Additional Resources Mentioned
Takeaways
Tip 1: Learn what the area agency on aging is and what it offers
Tip 2: Know the eligibility requirements
Tip 3: Find your area agency on aging
Full Episode Transcript
Nancy Treaster
Have you heard of the AAA? Not the one that changes your tires, but the one that can help you find valuable resources in your community. In this case, AAA stands for Area Agency on Aging. In this episode, Sue and I are talking with Sandy Markwood, CEO of US Aging, about what your area agency on aging can do for you. We’re sharing three tips.
Sue Ryan
Welcome, Sandy. It is such an honor to have you here supporting us and our listeners. You’ve been a nationally recognized advocate for older adults for many, many years. And since 2002, you’ve served as the CEO of US Aging. Thank you very much. US Aging is the national organization that represents area agencies on aging and Title VI. Native American Aging Programs. Throughout your career, what we’ve learned is you have championed policies and programs that help older adults live independently, stay connected and thrive in their communities. Please tell us a little bit more about you and what drives you to do all this amazing work you’re doing.
Sandy Markwood
Thank you so much for having me here with you on the caregiver journey because it is such an important journey. But working with older adults, ensuring that older adults can lead their best lives in their latter years is really a personal as well as a professional goal of mine. Personally, I had the privilege of being the caregiver for my mother who had dementia.
And in saying that as a professional in aging, I could find services and support for my mom, but I had to navigate the community with my mom, which was very difficult to be able to have people in the community accept my mom on her dementia journey and also support me as their caregiver. So that is an important aspect of why US Aging is also not only the national organization for area agencies on aging, but also the administrator of dementia friendly America. Professionally, I just see the opportunity for the historic number of older adults in this country and in this world, the opportunity to look at valuing the assets that older adults have, as well as supporting their needs as they age.
So I feel like I have the best job in the world, quite honestly.
Sue Ryan
And we’re glad you do because you do bring a lot of value to everybody. Before we get into the details of the US area agencies on aging, Sandy, it’s important for us to be mentioning the global program US Aging Administers, which is focused exclusively on people living with dementia and their loved ones.
Sandy Markwood
Thank you so much. As I mentioned, US Aging is so pleased and so proud to be the National Administrator of Dementia-Friendly America. Dementia-Friendly America focuses on how we can make our communities more dementia-friendly.
How we can tackle the issues that quite honestly, when I was a caregiver with my mom that I had to tackle. How do you walk through a grocery store? Can you take your mom to a restaurant that is too noisy? How do you get to the doctor’s office? All of these things about navigating the community are addressed in those communities. And there’s over 400 of them in the nation that have the label Dementia Friendly America. In saying that, in addition to Dementia Friendly America focused on communities, we also operate Dementia Friends USA, which we got the license for through the UK, which really started this movement that is focused on how individuals, how you and I, can be more aware of people living with dementia in our communities and respond to them appropriately. In saying that, we are so proud that we have over 300,000 dementia friends in the USA. And we’re hoping that all of your listeners will become dementia friends as well. But it’s important to bring both Dementia Friendly America and Dementia Friends up right now because on November 10th, we are doing a Dementia Friendsgiving.
And in saying that, that’s an opportunity. This will be our second annual where we’re bringing together advocates, people living with dementia and other aging professionals interested in dementia together to focus in on ways that we can make our communities more dementia friendly and how we can support people, not only those that are going through the journey of dementia, but they’re important caregivers on this journey. So please mark your calendars for November 10th and we hope that you will participate in that. But that’s not all we’re doing. We also have put together a dementia friendly holiday toolkit, recognizing that this is that time of year.
But also the holidays can be particularly stressful for those who are living with dementia and their caregivers. So this tool kit gives tips and techniques that family members can do to ensure that the holidays are a good and welcoming time for people living with dementia. And you can download that tool kit and I’m sure that you will tell the folks and the listeners exactly how to do that.
Nancy Treaster
Well, we will. So all of the links to the things that so far we’ve talked about and then anything else we talk about later that we’re directing you to a place on the internet, we will put those links in the podcast description. And some people call that the show notes, as well as in the blog, the matching blog that goes with this podcast will also have links in it. So you don’t have to memorize any of these things.
Dementia Friends is such a great initiative. I am personally signed up as a dementia friend. I went to Dementia Friendsgiving last year. I’ve signed up to go again this year. I have not done anything with the holiday toolkit, so I cannot wait to download that and see what it’s all about. So we are so thankful for all the people who are trying to make it easier for people living with dementia and for their caregivers.
