Residents must be 60 or over, ambulatory, capable of performing daily activities, and reality-oriented. No resident may have a monthly income exceeding $250 or $3,000 a year. Each group home will assume responsibility for its own admissions.

Tenants are required to care for their personal rooms, share kitchen and light housekeeping chores, and maintain themselves over the weekends.

The homemaker, who is available four hours a day, five days a week, does the shopping, prepares the main meal, and performs heavier household chores. Intake, transfer, and termination will be handled by a social worker, who will also be available for counseling and leading group meetings of residents.

New Jersey
Hotline Keeps
Citizens Informed

The Senior Citizen Hotline of the State Division on Aging is designed to provide assistance to residents by answering their queries on programs and services concerning senior citizens. The Hotline answers questions directly or refers the caller to the responsible agency.

The Hotline works in two ways. It responds to senior citizens and those calling on their behalf, and provides a source of direct feedback to the administrators of the Division by making them aware of those areas of immediate concern to the aged. With this information, officials can modify existing programs and undertake new ones to provide the most efficient services possible.

The Hotline staff maintains records of the type of calls received. This information is shared with the County Offices on Aging to assist them in gap-filling services.

The Senior Citizen Hotline, a toll free service, may be reached at 800792-8820. Lines are open weekdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

New York Supports Handicapped Volunteers

The New York State Office for the Aging is sponsoring a statewide Retired Senior Volunteer ProgramVISTA Project to involve the handicapped elderly in volunteer services which should prove therapeutic. The program will involve 11 RSVP projects in New York State. Each participating Retired Senior Volunteer Program will have a full time VISTA volunteer responsible for recruiting 20 to 50 handicapped persons 60 and over to serve as RSVP volunteers.

In addition to recruitment, the VISTA volunteer will identify, select and provide volunteer service roles tailored to each individual's interests and talents, and arrange support in cooperation with community resources for each handicapped volunteer. Statewide, 350-400 handicapped older persons will be involved the first year.

RSVP directors in New York State agree that the individuals having the greatest need for involvement are isolated, handicapped older persons. Established RSVP programs are frequently unable to allocate the manpower needed to work in a concerted manner with the handicapped due to their program size and under-staffing. Consequently, established RSVP budgets do not permit the addition of staff positions or attendant expenses, such as travel. The VISTA volunteer will thus provide the manpower that will permit the RSVP programs to develop this needed effort.

Mrs. Lou Glasse, Director of the State Office, termed the project a "vital tool in our efforts to assist older New Yorkers in maintaining their independence and well being in their community. The primary role of the State Office is to change and improve existing patterns of services for older New Yorkers. Projects such

as this will improve the ability of handicapped elderly to remain in their own community, thus reducing the need for institutionalization." Retirement Guide Rated 'Best'

In South Carolina

The United Business Service Retirement Newsletter has rated "Retiring in South Carolina" the best guidebook of its kind in the Nation.

Courtenay Carson, Director of the Public Affairs Division of the S.C. Commission on Aging, prepared "Retiring in South Carolina" in 1975 in response to frequent requests from senior citizens outside the State for information. The 48-page guide was revised in 1976. The second edition is available upon request.

Washington Club

Recruits Blind Seniors

Using a $1,500 grant from New York's American Foundation for the Blind, the Lewis County Mental Health Program's Office on Aging in Chehalis, Wash. has organized a club for visually handicapped seniors.

The group calls itself the "See It My Way Club." Members include younger blind persons who are involved in pre-retirement planning.

The club's activities have included a field trip to the library in Seattle and a special Thanksgiving dinner. The group is also planning a bowling league and other weekly recreational activities.

It has already sponsored a "What Do You Do When You Meet Someone Who Is Blind?" workshop with speakers from the Washington State Services for the Blind. The workshop was attended by local social service providers and persons interested in the blind. Club members discussed the experience of being blind and how those who are not blind can relate to those who are.

Don Wortman, Acting Administrator of HEW's Health Care Financing Administration, has reported results of a new survey that shows $9 of every $100 paid by States for Medicaid services to the "medically needy" is spent in error, primarily because of ineligibility of recipients.

The nationwide survey-the first ever made under the Medicaid Eligibility Quality Control program— reveals that errors by State agencies or recipients related to Medicaid eligibility or payments total $980 million in misspent Federal and State dollars.

"These losses," Mr. Wortman said, "are a compelling reminder of the formidable task facing Federal and State governments in their efforts to eliminate waste in this vital program of health care for the nation's impoverished."

