Area Plan

Overview

- The Olympic Area Agency on Aging’s Area Plan, 2008 – 2011
- Service Region
- The Olympic Area Agency on Aging
- Governance
- Operational Capacity
- Contact
- Mission, Vision and Values
- Elder Friendly Communities Framework
- The Olympic Area Agency on Aging Advisory Council
- Planning Activities Included
- Prioritization of Discretionary Funds
- Resource Allocation Guidelines for Discretionary Funds
- Funding Guidelines
- Staff Allocation Guideline

 

The Olympic Area Agency on Aging’s (O3A) Area Plan, 2008–2011

The O3A is pleased to present its Area Plan for 2008–2011. The plan supports O3A’s mandate to develop a comprehensive and coordinated system of home and community based services for older adults and people with disabilities. It is designed to describe O3A’s priorities and provide an overall strategic framework to guide fiscal and human capital investments for the next four years. The plan was developed through broad-based community consultation, qualitative and quantitative field research, and public input. The area plan document serves as the foundation for work plans, funding priorities and planning efforts to provide services for persons who are older or need long term care in Clallam, Grays Harbor, Jefferson and Pacific counties.

O3A has provided support to older adults in Clallam, Grays Harbor, Jefferson and Pacific counties since its inception in 1976. Designated by the State Unit on Aging as one of 13 Washington area agencies on aging, O3A is mandated to coordinate services and advocate on behalf of older adults and others in need of long-term care throughout its service region.

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Service Region

O3A’s primarily rural service area comprises 185,500 people dispersed over the rugged mountainous terrain of the Olympic peninsula and extends the entire length of Washington’s west coast. The region is generally considered economically distressed, with higher unemployment and lower wages than many areas in the state. The percentage of all people in poverty exceeds that of the state by 4%. The service population within this region includes over 48,000 adults age 60 and older, adults with disabilities, native elders from nine Tribes, and a small but growing minority population (other than Native American).

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The Olympic Area Agency on Aging

In order to support people to age in place and live independently in their own homes, O3A has developed a multidimensional approach that includes direct and contracted service delivery; community outreach with disease prevention and health promotion; and strategies to increase access to medical, health care, and supportive services.

To overcome the difficult geographic barriers in its service region, O3A relies on:

  • a decentralized field office placement, with direct service and support staff situated in the communities they serve
  • a communications system supported by information technology; and a provider network of contracted and cooperating partners offering support and care to older adults.

The provider network includes:

  • family and paid caregivers
  • individual and agency providers of in-home and respite care and support
  • community action programs providing senior nutrition, transportation, peer counseling and adult day care services
  • legal and mental health services
  • local contractors providing home safety modifications and personal emergency response services.

Cooperating partners include local area hospitals and clinics as well as local health departments and legal and law enforcement agencies.

O3A direct service staff provides nursing and case management services to over 1,300 Medicaid-eligible adults over 60, as well as adults 18-59 years old with functional disabilities. O3A’s Senior Information & Assistance program provides community outreach with information about health insurance, legal issues, long term care options and other senior service programs and benefits.

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Governance

O3A is governed by a Council of Governments, with membership comprising two county commissioners from each of the four service counties. In addition, O3A is guided by an active Advisory Council that includes consumers, providers, health and social service specialists, community representatives, and special/minority population advocates. The 21 member council includes four representatives from each of the four counties in O3A’s service area (16 total); plus four regional representatives in the positions of elected official, representative for younger adults with disabilities, tribal representative, and representatives from minority/ethnic populations in the service area. The remaining position is a regional State Council on Aging Representative, appointed by the Governor’s office as a liaison between the State Council on Aging and the region.

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Operational Capacity

Approximately 72 direct service, technical and administrative personnel are based in seven offices - one in Grays Harbor, and two each in Clallam, Jefferson and Pacific counties. An administrative office, located in Port Hadlock, houses executive, financial, human resource, planning and contract management staff. Two larger offices in Aberdeen (Grays Harbor) and Port Angeles (Clallam) comprise direct service provision staff, and senior management for Information and Assistance, Care Management, Family Caregiver Support, Nursing Services and Information Technology.

Two offices in Pacific County, one office in the West End of Clallam County, and one in Port Townsend (Jefferson county) serve as satellite offices for Senior Information and Assistance (I&A) and Care Management Program staff. O3A receives federal and state funding to administer 15 programs, as well as foundation grants and local resources, and has an average annual operating budget of $5.7 million dollars.