We are going to focus for the rest of this podcast on the area agencies on aging. Like I said, AAA’s, not the kind that changes your tire. If you’re outside the US, this is a US specific program, but if you’re outside the US, look for your local council on aging or social services office for similar services because the resources are vast. And that’s a lot of what we want to educate people on today.
Sue Ryan
Absolutely. In our navigating dementia caregiving roadmap, we point to the AAA twice. The first time is actually in step one, and it’s Reach Out for Guidance. Once you learn more, you’re going to understand why we want you to get involved with it so early.
And this leads us to tip one. Tip one is to learn what the AAA is and what it offers. Sandy, back to you.
Sandy Markwood
Great, thank you. Well, I am so excited to talk about Area Agencies on Aging and most importantly for your audience to get them connected to them. In saying that Area Agencies on Aging were created by the Older Americans Act, which was passed in 1965, the AAAs were added in 1973 when it was very clear that there needed to be a hub in every community to be able to provide supportive services to older adults. So they have over a 50 year history of providing a range of services and supports to ensure that older adults can age where they want to, which is at home and in the community.
Those wide range of services and supports are critical and they include five core services.
The first is nutrition and recognizing how important having a meal is to an older adult. Now, having that meal is nutrition in itself, but it is also a point of social engagement too, which is equally important for healthy aging. So in the nutrition space, area agencies on aging provide meals at senior centers or community centers. Those are called congregate meals where older adults can gather for a nutritious meal, but also that important social engagement that is so critical. And in addition to that, if an older adult can’t get out to a congregate meal site, Area agencies provide home delivered meals right to the door of a frail older adults. And again, not only is that a meal, but the volunteer that delivers that meal has eyes on that older adult to ensure if they need any other supportive services as well.
Talking about supportive services, that’s kind of the second core service that area agencies on aging provide and these are vast, it could be transportation to the doctor, which is so critical, recognizing that at some point an older adult may not want to drive anymore, or if the doctor’s office is on a freeway somewhere, just don’t want to navigate those types of roads to get to that important doctor’s appointment. But also home modification. You know, sometimes you just need a grab bar or a ramp. And if you have those, you can stay safely living in your home. But under supportive services, it also includes personal care for those who may need that extra touch. And that extra touch may include bathing, dressing. Or it could be chore services like light housekeeping. So there’s a range of supportive services that are critical and necessary to keeping people living well at home.
But then there’s those important caregiver supports. And we recognize in the United States, there’s 63 million caregivers in the U.S. 63 million. So they really are the backbone of the long-term care system here in this country but they need support too. And through the Older Americans Act, through area agencies on aging, there is a range of supportive services that really are targeted to the specific needs of caregivers. Those include education. None of us, I know for myself, when I became a caregiver, I had no clue what to do. I needed training. I needed education on how best to be a caregiver for my mom. But there are times where you just need a little bit of a break. In my instance, I needed to be able to go to my daughter’s soccer game. I sometimes just needed someone to sit with my mom, to be with my mom for a couple of hours so that I could do the other things in my life I needed to do, but then also come back refreshed in helping my mom. And then also sometimes you just need a little, the caregiver needs some supportive services like having their lawn mowed or having snow shoveled just so that they can do their job. What we found through research is through the National Family Caregiver Support Program that I just outlined, caregivers reported that they could care for their loved one three years longer. So it’s really important services that make a difference.
But as a core service, it’s also looking at health and wellness, recognizing that we all want to age well and health is a critical component of that. So area agencies on aging provide a range of evidence-based, proven supports and services in this realm. And those include falls prevention, recognizing that falls are a major danger for older adults, a major reason why older adults end up in the emergency room but also chronic disease self-management, recognizing that as we age, over 80, and as we age more, 90 % of older adults have a chronic disease. Ways that we can manage those and manage those better. And also depression services and other caregiver supports, evidence-based programs. There’s lots in that realm that needs to be explored.
But also finally, the fifth core service is really focused on elder rights. And recognizing the numbers of scams out there that are targeting older adults, the elder rights component focuses on looking at fraud of older adults, also looking at unfortunately abuse of older adults and self-neglect.
So those are the five core services, but it doesn’t end there. Most area agencies on aging provide an additional 26 services that are really tailored to the needs of older adults in their unique communities. And again, there are also a number of services that are specifically targeted to people who are living with dementia and their care partners.
And that might include memory cafes, again, dementia friends, targeting programs specifically for those living with dementia, and then also recognizing that more and more area agencies on aging are creating positions for dementia care specialists to meet those specific needs of people on the dementia caregiving journey and those people who are living.
with dementia. So there’s so much that area agencies on aging provide and I am just hoping your audience will take care of really take advantage of those and connect with those when they need them.
