Advocacy
By Maddy Bynes, Special to Never Too Late Since January, the Arizona State Legislature has been in session debating issues impacting everyday Arizonans. This year, the legislature has two very important policies to consider helping older adults remain safely in their communities as they age. Last year, the Arizona Area Agencies on Aging, including PCOA, were incredibly grateful to receive an increase of $2 million in one-time funding from the state legislature for our home and community-based services programming. These services, like bathing, bed linen changing, light housekeeping, meal preparation, and others help to keep older adults in their own homes and communities. Over the past several years, PCOA and other organizations like ours have struggled to keep up with the increasing demand for home and community-based services. The funds appropriated by the legislature last year allowed Area Agencies on Aging to support older members of our communities. Here at PCOA those funds, of which we receive about 15.5%, went to increasing capacity within our contracted services system to hire and retain more direct care workers to provide services. With the workforce shortage in full swing, these funds could not be more important. The University of Arizona estimates that the population of people 65 and older grew by 48.4% between 2010 and We Need Your Support!
We are also working to support an ask for a $300,000 increase to the Long- Term Care Ombudsman program. PCOA is the designated Long-Term Care Ombudsman in Pima County. We go into long-term care facilities, like skilled nursing facilities and assisted living facilities, and provide mediation, support, and guidance to residents. With cost-of-living increases and increased inflation, Area Agencies on Aging across the state are struggling to meet the needs of these residents with current staffing levels. These additional funds will help Area Agencies on Aging in need hire additional staff to be able to meet increased demand for services. These two programs are critically important to keeping older adults safe and healthy. We need your help and support! Visit advocate.pcoa.org to reach out to your legislators today!
2019, while the total population grew by only 13.9%. In the same time wages have increased by over 35% and costs of doing business have also increased substantially. Even with the increases that we received last year, the realities of years of stagnant funding provides substantial challenges for PCOA and our counterparts across the state. That’s why this year we need to show the legislature how important these funds are! We need your help to ask our legislators to continue this funding for this year and years to come. Once an older adult begins to receive services with us, their need doesn’t go away or change just because of a funding fluctuation. Without this continued funding Area Agencies on Aging across the state will be faced with the devastating choice of reducing service hours or removing the clients from service entirely.
March 2023, Never Too Late | Page 29
Pima Council on Aging
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