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From the Director: An alternative to the
governor's Plan
Budget Cuts & Councils on Aging
Helen
Vanasse, Community Service Volunteer of the Year
Yvette
Bastow, Money Management Volunteer of the Year
Nutrition Volunteer of the Year
Jim Smith, SHINE Volunteer of the Year Award
Elder Services welcomes new volunteers
Elder Services celebrates National Volunteer Week
Francesca Byrne, Ombudsman Volunteer
Winner
Trainings offered to volunteers
A call to Action for elders
From the Director
By Robert P. Dean, Executive Director
An Alternative to the Governor’s Plan
As you may know, the Governor has proposed a re-organization of the Executive Office of Elder Affairs, which would strip Elder Affairs of its cabinet level status and place it within one of four clusters within the enormous Executive Office of Health and Human Services. The elders of Massachusetts need direct access to the Governor, not indirect access through another agency such as Health and Human Services. The Governor’s re-organization would deny elders their rightful place at the cabinet table.
Four former Secretaries of Elder Affairs, who served under both Democratic and Republican governors, have sent a letter to the Speaker of the House, Thomas Finneran, asking for his support to maintain Elder Affairs as an independent secretariat and that Elder Affairs not be included in the re-organization of the Executive Office of Health and Human Services. Their letter states that the re-organization would downgrade Elder Affairs and reduce its ability to effectively serve the 1.2 million elders in Massachusetts.
Speaker Finneran’s Health and Human Services Task Force has studied the Governor’s proposed re-organization and heard testimony from dozens of advocates and providers including the four former secretaries. The Task Force has released an alternative re-organization plan, which recommends a "wholesale structural reform" of Elder Affairs but in a manner very different from the Governor’s plan to downgrade Elder Affairs. "One of the most significant differences" the Task Force has with the Governor is the "proposed weakening of the Executive Office of Elder Affairs. Elders deserve to have direct access to the Governor in the form of an executive office and a secretary who reports directly to the governor". The Speaker’s Task Force recommends that "all long term care for the elderly be transferred to the Executive Office of Elder Affairs to insure improved coordination and individualized care by consolidating home care, home health and the continuum of residential long term care into a single office for the first time".
The improved coordination of long term care services through a strengthened Elder Affairs will best meet the needs of Massachusetts elders, and would save the state money through the continued development and implementation of cost saving initiatives such as the Community Choices demonstration program.
The Community Choices program, which began in November 2002, is an initiative between Elder Affairs and Medicaid to provide enriched services to eligible elders who are at imminent risk of nursing home placement but would like to receive their long term care services in their own homes. There are more than 350 elders enrolled in the Community Choices program across the state including 24 people who were relocated out of nursing homes. The average cost of service per person is less than $1,500. a month, which is half the cost of a nursing home placement. The Community Choices initiative has proven that it costs less to provide enriched services in someone’s home than it does to pay for someone to move to a nursing home.
We at Elder Services strongly support the recommendation of the Speaker’s Task Force that the Executive Office of Elder Affairs remain in the cabinet and be strengthened so that it can better coordinate services to elders through the development and implementation of initiatives such as Community Choices.