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PART III NEEDS ASSESSMENT COMMENTS 1 – Survey
2 – Focus
Group
3 – Comment
Meetings
COMMENTS/ISSUE SOURCE ACTION
TAKEN
Demographics – increase in numbers of people needing services. ACA – parity 2
could affect number of people who have coverage for behavioral health
services.
Will depend on economy and available funds. If program becomes limited,
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clients may require placement in long term care facilities which will greatly
increase cost of care.
Implementing lessons and ideas gained from the Elder Initiative and other
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efforts (Co-housing” opportunities, IGI, Living Streets Arizona) that aim to make
our communities and neighborhoods more aging/elder “friendly”. Not “just”
delivering service but improving our process. Change in Social Security – folks
need to be banked (ideally) or at least understand how to use new card without
getting lots of charges.
Clients will have more paperwork to complete with the AHCCCS community first 2
choice option – literacy. Resources continue to be limited which will result in
increased costs paid by private pay and fewer dollars available for donation to
non-profits such as Pima Council on Aging. Seems to be greater focus on
licensed/registered professionals on federal level (like RNs).
As older populations grow – naturally recurring retirement communities
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(NORCs) or neighborhoods will face increasing issues related to above
mentioned needs. Services with sliding fee scales should be coordinated to
serve people of all income levels.
Medicare will be even more diagnosis specific in the future but baby boomers
will want more testing, etc. We must find ways to move away from bureaucratic
health care and routine care relying instead on aging in community models.
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The baby boomers will be contributing enormously to the number of those aging
who need services. Arizona, because of the draw for retirees, will see an influx.
If the recession continues, we will see a continued demand by younger people
and more able bodied people aggressively attempting to get any resources.
Many of these people may not be appropriate for Pima Council on Aging
services and would be better served by the RBHA or other behavioral health
systems. PCOA cannot be everything to everyone and would be better
focusing on the most vulnerable clients who are not eligible to get services
through Medicaid or who refuse Medicaid due to the lien on their home.
Continued and increasing need for broader refugee groups, particularly clients
coming from African and middle eastern/Arabic countries.
As baby boomers begin to develop dementia/Alzheimer's, our health care and
Medicare systems will not be able to handle the huge influx and our systems will
not exist as we know them today. Budget cuts to senior services will cripple our
ability to help seniors remain at home. Services will diminish and we will find
more seniors having to do without basic services.
Home Care is the fastest growing segment in long-term care. Much work is
needed to be done to assure high quality coordinating, delivery, and financing of
those services.
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