Health
Aging with Health & Dignity: Diverse Elders Speak Up: In 2016, the Diverse Elders Coalition partnered with Caring Across Generations to collect nearly 5,000 comments from our communities about what we need to age with health and dignity. Comments were collected in six languages from all 50 states and provided a snapshot of the challenges of aging in communities of color, LGBT communities, and American Indian and Alaska Native communities. These comments were synthesized into a series of recommendations for policymakers and service providers that can be found in this report, “Aging with Health and Dignity: Diverse Elders Speak Up.”
National Consortium on Aging Resources for Senior’s Equity: Four Best Practices for Working with Diverse Older Adults: This fact sheet provides insights and techniques about effective outreach and meaningful involvement with a person-centered approach in serving diverse older adults, aimed at providing guidance to the Aging Network. It also offers an inclusive vision of both the strengths and disparities of each community, while creating solutions and advocacy focused on older adults.
Glossary of Health Coverage and Medical Terms
BenefitsCheckUp is a Web-based service that helps seniors with limited income and resources connect to more than 1,350 federal, state and local programs.
Diabetes.org is the website by the American Diabetes Association whose mission is to prevent and cure diabetes and to improve the lives of all people affected by diabetes.
Native Health Database is a web-based resource developed and managed by the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Library and Informatics Center. Native Health Database contains records spanning almost four centuries. The mission is to serve as a high-quality source of health information about American Indians, Alaska Natives, Canadian First National, Metis and Inuit.
Native Voices: Native People’s Concepts of Health and Illness is a unique exhibition that examines health and medicine among contemporary American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians, and explores the connection between wellness, illness, and cultural life through interviews, artwork, objects and interactive media.
Brain Health as You Age: You Can Make a Difference! is a presentation toolkit offering current, evidence-based information and resources to facilitate conversations with older people about brain health as we age.
Eldercare Locator is a website with information, referral resources, and contact information for state and local agencies, from the United States’ Health and Human Services Department.
MedlinePlus is the National Institutes of Health’s website for patients and their families and friends, produced by the National Library of Medicine. Organized by health topics and includes educational videos and cool tools.
Health Resources & Services Administration: HRSA health centers care for you, even if you have no health insurance – you pay what you can afford based on your income. Locate a health center near you via their database.
Elder Fall Prevention for Native Americans and Home Falls Prevention Checklist for Tribal Members, provided by the Albuquerque Area Southwest Tribal Epidemiology Center.
Resources for Caregivers
AARP Resources for Caregivers and their Families: Information for those either just beginning their caregiving journey or veteran caregivers looking for more tools and resources online.
ARCH National Respite Network and Resource Center assists and promotes the development of quality respite and crisis care programs; to help families locate respite and crisis care services in their communities; and to serve as a strong voice for respite in all forums.
Care for the Family Caregiver: A place to start is a booklet that addresses concerns, challenges and supports for family caregivers.
Caregiver Action Network is a grassroots membership organization for family caregivers. It supports family caregivers through education, information, referral services, and advocacy.
Caring Across Generations is a national movement of families, caregivers, people with disabilities and aging American working to transform the way we care in the U.S.
Alzheimer’s Disease Education and Referral Center
Home Safety for People with Alzheimer’s Disease
Daily Caring provides practical tips for families caring for older adults.
Family Caregiver Alliance supports and sustains the important work of families nationwide caring for loved ones with chronic, disabling health conditions.
National Alliance for Caregiving is a coalition of organizations focused on family caregiving issues. Conducts research, policy analysis and develops national programs to increase public awareness of family caregiving issues.
National Caregivers Library is one of the most extensive libraries for caregivers today. Find hundreds of articles, forms, checklists and links to topic-specific external resources, organized into logical categories.
Native Elder Caregiver Curriculum is a tool to assist American Indian and Alaska Native families and community members, as well as Community Health Representatives, who have the responsibility of caring for their elders.
Today’s Caregiver Magazine is a leading provider of information, support and guidance for family and professional caregivers. The first national magazine dedicated to caregivers, which includes topic specific newsletters, online discussion lists, back issue articles, chat rooms and an online store.
Video Caregiving is dedicated to streaming visual educational material to family caregivers. The videos are designed to be short, simple and direct, and are able to be accessed easily by the user at any hour of the day or night. Many of the videos follow a documentary format that uses real people and follows real situations.
Financial Steps for Caregivers: What you need to know about protecting your money and retirement is a downloadable guide produced by the Women’s Institute for a Secure Retirement (WISER). WISER focuses on the millions of women who face difficult decisions every day while juggling jobs and caregiving responsibilities. This guide can help you understand the financial consequences of caregiving and plan for a more secure future.
Resources for Grandparents Raising Grandchildren
Updated Guidelines to the Indian Child Welfare Act (12/30/16) is important legislation that affects Indian Country in multiple ways. It’s important for grandparents raising grandchildren, as a guide to understand their position in child custody.
The Diverse Elders Coalition (DEC)
DEC exists to address the profound challenges facing older people of color and LGBT elders. Below is the FY 2018 Budget DEC Fact Sheet series on important issues facing diverse elders:
Diverse Elders Budget Fact Sheet – Senior Community Service Employment Program: This year, over 40 percent of Americans aged 55 and older will be employed, making up over 25 percent of the U.S. labor force. SCSEP ensures that diverse elders are ready for the workforce. The budget proposed by the White House eliminates funding for SCSEP.
Diverse Elders Budget Fact Sheet – Older Americans Act: For diverse elders, services provided by the Older Americans Act are lifesaving. But not enough diverse elders have consistent access to or understanding of these services. More support – not cuts – is essential to ensure that diverse aging populations are reached by these programs.
Diverse Elders Budget Fact Sheet – Housing: Affordable, accessible, affirming, and welcoming housing is essential to older adults. Housing costs – the largest cost in most household budgets – directly impact economic security and accumulated wealth.
Diverse Elders and the Necessity of Disaggregated Data Collection: Instead of using one overarching category to collect data on diverse communities – i.e. “Latino” or “LGBT,” – we encourage policymakers, advocates, and healthcare providers to disaggregate this data in order to collect more detailed information on population subgroups.
Veterans
Veteran Guide to Long Term Services and Supports: The Veterans Administration guide that provides information about long-term care options as well as listings of nursing homes for veterans by state. Provides consumers information on how often they can receive services, eligibility criteria, services offered and testimonials. Includes adult day services, homemaker and home health aide services, hospice and palliative care services and programs of all inclusive care for the elderly.
Social Services
Elder Transportation: The Eldercare Locator provides links to elder transportation resources.
AARP.org (American Association of Retired Persons) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, social welfare organization with a membership of nearly 38 million that helps people turn their goals and dreams into real possibilities, strengthens communities and fights for the issues such as health care, employment and income security, and protection from financial abuse.
Economic Wellbeing
Everyoneon.com is a national nonprofit that aims to eliminate the digital divide. Through the site, individuals are able to find internet service as low as $10/month.
Lifeline Program has provided a discount on phone service for qualifying low-income consumers to ensure that all Americans have the opportunities and security that phone service brings, including being able to connect to jobs, family and emergency services.
Transportation
The National Aging & Disability Transportation Center’s goal is to promote availability and accessibility options for older adults, people with disabilities and caregivers.