O3A supports its direct and contracted service provision with contract management, technical assistance and monitoring, financial oversight, and IT support. O3A maintains a website (www.o3a.org), and has excellent access to media publicity through weekly radio programs which reach approximately 21,000 listeners throughout the Olympic peninsula, and popular weekly newspaper columns in local newspapers with a combined audience of over 42,000 readers.

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Contact

For more information about this plan, please contact: Roy Walker, Executive Director, at 360-379-5064, or 1-866-720-4863; 11700 Rhody Drive, Port Hadlock, WA 98339; walkerb@dshs.wa.gov. For more information about the Olympic Area Agency on Aging, those with internet access may consult O3A’s Eebsite at www.o3a.org.

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Mission, Vision and Values:

The O3A exists to help elderly individuals and persons with disabilities maintain their dignity, health and independence in their homes, through a comprehensive and coordinated system of home and community-based services.

The federal Older Americans Act provides O3A with the authority to deploy six broad operational strategies to advance its mission. These strategies include:

  • advocacy, which encompasses O3A’s responsibility to represent the needs and concerns of older people in the policy, program and budget development processes at the local, state and federal levels, as well as their needs and concerns arising from service delivery;
  • the dissemination of consumer information and the conduct of public education activities;
  • the procurement of local services through performance-based contract mechanisms;
  • the provision of coordination and technical assistance to community-based entities and other stakeholder organizations that affect aging services, policies and programs throughout the service region;
  • planning and program development, based on local community assessment and including the application of evidence-based program and service models that improve quality-of-life and enhance the delivery of health and human services at the community level; and
  • oversight of its programmatic and fiscal responsibilities.
    O3A believes that dignity is inherent to all individuals in our society, and that older and disabled people should have the opportunity to fully participate in all aspects of society and community life, to be able to maintain their health and independence, and to remain in their own homes, supported by their communities, for as long as they choose to do so.

O3A is guided by a set of core values in developing and carrying out its mission. These values include:

  • listening to older people, their family caregivers, and our partners who serve them;
  • responding to the changing needs and preferences of our increasingly diverse and rapidly growing elderly population;
  • producing measurable outcomes that significantly impact the well-being of older people and their family caregivers; and
  • valuing and developing our staff.

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Elder Friendly Communities Framework

The Elder Friendly Communities Framework is being used in several communities across the country, including at least 12 Area Agencies on Aging in Washington. This framework was selected as the basis for O3A’s plan because it provides a comprehensive approach to assessing aging issues in each community; it can be used to inform O3A’s program development and service delivery efforts; it provides useful information for other civic and social service planning efforts; and yields comparative data for use in advocacy efforts.

The major goals in this plan outline steps to:

  1. address basic needs;
  2. Improve health and well-being;
  3. promote civic and social engagement; and
  4. provide and coordinate services which increase independence for frail older adults and people with disabilities.

Within this framework, O3A has specifically addressed issue areas required by the State Unit on Aging, including family caregivers; healthy aging; Aging and Disability Resource Centers; and issues of importance to native elders.

Federal law, the Older American’s Act (OAA), requires that every AAA involve a number of community partners in the formation of a major planning document every four years. Responding to this requirement, O3A has actively involved the community in crafting the objectives we plan to achieve. The process to develop the plan has involved broad-based consumer and public consultation, qualitative and quantitative field research, and community input and feedback.

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The Olympic Area Agency on Aging Advisory Council

The framework for the plan was designed and carried out with guidance from the O3A Advisory Council. The Council is mandated to identify the needs of older people and of adults with disabilities in our community, to advise on services to meet those needs, and to advocate for local, state and national programs that promote quality of life for these populations. Members of the Advisory Council Planning Committee have worked closely with staff throughout the plan’s development, giving guidance on major objectives, with consultation from the entire O3A Advisory Council, the O3A Council of Governments and O3A’s local partners and consumers.

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Planning activities included:

  • a desk review of information and data that have been generated over the previous four years by various local sectors (civic planners, public health, transportation, social services, community action programs, etc.), as well as regional demographic and other data, a literature review of academic study of aging, and Washington state and U.S. census information and projections;
  • an Elder Friendly community survey distributed via O3A’s stakeholder and provider network;
  • a telephone survey of O3A consumers by Advisory Council members;
  • a series of meetings, focus groups and key informant interviews with service providers, family caregivers, community leaders, members of O3A’s council of governments, and Advisory Council; O3A direct service staff, tribal elders, and ethnic and minority community members; and
  • public hearings in each of O3A’s four service counties: Clallam, Jefferson, Grays Harbor, and Pacific counties.

