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California Collaborative: We Speak Policy
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California Collaborative: Out of The Gate for Aging & Disability Advocacy In 2019
The California Collaborative for Long Term Services and Supports has kicked off its 2019 advocacy on behalf of Californians who use long-term services and supports (LTSS) with a letter to legislative leaders outlining critical priorities for the upcoming year.
Addressing Senate President pro Tempore Toni Atkins and Speaker Anthony Rendon, the Collaborative conveyed 12 specific proposals and three development concepts that our members will be bringing to the Legislature in 2019 to strengthen services for Californians of all ages who experience disabilities, functional limitations or chronic conditions and who need a wide variety of LTSS in their daily lives.
The proposals fall into three general categories, including preventing losses of currently authorized services, expanding access to needed services that bend the cost curve, and strengthening and modernizing community living and supports.
Because California does not have a single unified system of care that addresses LTSS across populations, these services are necessarily spread throughout different departments and programs, and the advocacy efforts on their behalf are many and diverse. The Collaborative urged the Legislature to understand the vast array of programs, large and small, that provide crucial services to the growing older adult and disabled population, and to take a holistic and comprehensive approach to making critical investments in all the systems of care that support vulnerable populations, their caregivers and the programs that they depend on.
Amber Christ, the Collaborative’s Vice Chair for Policy, outlined the challenge. “In the past, Continue reading
Family Caregivers: Quiet Heroes of California Long-Term Services and Supports
The California Collaborative for Long Term Services and Supports is a coalition of statewide organizations which meets regularly to discuss the concerns facing California seniors and people with disabilities. Among the key issues is the growing crisis facing family caregivers. Recently, the Collaborative sponsored a presentation on Picking Up the Pace of Change for California’s Caregivers, a newly released report from the California Task Force on Family Caregiving. The report provides an overview of the compelling challenges facing family caregivers, and outlines public policy for recommendations for California to make improvements to support them.
Emily is typical of a family caregiver facing complex challenges. As a Family Nurse Practitioner and mother of two young children, she is also a caregiver for her aging father Robert, who was diagnosed a year ago with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, known as ALS. Along with her other responsibilities, Emily travels two hours from Santa Rosa to Sacramento many times each month to accompany her father to medical appointments and oversee his care. Her siblings live out-of-state and her mother, who serves as Robert’s primary caregiver, also works full-time and is overwhelmed with the responsibilities of his care. Emily knows that as her father’s health deteriorates, he will eventually be unable to walk, dress, write, speak, swallow and breathe, and caregiving will become even more emotionally and financially difficult. Due to her medical training, Emily has an advantage over other family caregivers – she has the knowledge and skills she will need to provide care for her father. But despite her training, the responsibilities of her own job, caring for her small children, and being a long-distance caregiver for her father is a difficult balancing act that will become even more challenging as his illness progresses. Continue reading
Make That Connection!
Aging and Disability Advocates Build Relationships and Urge the Legislature to Invest in Long-Term Services and Supports
On April 23, over 120 advocates from the California Collaborative and Regional Coalitions convened in Sacramento to speak to Legislators and their staff about the needs of California seniors and people with disabilities, urging them to prioritize investments in long-term services and supports in state budget deliberations. Representing all regions of California, they held over 75 meetings with Legislator’s offices.
“Talking to Legislators is easier than you think,” commented one participant after meetings at the state Capitol. “We need to create the political will and support from the leadership to invest in essential services for our populations.”
Long-term services and supports (known as LTSS) include both health and social services that help people who are older, live with disabilities, or have a serious illness or chronic health condition. LTSS are specialized services that help the frail elderly, those who are severely disabled, people with dementia and others with everyday tasks such as bathing, dressing, eating or practical assistance that enables them to live and helps their families or caregivers to cope. Continue reading
2018 Advocacy Day
Join Us! Post here to share information about meetings you are seeking in the Capitol on Advocacy Day – appointments you’ve requested, Legislators you are meeting with, collaboration or partnering with other groups. Subscribe to get replies and see what others are planning!
Aging and Disability Matters in the California Governor’s Race
2018 is a critical year as a new Governor will be elected who will provide leadership and vision for systems of care that serve millions of seniors and people with disabilities in California.
Please join us in making sure the candidates answer important questions about the future of aging and disability policy, by attending a candidates’ forum and raising your voice. Our strategy is to ask all the candidates to commit to a high-quality system of long-term services and supports that allows people to live with dignity and independence.
