Aging & Disability

This New Jersey case study provides insights into the daunting challenges states face in seeking to address the home care worker shortage, which has become more acute as New Jersey and other states have striven to “re-balance” Medicaid long-term services and supports use and spending away from institutional care toward home and community-based services.

Direct care workers (DCWs) such as nursing assistants, home health aides, and personal care assistants play an essential role in the health and well-being of over 20 million Americans. Yet DCW wages are not enough to make jobs competitive with entry level positions in other industries with similar job requirements which exacerbates the challenges in recruitment and retention of these workers.

People living with dementia often have complex health and social support needs that can best be met by health care and community-based providers working together. This brief examines promising practices for bridging community-based organizations and health care systems in the providing comprehensive dementia care.

This study examined the extent therapist practices and nursing homes adopted telehealth services for physical therapy (PT), occupational therapy (OT), and speech-language pathology (SLP); explored the major challenges and facilitators in adopting telerehabilitation services, and whether these services were effective in addressing patient care and staffing needs during the public health emergenc

Recruiting and retaining a talented workforce requires employers to implement supports for family caregivers who are balancing the dual roles of working and caregiving.

Inpatient psychiatric facilities (IPFs) stabilize patients in a mental health crisis and provide services to patients with serious mental illnesses and those who may cause harm to themselves or others, including people living with dementia who have severe behavioral and psychological symptoms.

In 2020, Congress designated the new 988 dialing code to be operated through the existing National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. The 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline was established to improve access to immediate support to meet the behavioral health crisis needs in the United States.

People experiencing homelessness often have complex health care and social service needs which present significant care challenges to hospitals, such as longer lengths of stays, higher readmission rates, and complicated chronic illnesses.

State Medicaid programs have the option to cover supported employment services, but use of these services by the Medicaid population has not been widely studied.

This report outlines a feasibility study focused on obtaining identifiers for self-directed Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS) users within Medicaid claims data. Financial Management Services (FMS) entities assist individuals in managing the financial aspects of self-directed care, including payroll and billing.