Mr. Wortman noted that the recent reorganization of HEW brought Medicaid and Medicare together in the Health Care Financing Administration. This agency will focus its efforts on controlling costs and improving care, including assistance to the States in combating problems of ineligibility.

The survey was undertaken as the first major step in the new FederalState Medicaid Eligibility Quality Control Program that calls for aggressive action by the States to reduce errors in eligibility and pay

ments.

The new data on errors among the "medically needy" is extremely useful. It reveals the magnitude and types of errors confronting each. State, and can serve as a guide to the States for areas most in need of corrective effort.

Mr. Wortman said the new Health

Care Financing Administration's efforts to help the States reduce errors will include:

• Financial aid to develop computerized systems that can help spot potentially ineligible persons on the rolls. (It can also help to identify health-care providers who may be be abusing Medicaid.) Twelve States now have HEWapproved systems in operation. Operation of a national exchange, the Medicaid Management Institute, which will alert all States to successful error-reduction techniques developed in any one State. • Making available assistance from the Department's Regional Offices in fitting corrective action plans to those parts of a State's Medicaid program which are found to be the most error-prone. (Better eligibility verification procedures and cross-checking of data from other State records are examples of such corrective actions.) The "medically needy" are a Medicaid-eligible group comprising lowincome families and individuals who are not qualified either for Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC)-the largest Medicaid-eligible group or for Supplemental Security Income (SSI). The HEW sampling of error rates encompassed the 5.8 million medically needy and 3.5 million of the SSI recipients whose eligibility is determined by the States. The survey showed misspent dollars for this 9.3 million person group totalled $715 million ($393 million in Federal funds) in Fiscal Year 1976-far higher than the dollar loss for the other 14 million Medicaid eligibles.

Separate samplings of agency and recipient error among AFDC and

other SSI-related recipients show a combined misspent Federal-State dollar loss of $265 million in FY 1976. Thus the total dollar loss due to ineligibility and other agency or recipient errors in Medicaid for FY 1976 is an estimated $980 million ($639 million in Federal funds) of the $15 billion in Federal-State expenditures. The Federal government pays an average of 55% of State Medicaid expenditures.

The "medically needy" survey covers the period from October 1975 to March 1976.

The sampling also found that 15.7% of the claims paid by the States on behalf of recipients were in error, of which 9.5% were claims for services to ineligible recipients and the remainder were computation

errors.

This review of Medicaid eligibility was based on a detailed examination by 44 States and Federal territories of the records of 14,199 Medicaid recipients and claims. Nine States or territories failed to participate in this first six-month review; Arizona does not have a Medicaid program. New surveys will be conducted at sixmonth intervals to measure progress under the Medicaid Eligibility Quality Control Program.

Section 8 Rent
Comparability
Liberalized

Field offices of the Department of Housing and Urban Development now have authority to approve contract rents proposed for Section 8 projects up to 15 percent above those for comparable dwelling units. An additional five percent is allowed where a project is not feasible at 15 percent above comparable rents. HUD feels that the 15 percent cushion should make new Section 8 construction feasible anywhere in the country. The cushion applies to all Section 8 projects, including those financed by Section 202 direct loans for the elderly and handicapped.

Alternatives to Institutionalization: An Annotated Research Bibliography on Housing and Services for the Aged. By Wendy Garen, Monica Lindeman, Leslie Lareau, and Leonard Heumann. Housing Research and Development, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1204 W. Nevada St., Urbana, Ill. 61801. 1976. 137 pp. annotated. $5.00.

Robert D. Katz, Chairman of the Housing Research and Development Program which compiled this report, says, "This bibliography was prepared as the first phase of a research effort designed to develop a Housing and Support Services Model for the Functionally Disabled Elderly in Illinois."

The research is funded by the Illinois Department on Aging. The Housing Research and Development Program seeks to facilitate teaching, research,

and public service in the field of housing for low-income persons.

The basic premise underlying this report is that there should be an integral relationship between services and housing. The introduction notes: "Dealing with the provision of housing and services concomitantly is a step toward the creation of housing environments for the aged, so that elderly needs and services can be appropriately matched-thus realizing actual alternatives to institutionalization."

This bibliography also acknowledges the interdependence of areas affecting the elderly, such as health conditions, environment, and socio-economic problems. Thus, it consolidates research from various disciplines in an effort "to approach the problems of the aged in a comprehensive spirit."

