2023 Report to the Community

Since our 2016 Community Needs Assessment, we have focused heavily on increasing the accessibility of in-home supportive services to ensure that people are able to remain in their own home and community as they age. Working with AZAging and the Arizona State Legislature, one-time significant increases have been made to Area Agencies on Aging to provide in-home care services. At the same time of these increased investments, the standard cost of providing services has increased due to Arizona’s and Tucson’s new minimum wage laws. With the growing need and increased cost of providing services, funding for in-home services still remains insufficient to address the needs of our community. Aside from funding, we have also implemented the nation’s first Friends and Neighbors program for in-home care. Through this program, we are able to use our Older Americans Act funds to reimburse our clients with an hourly rate to pay a friend, family member, or neighbor to help them in their own home. This innovative program has helped us address our workforce shortages. Though we have done much to help older adults remain independent and in their own communities as they age, we know there is still much more left to do. Some areas in which we will focus our efforts in the coming years include: • Integrate with and support the implementation of the Age-Friendly Tucson Plan. • Support additional funding and access for lower-income residents to get assistance with home maintenance, repairs, adaptations, and landscaping to ensure they are able to remain in their own homes safely. • Additional funding and support for in-home supportive services through both Title IIIB of the Older Americans Act of 1965 and AHCCCS’s Arizona Long-Term Care System.

Social Isolation and Loneliness Approximately three-quarters of all survey respondents experience feelings of loneliness based on a validated measurement tool to assess emotional and social loneliness. The percentage of respondents that are lonely increases by age, with nearly 82% of people who are 90 and older reporting they feel lonely. According to the National Council on Aging, we know that social isolation and loneliness increase an older adult’s risk of high blood pressure, heart disease, obesity, a weakened immune system, anxiety, depression, cognitive decline, Alzheimer’s disease, and even death. 14 The COVID-19 pandemic increased our ability to relate to and empathize with older adults who feel socially isolated and lonely. These feelings can be strong, and subsequently have negative impacts on both physical and mental health. The U.S. Surgeon General