Archstone Foundation is pleased to announce five new grants approved this quarter that will help improve care for older Californias through better information and resource sharing among health and social service providers and by expanding cultural competency training, aiding CalAIM participation, and supporting wildfire recovery efforts.
Helping Those with Dementia Get New Medi-Cal Benefit
Alzheimer's Los Angeles, which provides a wide range of services and supports to families affected by Alzheimer’s and other dementias, was awarded $125,000 over 24 months to support its effort to become a provider of Enhanced Care Management (ECM) services, one of the new benefits under CalAIM, to Medi-Cal beneficiaries with dementia and at risk for institutionalization.
The goal is to improve access to person- and family-centered dementia care benefiting low-income older adults in Los Angeles County through the implementation of the Care Ecosystem, an evidence-based, coordinated dementia care program. It addresses the growing need for dementia-capable care within CalAIM, since people with cognitive impairment have higher rates of hospitalization and institutionalization, two of CalAIM’s populations of focus.
Although not a named population of focus under CalAIM, people with dementia are in those populations because they have more frequent hospital admissions, require more short-term skilled nursing facilities, make more frequent emergency room visits, and have a greater risk of institutionalization. In a landscape review by the University of California San Francisco commissioned by the Foundation, dementia care experts outlined how CalAIM’s ECM and community supports benefits have the potential to provide many of the services of such vetted evidence-based models of dementia care as UCSF’s Care Ecosystem and UCLA’s Alzheimer’s and Dementia Care.
As an ECM provider, Alzheimer’s LA will contribute to systemic improvement in dementia care and supports the Foundation’s strategy of increasing access to coordinated, equitable health and social services.
Supporting Older Californians After the Wildfires
California Community Foundation, a Los Angeles-based philanthropy, was awarded $100,000 to help older adults impacted by the recent wildfires in greater Los Angeles. The grant will be a contribution to the foundation’s Wildfire Recovery Fund, which focuses on intermediate and long-term recovery needs and has provided more than $30 million to vulnerable communities affected by wildfires since 2003.
The most recent fires disproportionately impacted marginalized communities and older adults. The Los Angeles Times reported that most of the Eaton fire’s 17 victims were older, with a median age of 77; six had mobility impairments, 11 were Black, and 11 were women.
Through the fund, the foundation and its nonprofit partners provide:
- Financial assistance for displaced people.
- Support to rebuild homes, replace belongings and restore employment.
- Mental health services and case management.
- Follow-up medical care and supplies.
- Upgraded support services such as 211 lines and equipment for first responders.
Improving Information Exchanges Among Aging Services Organizations
Connecting for Better Health, a coalition working to increase data sharing as a way to improve health care across California, was awarded $75,000 over 18 months to improve the exchange of health and social service information by aging services organizations in accordance with the California Data Exchange Framework, the state’s effort to accelerate the exchange of such records through a single, unified data sharing agreement. The project will provide education and technical assistance to aging services organizations and community-based partners serving older adults and their caregivers, equipping them to be part of this essential aspect of coordinating care equitably across settings.
Past information exchange initiatives have focused on health systems and clinical providers, excluding the non-clinical care partners critical to whole-person care. Community-based organizations and social service providers are well-positioned to engage with the exchange framework and benefit from more robust and streamlined data sharing, although many are not aware of this initiative or lack support to implement it.
To address these needs, Connecting for Better Health will:
- Facilitate bootcamps to educate aging services organizations on data sharing and the new state program.
- Engage aging services organizations in a community design studio where they receive technical assistance and hands-on support to identify, streamline, and implement the technical and workflow adjustments needed to coordinate care for older adults.
- Disseminate resources to promote data sharing among other aging services providers and inform policy priorities.
Increasing Access to Social Service Programs for Asian & Pacific Islander Populations
The National Asian Pacific Center on Aging, an advocacy and service organization for older Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders, was awarded $175,000 over 24 months to implement in California its Eldercare Initiative, a comprehensive resource database and multi-agency referral system to help the people it serves and their caregivers locate social service programs that are culturally appropriate and in languages they use.
Few healthcare and social services systems are structured to consistently provide culturally and linguistically accessible care for these older adults and their caregivers. For large numbers of immigrant elders with little or no English proficiency, searching for these services is challenging because there is no database for them to use.
This initiative aligns with the Foundation’s strategy to advance equity in aging organizations by taking a person- and family-centered approach to connecting historically marginalized and under-resourced communities to culturally and linguistically appropriate community-based care. This effort builds on a planning grant from the Foundation that laid the groundwork for it to collaborate with social service organizations in California serving AANHPI older adults, integrate information on the services of organizations serving older adults and caregivers, and develop a referral system that can be used by health systems and individuals in California. The new grant will support developing and implementing the database and interface, raising visibility of the database to spur partnerships with community and private agencies and leveraging NAPCA’s multilingual helpline to partner and expand usage of the resource.
Expanding the Reach of LGBTQ+ Cultural Competency
SAGE, the nation’s largest nonprofit dedicated to improving the lives of older lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or questioning people, was awarded $300,000 over 36 months to support SAGECare, a cultural competency training program seeking to ensure all LGBTQ+ older adults can access and receive care that affirms their identities.
Building on the momentum of a previous 36-month grant from the Foundation, SAGE will expand its capacity to train more aging services providers working in economically, racially, ethnically and linguistically diverse communities.
Culturally competent care for LGBTQ+ older adults is critical because they are less likely to access aging services or reach out to health providers, a consequence of the discrimination they have long experienced. As California’s older LGBTQ+ population continues growing, services that are welcoming to them are more important than ever. Providing SAGECare training to long-term care communities, senior living communities, home- and community-based services, and government-funded aging network providers in effective, accessible ways is key to ensuring older LGBTQ+ Californians receive the care they deserve.
Search our database to learn about prior grants awarded.
