly growing aging population.

We are pleased to announce that www.Kaisernetwork.org, a free health policy news and webcasting service of the Kaiser Family Foundation, has filmed the general sessions on the opening day and they are now available for viewing as Web casts.

Josefina G. Carbonell