Future of
Long Term Care
As the
aging demographics unfold, the financing
of NY State's nationally recognized
long-term care system will become a
major challenge. The burgeoning number
of seniors and people with disabilities
needing long-term care support could
overwhelm and outstrip our state's
capacity to pay for needed services.
It is
imperative that New York plan now for
the future of its long-term care
system. The plan should preserve the
key values of independence and choice
and build on our already existing home
and community supports. But the plan
must squarely face the inevitable
squeeze in future resources. It must
propose strategies to keep people
independent and healthy for as long as
possible. And it must recommend how
both long-term care and acute care
services can be better aligned for those
persons with extended or chronic care
needs. The state has come up with a
plan of action entitled “NY
Connects:Choices for Long Term Care. The
following is a description of the
initiative:
NEW YORK
CONNECTS: CHOICES
FOR LONG TERM
CARE New York
State has begun to implement a
new initiative and this will change the
landscape of aging services, for
agencies that provide services, and for
individuals and for families in need of
long term care services. This new,
interesting project that staff from
Office for the Aging, Delaware County
Department of Social Services, and the
Public Health Department are working on
is the Point of Entry, known in our
state as “New York Connects: Choices for
Long Term Care”.
In its
first phase, New York Connects will
represent a change in long term care by
offering consumers of all ages in need
of long term care services a single
access point to provide long term care
information and assistance, education
and screening. The reason for
establishing a single point of entry is
to make access to services easier and
clearer for consumers so that they will
not have to look for assistance from
agency to agency or make numerous calls
and contacts with service staff to get
needed information and help.
Some of
the highlights of New York Connects will
be to provide individuals, caregivers
and families comprehensive and objective
information about providers, community
services and eligibility criteria;
assist with linking consumers with
services and resources available to meet
their needs; and provide information
consistently but in a variety of ways-
person to person, through local media
and through group educational programs.
Representatives from many agencies in
Delaware
County are collaborating and are in the early stages of planning and
structuring how our point of entry will
be fashioned, so over the next several
months more information will be
available to you to update you on the
progress of the project.
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