The U.S. Census is the common data base for the model being developed for Illinois' elderly. This information base has been supplemented with other national data from the National Senior Citizens Survey, and local, State, and area data describing characteristics of the elderly population. The introduction explains, "From this combination of national, State, and local data, local synthetic estimates of aggregate elderly need can then be developed."

References in the bibliography have been categorized and cross-referenced. They include: Households, a general descriptive section on the elderly; Housing, covering relocation issues and housing options currently available or proposed; Support Services; Health Services; Environment; Methodology; and Functional Ability.

Congregate Housing for Older People: An Urgent Need, A Growing Demand. Edited by Wilma T. Donahue, Marie McGuire Thompson, and D. J. Curren. DHEW Pub. No. (OHD) 77-20284. 221 pp. Annotated, biblio, append., indexes, $3.00 from Superintendent of Documents, Washington, D.C. 20402.

This volume is a collection of selected papers developed for the First National Conference on Congregate Housing for Older People. It was held Nov. 11-12, 1975 in Washington, D.C., under the auspices of the International Center for Social Gerontology.

The conference was organized to offer representatives of the housing industry and environmental planners for the elderly information about congregate housing and guidance in its national development.

Presentations by participants examine the concept of congregate housing, the types of older people who can utilize its design and siting, aspects of management, provision of services to tenants, how to estimate the market, and Federal support programs.

Conference findings indicate that the provision of congregate housing with services is less costly, in both financial and human terms, than the current placement of older people in institutions which provide medical services beyond their needs. In his paper, "Making a Local Market Analysis," Leonard F. Heumann, Assistant Professor of Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Illinois, quotes from a 1971 survey done by Claire Townsend. According to this study, 40% of those now living in total care nursing homes could move into less dependent, noninstitutionalized settings, such as congregate housing facilities.

Another presentation by Frances M. Carp, Project Director of the Wright Institute in Berkeley, Calif., reports on current data from the Urban Institute in Washington, D.C.

On the basis of national need estimates made by the Institute, there are 2.4 million persons 65 and older who do not need institutionalization but who do require appropriate shelter and services in order to remain outside of institutions. The estimates suggest that 1.1 million of them could live in congregate housing. Research by conference participants indicates, however, that a barrier in providing congregate housing is the lack of coordination between government housing and service agencies, each of which has programs that could be combined to meet the needs of the congregate housing market.

Training

Training Manual for Agencies Serving Older Adults. Center for Social Policy and Community Development, School of Social Administration, Institute of Applied Gerontology, Temple University, 1500 N. Broad St., Philadelphia, Pa. 19122. 1977. 151 pp. biblio. $5.00.

This handbook was prepared by the Institute of Applied Gerontology at Temple University. The IAG was established in 1974 through a grant from the Office for the Aging, Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare. It provides training and technical assistance to service planners, administrators, and providers; develops training curricula and techniques; conducts research and evaluation; applies research results to program planning; and recommends or formulates policy changes.

The manual offers a model curriculum for use in in-service training by agencies providing services to older persons. Materials contained in the handbook are the result of a two-day training session conducted by the IAG for the social work and supervisory staff of the Philadelphia Department of Public Welfare, Adult and Aging Services Division. James S. Barnes, Coordinator of the IAG, notes:

"Over the subsequent two years (1974-1976), these materials were continually enriched by new knowledge and experience obtained by the IAG in its conducting of short-term training programs for aging service administrators, and planners and providers across the State of Pennsylvania under contract with the State Office for the Aging."

Training discussed in this handbook includes organizational sessions to improve the overall functioning of an agency and staff development sessions to increase workers' skills in interviewing, counseling, case planning or recording, and supervision. The book is divided into eight parts; each part contains a chart outlining the objectives, content, methodology, and resources of each training session. Following each chart are the appropriate lesson plans and related handouts used in conducting the sessions. The first chapter includes a questionnaire entitled the "Job Perception Survey" designed to tap the trainees' feelings about their work and clients. Chapter two explores the organizational problems of social service delivery stemming from the bureaucratic structure of modern social welfare agencies.

The third chapter, "The Aging System and Community Resources, defines such Federal agencies and programs for the elderly as the Administration on Aging, the Social Security Administration, and ACTION. It also discusses State and area agencies on aging, the Pennsylvania State Advisory Committee on Aging, the Office for the Aging in the Department of Public Welfare, the National Council of Senior Citizens, and the NRTA-AARP.

Other chapters analyze interviewing and counseling techniques to use when working with older persons, guidelines for service management, planning, and recording, and methods supervisors can use to design supervisory programs or solve practical supervisory problems.