Nancy Treaster
Sandy, one of the things I can vouch for here in Georgia, we have dementia care specialists. I have met almost all of them. It is amazing. Their hearts are such service hearts is the best description I can come up with. And their knowledge of the dementia specific resources in their community is untouched, I think, by any other organization, which is why for dementia family caregivers we make step one, which is to Reach Out for Guidance in the roadmap, one of the three things that we suggest in step one.
Which is one of the reasons we point you to that so early is because we want you to get kick kick get your caregiving journey kicked off.
Sue Ryan
On a good solid foundation.
Nancy Treaster
Thank you. And be able to move smoothly through it. That’s what I’m trying to say. There you go. Yes.
Sue Ryan
Well, and the other part of it is what I’ve learned from every single one of them is the amount of compassion they have. amazing. Is that they meet you where you’re at on the journey and they help you. And I know some people feel uncomfortable. They don’t know what to say or they don’t know what to do. And they know how to help. It’s amazing. So these are great people.
They’re servicing their community with such big hearts. We want you to get to know them.
Absolutely. All right. What else should our listeners know, Sandy?
Sandy Markwood
Well, I also wanted to build on what you all just said, because oftentimes what we find is that people don’t seek out support until they’re in crisis. And that is the worst time to seek out support. Certainly seek out support, but a lot of the crisis could have been prevented if you reach out and find out what supportive services exist in your community. And let me give you an example of that.
As I mentioned, we run the Eldercare Locator for US Aging for the US Administration on Aging, and we’ve operated that since 1992, a long time. So we get calls from older adults and caregivers from across the country who don’t know how to find their area agency on aging. And often these calls are like, I need to put my mom in from a caregiver. I need to put my mom in a nursing home. I just can’t come home to make sure she has a meal or I can’t leave work every time she has a doctor’s appointment. And we really probe on the elder care locator with live information specialists what the needs are of that individual. What we find out is if mom can get a ride to the doctor, if mom can get a home delivered meal, and just for peace of mind, if there is a friendly visitor who could call mom once a day just to make sure she’s okay, mom is safe at home and that caregiver stress is relieved. So finding your area agency on aging right away really can prevent a lot of stress in your lives and also a lot of crises.
Nancy Treaster
That’s a great example.
That’s huge. And you know, to be fair, that’s all we point to the triple A twice in the Navigating Dementia Caregiving Roadmap. We point to it in step one, which is our Reach out for Guidance step. But we know there are a lot of people early in the dementia care journey who don’t want to reach out for guidance. They think they’ve got this. So we don’t leave it there. In step nine, the only thing in step nine is reach out to your triple A, because if you didn’t do it in step one –
this is not an option, people – you need to do it eventually. So here it is. Do it now. So we reach out, we point to it again in step nine.
Sue Ryan
And if you started it in step one but you haven’t gone very far, it’s a reminder to expand exactly the benefits that you’re getting from it.
Nancy Treaster
That’s exactly right. Call again. Call again. Very good point. All right. This has been excellent. What else should our listeners know?
Sandy Markwood
Well, I want to make sure they know how to, what are the eligibility requirements because sometimes that’s a question that people ask. Well, am I eligible for the Area Agency on Aging services? And that is an easy answer because under the Older Americans Act, if you are age 60 and above, you are eligible for Older Americans Act services, all of those services that I just outlined. But also if you are under the age of 60 and you are a veteran who has traumatic brain injury or other issues related to your service, if you are someone with early onset dementia.
If you are a kinship caregiver, an older adult caring for a younger child, there are a range of exceptions to that. So again, if you have a need for these critical services I outlined, please contact your area agency on aging and most likely you are eligible, especially if you’re over the age of 60 and there are no forms to fill out.
There is no eligibility criteria beyond age.
Sue Ryan
In tips one and two, we’ve talked about what the area agency on aging is and we’ve also talked about eligibility. Let’s go now to tip three to say, well, how do you find your area agency on aging?
Sandy Markwood
Well, that is pretty easy too. You’re asking me a lot of easy questions today. I appreciate that. As I said, there’s over six hundred area agencies on aging across the country, serving every community in the country. And if you are a tribal elder, there are over 200 Title VI tribal aging programs. So you have the opportunity to really connect either with an area agency on aging or a tribal aging organization. In saying that, as you look at area agencies on aging, they vary across the country and how they’re located and where they’re located vary. So for instance, in New York, there are 59 area agencies on aging. They are county based. In Wisconsin, there are three area agencies on aging, but it doesn’t matter the number. They provide services in every community in that state. But sometimes finding your area agency on aging may be a little bit difficult, I’ll admit, because they have different names. For instance, if you are looking in New York, it could be a county-based AAA, so it could be the Chicago County Area Agency on Aging, or it could be the New York City Area Agency on Aging.