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Prioritization of Discretionary Funds:

The O3A administers federal and state funds for services for older people and adults with disabilities. Of O3A’s budget, about 84 percent is considered “nondiscretionary” and is designated for specific services like Medicaid Title XIX Case Management and Home Care, the U.S. Department of Agriculture meals program, and state funded respite care.

The O3A annual budget also includes about 16 percent in discretionary funds from the Federal Older Americans Act (OAA) and the Washington State Senior Citizens Act (SCSA). “Discretionary” funding is more flexible in nature, and can be used to meet O3A-identified priority needs within a range of allowable services in the O3A service region.

The Advisory Council, through the work of two committees, recommends criteria for evaluation and allocation of discretionary funding to service areas. The Planning Committee evaluates service funding priorities based on community assessment data; and the Allocations Committee reviews annual performance and recommends allocation levels based on available resources. Both committees have representation from each of O3A’s four counties.

With life spans increasing, the baby boom cohort advancing, and a service region that is both a significant retirement destination, as well as economically distressed, a major challenge for O3A is the determination of vulnerability in a growing population of elders, in order to prioritize services and support in a relatively resource-scarce environment.

For the four year period, 2008–2011, the Advisory Council has identified reducing social isolation through improved mobility and increased access to basic health and social services; increased service delivery to native elders and ethnically diverse communities and the prevention of elder abuse as important issues to address with this area plan.

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RESOURCE ALLOCATION GUIDELINES FOR DISCRETIONARY FUNDS

In order to make well-considered, appropriate choices for the use of resources, decisions must be based on the mandates and regulations that govern the agency and each fund source, as well as on desired future directions that support the agency mission, vision and values. These resource allocation guidelines will be reviewed at least every two years to ensure they continue to reflect the most appropriate approach.

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FUNDING GUIDELINES

  1. Funds must be allocated in accordance with mandates from each funding source.
  2. Services/support must be responsive to the current operating environment. Critical elements to focus on for 2008 – 2011:
    • ensuring O3A maintains the capacity and flexibility to respond to emerging local needs through O3A programs (e.g., its I & A services);
    • prevention services and health promotion programs aimed at reducing the burden of chronic disease and injury in the service population;
    • greater coordination and support for local service delivery, i.e., at the community level, at county level, and at regional levels, e.g., as within transportation and mental health regions;
    • strengthening the safety net for vulnerable adults through support for traditional (professional and family caregivers) and non-traditional stakeholders, engaging businesses and faith-based organizations in developing new services and support; and
    • engaging consumers in creating solutions, through technology and development of an integrated service model that wraps services around the consumer and reflects our diverse and rural communities.
  3. O3A will consider first for funding those services/supports which are a high priority and which are not and cannot reasonably expect funding by other entities.
  4. Services will be funded at a level sufficient to make the program viable and responsive to consumer needs. O3A will encourage providers to "leverage" additional funds for joint funding of services, and may assist providers to secure funds from grants and other sources.
  5. O3A will generally avoid allocating funding to services in which the O3A contribution is less than 15% of the total for that particular service and it appears likely that other funding, or fundraising, could be used to cover the service cost.
  6. In the case of new services and/or initiatives for which other funding sources may be anticipated, O3A funding may be allocated and considered "seed" money, for a time-limited period.
  7. Consideration will be given to the needs, resources, and proportion of the target population in each county in developing funding allocations.

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STAFF ALLOCATION GUIDELINE

  1. Staff time must be allocated in accordance with mandates from each funding source and to assure compliance with requirements of each program / service.
  2. Staff resources will be allocated for program development, quality initiatives, training, coordination, and advocacy efforts that support the agency mission and statement of values and vision for 2008-2011.
  3. Staff resources will generally be allocated first for those activities that are necessary to support and improve the quality of services funded directly by O3A.
  4. Staff resources will be allocated next for those efforts for which the agency can expect to have a high level of impact and likelihood of success in achieving the agency's mission, vision, and objectives.
  5. Staff resources will be allocated to take advantage of opportunities that arise during the course of the next four years, and which will serve to move the agency toward achieving the goals stated in its mission, values and vision statements.