Ohio Department of Aging

• Older Ohioans & Families
• Providers & Professionals
• Advocacy & Legislation

• Home
• Info Center
• About Us

Publisher: Ohio Department of Aging
Published Date: October, 2007

Executive Summary

The Ohio Department of Aging (ODA) is pleased to present the Ohio State Plan on Aging, 2008 - 2011. This blueprint describes how Ohio will carry out the principles of Choices for Independence, and is the strategic framework for providing leadership that improves and promotes quality of life and personal choice for older Ohioans, adults with disabilities and their families and caregivers. Reauthorization and modernization of the Older Americans Act (OAA) in 2006 was indeed pivotal in shaping aging policy not only in Ohio but also in the nation.

Ted Strickland became Governor in January 2007. His Turnaround Ohio Plan has a guiding philosophy of living within one’s means and investing in what matters. ODA’s initiatives reflect substantial progress toward translating Governor Strickland’s plan into action through cost-effective, high quality home- and community-based care; true consumer choice; community-based services capacity expansion; developing for the first time in Ohio’s history a framework and protocols for a unified long-term care budget; promoting and disseminating evidence-based disease prevention programs and responding to workforce challenges and opportunities of an aging society. Even as this plan is submitted, ODA has begun the process of developing a unified long-term care budget with stakeholder meetings in August and workgroup meetings beginning in September.

An overview of ODA and the Ohio aging network is contained in Section 1. ODA’s mission and vision in particular are noteworthy as they complement each other and lay the foundation for Ohio’s work during the next four years.

The environmental scan in Section 2 outlines economic and public policy trends; service delivery needs and trends and demographic and health characteristics of older Ohioans and their families and caregivers. Important national, state and local trends and demographics are identified that affect service options and establish the foundation to address the preferences and attitudes of burgeoning baby boomers.

Programs and services for older adults and their families and caregivers are outlined in Section 3. The AoA logo flags those areas that discuss Choices for Independence initiatives, Medicaid and long-term care reform, outreach for the Medicare Modernization Act, emergency preparedness and transportation coordination.

Section 4 addresses how the state plan was developed and will be implemented. Preliminary plan work began in 2004 as ODA met with AAA representatives to develop a revised template for strategic area plans. Other actions were taken internally that involved ODA staff at all levels and divisions as well as external aging network stakeholders.

Section 5 outlines the five strategic issues that emerged during the plan development process and resulted in 14 goals consistent with our mission and vision for 2008 - 2011:

Strategic Issue 1: Active and Healthy Aging

1. Develop partnerships among state agencies, the aging network, homecare agencies, public health systems, behavioral health networks, nutrition programs, community and faith-based organizations and consumer groups to increase access to health and wellness information and preventive benefits and programs.
2. Provide leadership and resources to foster the development of senior-friendly livable communities and businesses throughout Ohio.
3. Ensure older Ohioans have the opportunity for continued participation in the workforce and in their communities.

Strategic Issue 2: Caregiver Support

1. Promote the aging network as the leading resource for caregivers to gain earlier access to services and information.
2. Increase the utilization of caregiver supports and services by improving access to resources for targeted populations.
3. Provide a comprehensive array of support and respite services for caregivers.

Strategic Issue 3: Infrastructure

• Develop one core information system that supports the front door to a unified system of long-term supports and services and is flexible enough to accommodate Medicaid requirements, local senior services property tax levies, Older Americans Act, Senior Community Services, managed care and future programs.
• Develop and implement a quality management system that is cost- and process-efficient and provides value and accountability to consumers, taxpayers and other stakeholders.
• Implement a joint ODA, area agency on aging, Office of the State Long-term Care Ombudsman Program, clinicians and service provider, including senior centers, process to review the effectiveness of current programmatic polices and practices to enhance and modernize the delivery of OAA and related statefunded services.

Strategic Issue 4: Healthcare Workforce

1. Ensure that Ohio’s healthcare and long-term care systems have professional and direct-service workers sufficient in number and skill to serve all Ohioans.

Strategic Issue 5: System of Long-term Supports and Services

1. Develop a statewide long-term care strategy.
2. Improve and expand choice and access to long-term supports and services within the PASSPORT, Choices and Assisted Living Medicaid home- and community-based waivers.
3. Expand choice and access to long-term care supports and services for non-Medicaid eligible consumers to prevent future reliance on Medicaid.
4. Establish area agencies on aging as the front door in Ohio to long-term supports and services.

Assurance that this plan was developed in compliance with federal requirements and required activities is outlined in Section 6. Section 7 concludes the plan with appendices, including a list of acronyms used throughout the document and accomplishments achieved under the 2004 - 2007 plan.

We are excited to present this plan and look forward to fully realizing the vision embodied in it. Together with our numerous partners, we will succeed in maximizing every opportunity to share collective talents and experiences for the greater benefit of older citizens - Ohio’s most valuable resource.

Download and read the State Plan on Aging

This publication is available as an Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) file. The file size is given in parentheses. Larger files (200kb and up) may take a long time to load, depending on your Internet connection. Adobe Acrobat Reader or equivalent software is required to view this file.

Download Acrobat Reader…

Download and read the State Plan on Aging… (1,940kb)