Central Minnesota Council On Aging Inc

Programs: Grant making: central mn council on aging is a pivotal link between community supports for seniors,state and federal funding for those services in its 14 county planning and service area. Cmcoa awards contracts for services to help ensure that vast arrays of options are in place to match the needs of the community and allow seniors to remain living independently in their community for as long as possible. In 2017, $2,509,027. Services purchased with these dollars included 781 hours of comprehensive health assessment, 3,666 hours of legal assistance, 1 legal education session, 9,020 rides of transportation and assisted transportation, 367 sessions of evidenced based workshops, 468 hours of support planning, 3,257 hours of supportive services, 4,360 hours of caregiver inhome/group respite, 2,579 hours of caregiver counseling services, 48 caregiver education sessions, 231,162 congregate meals and 172,975 home delivered meals. A total of $494,238 was utilized as in-kind match by the service providers in the delivery of the aforementioned services

senior linkage: the senior linkage line is an important part of the aging services network. With one call to the senior linkage line, seniors, families, caregivers, agencies and medicare beneficiaries of any age can obtain assistance to evaluate their situation and locate services that are available within their communities to help them remain independent. In 2017, senior linkage line served 46,047 individuals with phone assistance and 13,542 people with in-person assistance. Twenty-eight community access sites were available to older adults and individuals on medicare in 2017. 33active health insurance counseling volunteers contributed 916 hours of insurance counseling.

program development: live well at home (lwah) outcomeolder adults and family caregivers who are at moderate to high risk of losing their community living status will be empowered to pro-actively manage their risks and sustain community living. Training and mentoring took place to 164 evidence-based health promotions leaders who offered 130 workshops. We also partnered with the state fire chiefs association to create a program guide for fire and fall prevention for older adults. There were 500 toolkits distributed to fire departments at the minnesota fire chiefs association annual conference. Home and community based services (hcbs) capacity outcomewe helped people to use their own resources wisely to meet their needs, targeting services to high risk individuals. Particularly reaching older adults who are isolated, have dementia; and focusing the development and maintenance of services needed by people who might otherwise become eligible for the alternative care or elderly waiver programs by providing technical assistance (ta) to funded live well grantee lakes and pines community action program (cap) in developing a heavy chore program in underserved isanti, mille lacs, chisago, isanti, and pine counties. In collaboration with mn dot and dhs, we worked toward the creation of regional coordinators councils to create multi-organizational entities to engage better access, coordination, and resource utilization. We served on tri-caps transportation advisory for morrison, benton, stearns, and sherburne counties and reviewed proposals to their board on routes, fees, expansions, restrictions, and new process improvements. Monthly we convened with the regional transit coalition comprised of the veteran's association, st. Cloud area planning organization (apo), mndot, care transportation, medical transit mobility, and other area transit providers to improved ride coordination, efficiencies, and accessibility. We participated in the homeless concerns workgroup in brainerd and st. Cloud along with the regional county continuum of care executive board to identity gaps and barriers for older adults experiencing homelessness, also explored supportive solutions, and built on efforts to cross-collaborate networking between homeless service providers and those working with older adults. We offered a "so you have the 245d licensenow what? " training regarding the 245d license and provided sustainability planning assistance to senior care consulting to cover cass and crow wing counties offering caregiver consultation and memory cafs and embrace to offer family caregiver training throughout the region. Communities for a lifetime outcomecentral minnesota's communities are good places to grow up and grow old, and offer physical, social, and service features for their residents of all ages. We partnered with stearns benton medical society held a dementia summit featuring dr. Barclay who trained 75 physicians on use of the mini-cog screening tool; how to communicate screening results to clients; and how to employ best practices in care planning for patients with dementia and their care partners. We co-facilitated with essentia health to create the aging coalition, whose goal is to develop and promote wellness options for the aging population in the crow wing county. We provided ta to becker, brainerd, cambridge, north branch, paynesville, walker, pine city, sauk rapids, st. Cloud, princeton, buffalo, and sauk rapids act on alzheimer's teams as they implement action plans and guidance to isanti, morrison, todd, and wadena counties as they develop strategies to create awareness of alzheimer's. We partnered with the morrison county live better live longer initiative focusing on the improving the physical, nutritional, mental, and social health of the community and with the great river regional library to provide dementia training throughout their library system. We provided ta to interested applicants of the state dementia grant funding and to the development dementia friends and memory cafs. We served on the art sparks advisory committee of the paramount theater supporting art experiences for caregivers and care recipients and engaged emt and police in dementia awareness and detection in sherburne and wright counties.