Please visit the Collaborative’s Gubernatorial Events page and view or add upcoming events. Review the Five Key Candidate Questions and at the bottom of the page, sign-up to attend and ask a question at one of the upcoming events. If you ask a question, please note the candidates’ responses! You’ll receive a quick follow-up survey after the event.
Thank you for your support in ensuring that the next California Governor will be a leader on behalf of California seniors and people with disabilities.
–The California Collaborative for Long Term Services & Supports
My Daughter and Medicaid
Olivia Donna Gelardin was exquisite. At almost 5 years old, Livy, as we called her, was delighted to watch sunlight reflect off the window, feel the sand run through her fingers in her garden, splash soapy water in the bath tub with her brother.
She was our first, our dream-come-true baby, our patient teacher.
Livy was born with Schizencephaly, a rare neurodevelopmental disability characterized by global delays in gross and fine motor skills, cognitive functioning and speech.
Initially, her diagnosis made us anxious. My wife and I have physical disabilities and understood how to advocate for our own needs, but our daughter’s reality was somewhat unfamiliar ground. Mostly, we feared that her intellectual disability would result in exclusion from participating in play, learning and peer-relationships. We sought every opportunity to help our little girl grow and thrive. With the support of early intervention, intensive therapeutic supports, various State-funded services, love and support from family and, most of all, Livy’s extremely hard work, our little girl blossomed.
Housing As Healthcare
California is experiencing an unprecedented crisis in affordable housing.
According to the state Department of Housing and Community Development, over 1.5 million households in California pay more than half of the income toward rent. Since 2008, the state has experienced a 69% decline in state and federal investment in production and preservation of affordable housing.
This crisis lands most heavily on those who are aging or disabled, and have high health care needs. Of those Californians who are most in need of affordable housing – those who currently pay more than half their income toward rent – thirty-five percent are elderly or disabled households.
This trend will only get worse; older adults are the fastest growing demographic in the country. By 2060, 1 in 3 Americans will be age 65 or over. Increases in housing and health care costs, combined with stagnant Social Security and SSI disbursements, are creating tremendous poverty among the older adult population.
The Extraordinary Risk of Medicaid Cuts to Older Adults and People With Disabilities
Federal proposals to block grant Medicaid are not new, but with the new administration and Congress it is increasingly likely that some form of this proposal is going to become reality. The risk to older adults and people with disabilities is substantial.
At this point it is difficult to forecast the priority the administration and Congress will give to the numerous, substantial policy changes they reportedly have in mind, but it appears that “repeal and replace” of the Obama administration’s signature achievement, the Affordable Care Act, continues to be a primary focus, and the Trump administration has signaled that block granting Medicaid will be part of their “repeal and replace” proposal. In recent weeks Speaker Ryan has suggested the outline of “first steps” this session could include a range of alternatives, from budget actions aimed at reducing federal spending through options to rein in Medicaid expansions in some states and allowing state Medicaid block grants in some form.
Facing the Facts: A Look at Alzheimer’s Disease in California
Sacramento locals are proud of the brand new Golden 1 Center, home of the NBA Kings. For basketball games, seating capacity is 17,500. The team would have to sell out 35 games in a row to represent the number of Californians today living with Alzheimer’s disease. It would take 86 consecutive games to seat every family caregiver supporting a loved one with dementia in our state.
Unlike other threats to the golden state, such as climate change, affordable housing and transportation, Alzheimer’s poses an equal but less visible threat – one that is too often overlooked because of stigma, the #1 problem identified in California’s State Plan for Alzheimer’s Disease. Stigma obstructs access to care, with fewer than 50 percent of people with Alzheimer’s or their caregivers reporting being told of their diagnosis as compared to more than 90 percent of people with the four most common types of cancer. In this era of whole-person care, a key ingredient – accurate Alzheimer’s diagnosis – is missing in the care plan more than half the time.
The Changing Face of California
It is often said that the future always begins in California. Notwithstanding the results of the recent election (in which California took a decidedly contrarian position on candidates and ballot initiatives than most of the rest of the country) California’s shifting demographics demonstrate what will be happening nationally for decades to come.
We all know about the baby boomers and how they have changed the face of our state at every stage of their lives…when they entered school, went to college, created families and bought homes, and began to need more health care. But we may not know that California is aging earlier and to a greater degree than most other states. We are getting gray sooner. The unique history of our state’s postwar population boom with millions of young people settling here and starting families means we are growing old faster than nearly any other state. At the same time we have become more ethnically diverse and will continue to in coming years.