But then there are other area agencies on aging, like in Illinois, there’s Age Options, and in Michigan, there’s Senior Resources of Western Michigan. So the names really vary, but the services are the same. So to help you find your area agency on aging is we have the Eldercare Locator that I mentioned just a few minutes ago. Again, a national call center where there are live operators there to be able to answer your call. But there’s also a website and a chat feature if you are more comfortable with that as well. But with the Eldercare Locator, all you need is either the zip code of your loved one where they’re residing so that they can be connected to services. Or if you don’t know the zip code, the county that they’re living in.
And when you contact the elder care locator, again, a live operator will ask you what types of services that you’re looking for. But again, oftentimes when you might say, I just need a home delivered meal, they may really delve a little deeper and find out you might need some other services too. So when you contact the area agency on aging, you really are looking at reaching out and connecting to all of the services that your loved one has. So it’s the elder care locator again, we’ve been operating it since 1992 have served millions of older adults and caregivers across the country and got them connected to the right services at the right time.
Sue Ryan
So all right, we’re good. For our listeners, we’re going to make sure that there is a link in the podcast description/show notes of everything that Sandy’s brought up. And then also on our blogs, you’re going to have it. And then the other thing you can do is you can go to thecaregiversjourney.org where you’ll find a link to the caregiving roadmap. And in that roadmap online, you can go through and you can see everything that she’s talked about with all of the links. So click on the number one and you’ll see a link to the elder care locators triple A finder in the third bullet. So Sandy, again, thank you so very much for all of the tips that you brought and the valuable information that you’re sharing today. Do you have any final comments or things you’d like to share for our listeners?
Sandy Markwood
Sure. And again, thank you so much for this opportunity. And I’m hoping that people really check out the Eldercare Locator. But also please remember to register for the Dementia Friendsgiving on November 10th. There’s no charge for that. And also to download the Dementia Friendly Holiday Toolkit. Also on US Aging’s website, there is a ton of other resources that are there for you around housing issues, transportation issues, social isolation, more information about dementia, please go to our website, which will be in the show notes as well, and really just look and explore the options and technical assistance and capacity that your area agencies on aging and we at US Aging have to meet your needs. We understand that growing older has its challenges as well as the wonderful opportunities that we have as we age.
But we also understand that caregivers also face some challenges as we navigate the care of our loved ones. But you’re not alone. And through US Aging, but most importantly, through the nation’s Area Agencies on Aging and Title VI programs, we are here to help you, to connect you to the services and supports that you need to ensure that your loved ones can thrive at home and in the community and that you as a caregiver get the support that you need.
Nancy Treaster
I think today we have just opened the door to a whole set of resources that most people don’t realize are available. So thank you, Sandy, so much for doing that. This is exactly what we wanted to let people know about.
Sue Ryan
There’s so much about its quality and quantity. I mean, they’re both right. There really is a lot of it and all of the support team is really valuable and helpful too. So yeah, really great.
Nancy Treaster
Yeah, lovely. All right. So let’s summarize. All right. Today we learned about an area agency on aging. You can now go use the word triple A with your friends and they’ll think they know what you’re talking about, but they won’t. Anyway, and that you’ll hear a lot of people once you get into this world calling it a triple A. So be aware of that. And we learned what a valuable resource it is. We shared three tips.
Sue Ryan
Tip one is to ‘Learn what the area agency on aging is and what it offers’.
Nancy Treaster
Tip two, ‘Know the eligibility requirements’, which are not very extensive, which is great.
Sue Ryan
And tip three is ‘Find your area agency on aging’. Please do.
Now if you have any tips around your area agency on aging, please leave them on our Facebook page or our Instagram page. The links are in the podcast description. Remember, with every podcast there is a matching blog. Find the number of this podcast, and if you want to see a written version of this podcast, go out to the caregiversjourney dot org and find that exact same number on our blog page.
Also on the caregiversjourney.org, as Sue has mentioned, the first icon on the homepage is the Caregiving Roadmap. Click on that and it’ll take you to the 20-step navigating dementia caregiving roadmap.
If you like this podcast, please follow it, subscribe to it, and share it with others because we’re all on this journey together.
