Funding Priority 1: Public Engagement
Elevate the establishment of a comprehensive continuum of care for seniors as a national priority, and as a state priority for California.
The core of this funding priority is the mobilization of two potentially powerful constituencies who are particularly sensitive to and affected by the shortcomings of the current system: middle-class baby boomers and their aging parents. Nearly everybody in these two potentially powerful voting blocs has a personal story of frustration with the current long-term care system. The challenge lies in converting these personal stories into demand for policy change.
The Foundation’s goals and strategies under this first funding priority are to:
Goal 1.1: Raise public awareness and create a sense of urgency about the importance of reforming long-term care for seniors.
In carrying out this goal, The SCAN Foundation will employ a wide-ranging approach:
- Strategy 1.1.1: Understand why long-term care reform is not a priority and how to frame long-term care as an issue that will resonate with policy makers and the public.
- Strategy 1.1.2: Mobilize the public and policy makers in support of long-term care reform.
- Strategy 1.1.3: Provide credible long-term care policy information for policy makers, advocates, opinion leaders, and the public.
Goal 1.2: Identify and support leaders interested in reforming long-term care for seniors.
Developing a comprehensive continuum of care for seniors has not been a high priority for most policy makers for a variety of reasons: it is considered difficult to achieve, costly, complex, and politically challenging. The most common way of describing it, “long-term care,” calls to mind nursing homes—something that many people would rather put out of their minds. Without leadership, significant reform is unlikely to occur. Consequently, it is essential to identify and support political and other leaders, both at the national level and in California, who will champion long-term care reform.
To advance this goal, The SCAN Foundation will focus its leadership development efforts on three key groups. It will:
- Strategy 1.2.1: Encourage and support elected officials to take the lead on long-term care reform.
- Strategy 1.2.2: Educate staffs of elected officials about long-term care policy and options for reforming it.
- Strategy 1.2.3: Motivate advocates and opinion leaders to make long-term care reform a priority.