White House Conference on Aging Long-Term Care Mini Conference Releases Final Conference Recommendations
Posted on: Thursday, 11 August 2005, 12:00 CDT
WASHINGTON, Aug. 11 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The White House Conference on Aging's Long-Term Care Mini-Conference today released official recommendations developed during a two-day policy summit held this past spring. The goal of the summit was to ensure our nation's long- term care needs will be met in the future.
Participants of the mini-conference, a precursor to the full White House Conference on Aging (WHCoA) in December, were tasked with developing proposals specific to long-term care that could be considered for incorporation into final policy recommendations for the President and Congress.
The findings concluded that a crisis exists in the country regarding the state of elder care, and the needs of our nation's rapidly aging population will not be met unless the issue is brought to the forefront. Conference participants concluded that there is a need for all Americans to have long term care coverage through public and private means. Currently, nearly all Americans lack long term care coverage. The recommendations also suggest that strong political leadership is a necessity in order to elevate social and cultural issues related to aging and disability, and that a need exists to enact evidence-based policies to improve quality of care.
Titled Creating a Comprehensive National Long-Term Care Policy, the conference brought together 125 participants from public and private long-term care stakeholder groups. Recommendations fell into three overarching categories: Economic Security and Long-Term Care Financing, Health and Independence, and Supportive Services. A summary of the recommendations are as follows:
Economic Security and Long-Term Care Financing
Congress and the Administration must:
-- Provide coverage for all Americans through public and private mechanisms.
-- Use current public dollars more efficiently and intelligently.
-- Launch a national long-term care education campaign.
Health and Independence
Congress and the Administration must:
-- Create financial incentives and otherwise provide for workforce training and service delivery enhancement.
-- Establish a unified quality agenda for long-term care in collaboration with private sector stakeholders.
-- Fund a broad initiative to incentivize and support self- directed consumers.
-- Reform public and private funding programs, in concert with states, to remove institutional biases.
-- Establish a Federal office to address long-term care workforce issues.
Supportive Services
Congress and the Administration must:
-- Fund and prioritize recruitment, training and retention of the long-term care workforce.
-- Establish a new agency within the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services to focus solely on long-term care.
"The Long-Term Care Mini-Conference successfully focused our undivided attention for two days on issues that are critical to the future of long-term care in the United States," said Todd Smith, chairman of the mini-conference planning committee. "I believe the participating groups have come away confident that our recommendations to Congress and to the President will undoubtedly help prepare long-term care for the coming years."
The 2005 White House Conference on Aging (WHCoA) will be held December 11-14, 2005 in Washington, D.C. This was the fifth annual conference and the first held during the 21st century.
Full conference recommendations are available from the contact listed above.
Organizations planning the WHCoA Long-Term Care Mini-Conference included: AARP, American Council of Life Insurers, American Health Care Association and National Center for Assisted Living, America's Health Insurance Plans, National Alliance for Caregiving, and National Association for Home Care and Hospice. The mini- conference was attended by more than 125 long-term care stakeholders from public and private sectors.
http://www.usnewswire.com
Source: U.S. Newswire
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