Performance Improvement 2006. Objective 3.5 - Expand Access to Health Care Services for Targeted Populations with Special Health Care Needs

PIC ID: 7980; Agency Sponsor: CDC, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Federal Contact: Lobato, Mark, 404-639-8131; Performer: Research Triangle Institute, Research Triangle Park, NC

An important component of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) Health Promotion and Aging Project is the development of an inventory of health promotion, disease prevention, and health education activities targeted at informal caregivers for HHS. The specific focus of this report is to  highlight some state and local initiatives that have developed promising programs to support, educate, and motivate caregivers of persons age 60 and older to maintain and improve their health and functioning.

http://aspe.hhs.gov/daltcp/CaregiverEvent/compendium.htm

PIC ID: 8077; Agency Sponsor: ASPE-ODALTCP, Office of Disability, Aging, and Long-Term Care Policy; Federal Contact: Frank, Andreas, 202-690-6443; Performer: RTI International, Research Triangle Park, NC

This synthesis paper reviews, summarizes, and discusses the significance of available research findings on the front-line long-term care (LTC) workforce since 1999, in both home and community-based and nursing home settings. This paper provides an updated review of the status of empirical findings, focusing on what had been learned between 1999 and 2003. The primary goal was to learn what initiatives have worked to reduce LTC direct-care work force recruitment and retention problems. A secondary goal was to provide empirically based insights on the factors that contribute to recruitment and retention problems. This paper was intended to help policymakers, providers, worker and consumer groups, and researchers create a framework for future evidence-based policy, practice, and applied research initiatives to address LTC direct-care work force shortages.

http://aspe.hhs.gov/daltcp/reports/insight.htm

PIC ID: 8079; Agency Sponsor: ASPE-ODALTCP, Office of Disability, Aging, and Long-Term Care Policy; Federal Contact: Frank, Andreas, 202-690-6443; Performer: Institute for the Future of Aging Services, Washington, DC

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) awarded a contract to launch a national initiative designed to improve recruitment and retention of direct care workers in the long-term care field. As part of this initiative, the Institute for the Future of Aging Services and the Paraprofessional Health Care Institute have identified a range of workforce improvement initiatives at the state and sub-state level to reduce high vacancy and turnover rates among direct care workers, and improve the quality of their jobs. This report summarizes the experiences of five states—California, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin—that have pursued several strategies to address this issue to inform policymakers, long-term care providers, organized labor and other worker groups, and consumers across the country grappling with serious shortages of direct care workers.

http://aspe.hhs.gov/daltcp/reports/pltcwf.htm

PIC ID: 8080; Agency Sponsor: ASPE-ODALTCP, Office of Disability, Aging, and Long-Term Care Policy; Federal Contact: Frank, Andreas, 202-690-6443; Performer: Institute for the Future of Aging Services, Washington, DC

The Alzheimer’s Disease Demonstration Grants to States Program was established in 1991 with the goal of supporting individuals with Alzheimer’s disease and their family caregivers in their own homes and communities. The purpose of the first phase evaluation was to determine the effects on individuals with Alzheimer’s disease and their family caregivers, of the home and community-based supportive services that they receive through this program. The evaluation identifies differences in service effectiveness and consumer satisfaction based on racial, ethnic, and geographical diversity.

PIC ID: 8136; Agency Sponsor: AOA, Administration on Aging; Federal Contact: Stalbaum, Lori, 202-357- 3452; Performer: University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS

PIC ID: 8193; Agency Sponsor: NIH-NLM, National Library of Medicine; Federal Contact: Love, Cindy, 301-496-5306; NIH, National Library of Medicine

This study examined and identified the most appropriate evaluation methodologies, techniques, and tools to measure the relevance, effectiveness, and impact of the Cancer Disparities Research Partnership (CDRP) Program. The study resulted in the identification of consistent evaluation methods to collect and analyze data over the life of the grants to effectively evaluate program progress and to produce meaningful annual reports to stakeholders of interest within and outside the National Cancer Institute (NCI). The evaluation plan focuses on two different sets of outcomes based on their timing. First, the CDRP Program logic model specifies implementation outcomes that are to be measured annually. Second, the logic model provides for summative outcomes that assess the short- and long-term results of a project and seeks to measure the changes brought about by the project. Justifying conclusions on the basis of evidence will include comparing predetermined measures of success or Program objectives with analysis and synthesis of information, interpretation of evidence, and recommendations for consideration. When appropriate, conclusions will be strengthened by summarizing plausible mechanisms of change, delineating temporal sequences between activities and effects, and showing that the effects can be repeated.

PIC ID: 8206; Agency Sponsor: NIH-NCI, National Cancer Institute; Federal Contact: Govern, Frank, 301- 496-6111; Performer: NOVA Research Company, Bethesda, MD

This report is part of a project that will attempt to better understand the source of differences in estimates of the older population in residential care by analyzing key national surveys. In the report, the authors present results of a review of existing estimates of the number of residential care settings, generally divided into nursing homes and alternative residential care settings, and the number of persons residing in them. The review has three purposes. First, the authors describe the data that have been used to generate estimates and summarize the range of estimates. Second, they identify methodological issues that contribute to differences among estimates, focusing on those that can be investigated using available national surveys. Finally, the authors identify four surveys that appear to offer the best opportunity to conduct such an investigation, and to provide a better understanding of the size and characteristics of the residential care population and insights into how collection of data on residential care settings can be improved.

http://aspe.hhs.gov/daltcp/reports/ltcpopsz.htm

PIC ID: 8236; Agency Sponsor: ASPE-ODALTCP, Office of Disability, Aging, and Long-Term Care Policy; Federal Contact: Drabek, John, 202-690-6443; Performer: Urban Institute, Washington, DC