Congratulations to Lifespan of Greater Rochester Inc., which was recognized with the 2019 Archstone Foundation Award for Excellence in Program Innovation for their outstanding work partnering with healthcare providers to improve care to older adults, through their Community Care Connections Program.
The award, presented in partnership with the American Public Health Association (APHA), recognizes best practice models in caring for older adults. Lifespan’s Community Care Connections Program is an evidence-based approach that provides social work care managers who make home visits and help link older adults to services like financial benefits, transportation and more. It also allows healthcare coordinators to schedule and attend appointments with patients.
The program is an excellent choice for the award. A pilot evaluation found that its implementation resulted in a 36 percent decrease in hospitalizations, a 38 percent decrease in emergency department visits, and an 87 percent decrease in caregiver stress.
Specific pilot outcomes also included:
- A total of 1,667 older adults were referred by physician practices and certified home healthcare agencies.
- Over 3,700 community-based services were accessed.
- An average of 3.78 services per client were accessed.
- Estimated return on investment, or ROI, was $4 per dollar spent on providing the Community Care Connections Program, based on an analysis of 90-day pre-and post-data.
Linking Theory to Applied Practice
Lifespan contracted with the Rochester Regional Health Information Organization to provide emergency department and hospitalization encounter data for pre- and post-intervention comparisons while the New York Academy of Medicine evaluated its effectiveness and ROI.
The Community Care Connection Program’s pilot evaluation also identified which community service connections made the greatest difference in decreasing older adults’ emergency department (ED) use and hospitalizations after enrollment in the pilot program. For example, the analysis showed that Lifespan’s work to link older adults to bill paying, home meals and grocery delivery, transportation, minor home modifications, and fall prevention classes resulted in significant decreases in ED visits and hospitalizations.
The Archstone Foundation Award for Excellence in Program Innovation, established in 1997 through an endowment to the Aging & Public Health Section of the APHA, considers programs that innovatively link academic theory with applied practice in the field of public health and aging. It is our hope that these model programs will be replicated and will continue to be evaluated in an effort to enhance services for older people throughout the United States.
Recognizing Programs that Make a Difference
In 1998, researchers at Boston University received the very first Archstone Foundation Award for Excellence in Program Innovation at the APHA annual meeting for the A Matter of Balance (MOB) program, an intervention to reduce the fear of falling among community-dwelling older adults. The spotlight placed on MOB helped to establish its credibility and supported dissemination efforts necessary to expand its growth and reach. Today MOB has reached 60,000 people in 35 states, making it the most widely disseminated fall prevention program in the U.S.
In 2011, PEARLS, the Program to Encourage Active, Rewarding Lives, received the Award for Excellence in Program Innovation. PEARLS was developed at the University of Washington. In 1999, the CDC funded a randomized controlled trial of PEARLS to test the effectiveness of the program among community-dwelling older adults. Study results showed that trial participants were three times as likely to experience a reduction in depression symptoms, to achieve complete remission from depression, to have greater improvements in quality of life, and had fewer hospitalizations than the control group. PEARLS is now a national evidence-based program for late-life depression, bringing high quality mental health care into community-based setting that reach vulnerable older people.
All winners benefit from national recognition the award offers, the network of aging and public health leaders the Award brings, and the opportunity to talk about their program on a national stage. Winners attend the Aging and Public Health Section dinner, are provided with a complimentary pass to attend the APHA conference, and are honored at the APHA Aging and Public Health Award Ceremony.
An annual call for nominations is announced in Spring of every year and can be found at www.Archstone.org. Nominations for the award are reviewed by a national selection committee.
To learn more about Archstone Foundation and the Award for Excellence in Program Innovation or the 2019 Award winner, visit www.Archstone.org
To learn more about APHA, visit www.APHA.org.
