The New Hampshire Aging and Disability Resource Center
Program Description
The New Hampshire Institute for Health Policy and Practice at UNH, in cooperation with the Bureau of Elderly and Adult Services (BEAS), has received funding through 2009 for the Aging and Disability Resource Center program across the state of New Hampshire. The first round of funding was granted in 2003.
The goal of the federal Aging and Disability Resource Center program is to empower individuals to make informed choices and to streamline access to long term support including a wide range of in-home, community-based and institutional services and programs that are designed to help individuals with disabilities and chronic conditions. The vision is to have Resource Centers in every community serving as highly visible and trusted place where people can turn for information on the full range of long term support options. The Resource Centers also serve as a single point of entry for both public and private-pay individuals to public long term support programs and benefits. The Resource Centers serve elderly persons, younger adults with disabilities and chronic conditions, family caregivers, as well as persons planning for future long term support needs. In addition, the Centers are a resource for health and long term support professionals who provide services to the elderly and to people with disabilities.
During the first round of funding, the Aging and Disability Resource Center model was effectively integrated with existing ServiceLink, Assessment & Counseling, and specific Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) activities. This produced a comprehensive front-end framework to the long-term support services and a system which is more effective, accessible, and efficient than any one of these program models alone. In addition to increasing operating efficiencies, the objectives of the New Hampshire ADRC model are to provide easier access to services, reduce the fragmentation of the current Medicaid eligibility system, offer a supported decision making model for consumers, and encourage personal responsibility among consumers for their own care. In New Hampshire, the integrated facilities of the Aging and Disability Resource Center program are called ServiceLink Resource Centers (SLRC).
There are now 13 SLRC’s, one in each New Hampshire County. Several of these county’s have satellite offices. Supported by a strong technology-based infrastructure and a team-based approach for operations management, trained professionals from multiple functional disciplines provide education, information, assessment, and customized referrals and connections to both private-pay and publicly-supported care options. Grant funds from 2003-3006 were used to develop the technology-based infrastructure, integrate the disconnected processes of the existing programs, develop required staff training curriculum, and implement quality assurance mechanisms necessary to measure and improve operating efficiencies. During the continuation grant period, from 2006-2009, the funds will be used to improve access to long term supports through the SLRC and to develop/enhance the self-directed service delivery system for older people and for adults with chronic conditions.
The SLRC system is evaluated through several means including customer satisfaction surveys, state agency surveys, provider surveys, the Granite State Poll (to discern awareness among the general public), and information from the systems referral database. The evaluation of the first three years of funding will be completed and made public in the summer of 2007.
The grant is jointly funded through Administration on Aging and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The federal funding is intended to assist, but not supplant, New Hampshire's current efforts toward simplifying consumer entry into the long-term support system.
Questions and recommendations are welcome and should be directed to Mary Maggioncalda at 603-271-4410 or Laura Davie at 603-862-3682.