Addressing Gaps in Emergency Response Systems for Older Adults Impacted by Wildfires
Older adults and people with disabilities experienced significant barriers to safe evacuation during the Los Angeles wildfires. LeadingAge California analyzed the experiences of congregate living providers and residents during the emergency response. Based on this analysis, they produced recommendations to improve emergency preparedness and disaster response in the future.
A shared language is essential to advancing effective home and community-based services (HCBS) policies. Through this project, HSRI will conduct a national environmental scan, engaging diverse voices, and synthesizing findings into a definition of HCBS. The aim of this definition is to support alignment in policy, advocacy, and service delivery—ultimately strengthening the effectiveness, equity, and coordination of HCBS for individuals with long-term support needs.
Strategies for Improving Long-Term Care: Educating State Policymakers
Affordability and access to long-term services and supports (LTSS) ensures older adults can remain in their homes and the community. This project aims to strengthen the capacity and efficiency of state legislatures to consider policy options and innovations to support aging individuals, particularly policies around long-term care financing. This will be accomplished through the development and dissemination of policy birefs, technical assistance, and a meeting of state legislatures.
Advancing Integrated Care for Dually Eligible Populations
Integrated models of care ensure that older adults have access to and can afford high quality care. To promote promising models of integrated care in rural areas, plans need to encourage enrollment by making programs more responsive to consumer needs and increase the availability of these programs in rural areas. Through this project, CHCS will translate the Consumer Perspective into an Action Plan for States. The resulting toolkit will include actionable steps for states to take in: (1) designing or refining their integrated care programs, and (2) communicating with dually eligible populations and providers about the value of integrated care. Through exploring and identifying feasible options to improve provider access and coordinated care delivery for dually eligible populations in rural areas, states will learn to improve access to care.
Developing a National Rural Strategy & Reimagining Rural Policy for the 21st Century
The Brookings Institution’s Reimagining Rural Policy initiative is launching a high-level bipartisan commission in partnership with the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) to call attention to the unique challenges and opportunities in rural America and publish a National Rural Strategy presenting a vision for policymakers and other national leaders to support rural prosperity, resilience, and fairness in the 21st century. This project will ensure that older adults with lived experience, including The SCAN Foundation’s priority populations, will be included in the initiative’s research and featured in a National Rural Strategy that will be present to policymakers, decisionmakers, and the American public in mid-2027.
Supporting older adults to be at the center of identifying issues and codesigning solutions to independence at home and in the community is a cornerstone of systems changes. To further advance systemic change through lived experience, the Center for Outcomes Research and Education (CORE) will create a Toolkit to support creation and operation of additional ECO Groups within and beyond California.
Supporting States in Preparing for the Long-Term Care Challenge: Lessons from Washington State
State-level advancement of LTC financing policy has long-stalled for a number of reasons, including a lack of knowledge about how best to design, advocate for, and shepherd a program to implementation. During this two-year project, Dr. Veghte will utilize research and stakeholder interviews, drawing upon his experience standing up WA Cares (the only existing state-based LTC financing program), to develop and disseminate six tactical toolkits to assist state efforts to conceptualize, build, and grow support for long-term care programs.
Affordable, accessible long-term care at home and in the community is essential for older adults to age well. This data analysis will result in a public-facing online data map that identifies all Medicaid Home- and Community-Based Services (HCBS) and institutional Long-Term Services and Supports (LTSS) users in the United States by county.
Supporting older adults to be at the center of identifying issues and codesigning solutions to independence at home and in the community is a cornerstone of systems changes. With co-funding from the California Health Care Foundation and Metta Fund, four California-based organizations will support “Equity Community Organizing Groups” (ECO Groups). In this second phase of the project, each community will begin to implement solutions that advance health care issues and address the needs in their community, ensuring that older adults are leading the efforts and lived experience is at the center.
Supporting older adults to be at the center of identifying issues and codesigning solutions to independence at home and in the community is a cornerstone of systems changes. With co-funding from the California Health Care Foundation and Metta Fund, four California-based organizations will support “Equity Community Organizing Groups” (ECO Groups). In this second phase of the project, each community will begin to implement solutions that advance health care issues and address the needs in their community, ensuring that older adults are leading the efforts and lived experience is at the center.
Supporting older adults to be at the center of identifying issues and codesigning solutions to independence at home and in the community is a cornerstone of systems changes. With co-funding from the California Health Care Foundation and Metta Fund, four California-based organizations will support “Equity Community Organizing Groups” (ECO Groups). In this second phase of the project, each community will begin to implement solutions that advance health care issues and address the needs in their community, ensuring that older adults are leading the efforts and lived experience is at the center.
Supporting older adults to be at the center of identifying issues and codesigning solutions to independence at home and in the community is a cornerstone of systems changes. With co-funding from the California Health Care Foundation and Metta Fund, four California-based organizations will support “Equity Community Organizing Groups” (ECO Groups). In this second phase of the project, each community will begin to implement solutions that advance health care issues and address the needs in their community, ensuring that older adults are leading the efforts and lived experience is at the center.
In partnership with Public Policy Lab, Lutheran Services in America will analyze interviews from The People Say to identify key issues facing dually eligible older adults in rural areas. The project will surface policy priorities to improve access and quality of care and examine the impact of federal policies on Medicaid.
This planning grant for a potential multi-phase project is to support the foundational work needed to identify playbook and convening goals, audience; draft guiding principles that can be shared with aging policy leaders in advance of a Spring 2026 national event.
Caring Across Generations (CAG) will build and mobilize broad public support for Medicaid aging and disability care through informative, impactful, and aligned storytelling by capturing hundreds of new lived experience stories from Medicaid beneficiaries, caregivers, and direct care workers. The project will craft strategic messaging toolkits, templates, and other resources.
