44-644 Printed for the use of the Special Committee on Aging U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE WASHINGTON: 1991 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, Congressional Sales Office JOHN GLENN, Ohio SPECIAL COMMITTEE ON AGING DAVID PRYOR, Arkansas, Chairman BILL BRADLEY, New Jersey RICHARD SHELBY, Alabama BOB GRAHAM, Florida HERBERT KOHL, Wisconsin TERRY SANFORD, North Carolina WILLIAM S. COHEN, Maine DAVE DURENBERGER, Minnesota CONRAD BURNS, Montana ARLEN SPECTER, Pennsylvania PORTIA PORTER MITTELMAN, Staff Director CHRISTOPHER C. JENNINGS, Deputy Staff Director MARY BERRY GERWIN, Minority Staff Director/Chief Counsel (II) DW 519 PREFACE Since its enactment in 1965, the Older Americans Act (OAA) (the Act) has been reauthorized on 10 occasions, most recently in 1987. For the last 26 years, the OAA has grown substantially and now authorizes many diverse and important services, including congregate and home-delivered nutrition, employment, legal assistance, the long-term care ombudsman program, homemaker services, transportation, and information and referral systems. In preparation for the 1991 reauthorization of the OAA, the Special Committee on Aging convened a series of workshops in 1990 to identify policy changes that might be necessary or desirable as part of the reauthorization process. These forums brought together Federal, State, and local government officials, social service providers, volunteer caregivers, academicians, and elderly persons who utilize social services provided under the Act. Workshop participants took a fresh look at the OAA, asked hard questions about its effectiveness, debated tough issues regarding its future, and explored policy options for the reauthorization process. While many significant policy changes were suggested, the central finding of the workshop series was that the OAA has been tremendously successful in serving our Nation's elderly citizens and their caregivers. A record of the workshop proceedings may be obtained from the Committee (Committee Print, Serial #101-I). The Committee's workshop series focused on a variety of topics within the purview of the OAA including targeting of services to low-income and minority elders, information and referral systems, mandatory and voluntary cost-sharing, legal assistance services, the long-term care ombudsman program, and the role of the Administration on Aging (AoA). As the continuing Federal budget deficit will greatly restrict the availability of significantly greater funding for major new authorized services, these workshops were designed to examine the performance of current OAA programs and how to strenthen them, and, where economically feasible, how to expand them. The following report presents specific findings from the workshop series and makes policy recommendations for the 1991 reauthorization. It is my hope that this report will prove useful to older Americans, policymakers, and aging advocates as they engage in this year's reauthorization debate. DAVID PRYOR, (III) |