What Happened?
The Pennsylvania Department of Aging received a $200,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to fund programs to develop more effective volunteer programs.
Goal
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration for Community Living (ACL) awarded the Pennsylvania Department of Aging with a $200,000 grant to assist local APPRISE programs in developing strategic approaches to enhance its volunteer programs.
Pennsylvania offers its free APPRISE program to ensure all residents have access to Medicare and health insurance counseling. The program is run by more than 600 volunteers statewide who dedicate their time to providing the most up-to-date information on Medicare and health insurance programs to the senior population of Pennsylvania.
The $200,000 grant, awarded over a 17-month period, will help the Department of Aging establish statewide volunteer program coaching teams. These groups will brainstorm project plans to better meet the needs of senior residents in four regions of the state. The coaching teams will also help local APPRISE programs improve their volunteer counseling programs with best practices.
The grant will specifically fund training for team coaches where they will learn how to:
- Lead efforts to develop plans
- Work with audit teams
- Participate in monthly coaching calls
The goal is to strengthen the Pennsylvania APPRISE program through coordinated leadership and increased access to information and best practices for all volunteers.
Administration for Community Living
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration for Community Living is responsible for increasing access to community supports while strengthening and expanding the resources available to Americans with unique needs or disabilities.
The ACL has launched a State Health Insurance Assistance Program Performance Improvement and Innovation Grant program (SHIP) that provides funding to states looking to improve infrastructure, training and outreach support for Medicare and health insurance counseling programs. The SHIP initiative supports one-on-one counseling and assistance programs designed to help aging and disabled Americans understand their health insurance and long-term care options.
The ACL offers SHIP programs with 17-month grants capped at $250,000 to improve performance and quality of service to residents. The grants help recipients:
- Improve program performance, outreach and counseling strategies
- Expand the capacity of programs through enhanced counselor management activities and strategies
- Develop other innovative strategies to improve the quality of services provided to communities
The SHIP grant program is part of the ACL’s push for new, more effective models of community care for older adults and individuals with disabilities. The ACL is also implementing:
- Community-Based Care Transitions Program: Improving care transitions from hospital to other settings while reducing readmissions
- Managed Long-Term Services and Supports: Connecting services of aging and disability networks for more efficient delivery of care
The ACL has also awarded more than $2 million in grants to 17 states implementing Lifespan Respite Care Programs. These initiatives are coordinated systems of accessible, community-based respite care services for family caregivers of children or adults with special needs. The goal of the grant program is to support, expand and streamline the delivery of planned and emergency respite services.
Refocus on Health
Gov1 has reported on a variety of government grant programs helping communities improve services for aging residents and those with disabilities.