Alzheimer's Research Night
Thursday, Aug. 10, is the Alzheimer's Research Night at Tanglewood Park. Presented by the Alzheimer's Association, Bruno Giordani, PhD, will present the latest research. Advance registration is required - 800-272-3900, or online at alz.org/mglc.
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Family Caregiver Classes Offered
Free caregiver classes are offered Fridays from 1-2:30 p.m. at Tanglewood Park. Respite is available - call 231-739-5858.
Classes will provide caregivers information on:
* managing demands of caregiving
* providing personal care
* home safety
* managing medications
* advance directives
* caring for someone on bed rest
* coping with dementia
* respite
* Alzheimer's Disease
* nutrition
For more information, call Virginia at 231-733-3531, or Robbi at 231-733-3567.
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Save the Date!
Presented by: Tri-County Protection Team
Tuesday, September 26,
8:30 a.m.-1:00 p.m. at Folkert Community Hub
FREE for seniors! Learn about Financial Safety & Internet Safety. Lunch will be provided. More information to come.
Providers: Interested in being a vendor? Contact Kara Zielinski, Tri-County Protection Team Coordinator via phone at (231) 559-0476 or email kara@agewellservices.org
More information to come.
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Speak up! Anytime day or night. Report abuse and neglect.
855-444-3911
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Senior Resources' Elder Care Specialists are available to assist with
Options for Long Term Care
Call: 231-733-3585
or Toll Free: 1-800-442-0054. In Oceana - 231-559-0331.
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Stay Connected
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Provider Conference Aug. 25, 2017
"Recognizing and Addressing Social Isolation and Loneliness in Older Adults," presented by the Tri-County Protection Team, is set for Friday, Aug. 25, from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., at Muskegon Community College.
Each day, aging adults are faced with social and psychological challenges as a result of isolation and loneliness, leaving them more vulnerable to financial fraud, abuse, hoarding disorder, depression and even suicide. National speaker Dr. Patrick Arbore, Ed.D., the founder of the Institute on Aging located in San Francisco, California is the featured speaker.
This important forum is for Social Workers, Nurses, Practitioners, Law Enforcement Officers and professionals working with and for the older population. 3 credit hours of Social Work CEUs, SCECHs and MCOLES are available.
Cost: $30 with CEUs and $25 without. To register: http://bit.ly/MuskegonProviderConf, or call Kara Zielinski, 231-559-0476.
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Protecting funding for aging programs
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There's no rest for aging advocates as Congress pivots from considering health care reform to tackling federal funding for FY 2018!
On the heels of the debate to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act and restructure Medicaid, lawmakers in Washington, DC are turning to determining funding levels for Older Americans Act and other aging programs.
Delayed by both a new Administration's late budget request to Congress and a procedural process keeping the last year's budget window open in order to shepherd health care bills through both chambers, congressional appropriators got a months-late start to the annual funding process. However, appropriations season is now in full swing on Capitol Hill now, and it is essential that local aging advocates continue to echo the need to adequately fund and protect critical Older Americans Act and other aging programs.
Status of Older Americans Act (OAA) Funding
After many challenging fiscal years for federally funded domestic programs, including OAA, FY 2018 may prove to be the most challenging yet. In May, the Administration released a federal budget request that made deep cuts to many domestic programs. President Trump proposed funding levels far below even those currently constrained by the federal Budget Control Act (BCA), which implemented stringent caps on defense and non-defense programs and has significantly limited federal funding since 2011.
Congress has largely rejected the full extent of the deep cuts that the President's budget request outlined, but House leaders have also proposed funding levels below current budget caps. What this means is that, in the House, the bill that funds Older Americans Act and many other aging programs received an allocation that was $5 billion lower than last year's levels, which resulted in cuts to a number of federal workforce, education and health programs.
Despite the high-level cuts that lawmakers proposed, House appropriators approved level funding for most core OAA programs. Although stagnant funding for programs that serve a growing population, meet a growing need, and cost more each year often translates to a cut for local agencies, sparing most OAA programs from House-proposed cuts in this incredibly challenging environment is an advocacy win!
Unfortunately, House lawmakers did propose deep cuts to a few key programs that support older adults. The Labor-HHS funding bill that passed committee would eliminate funding for the State Health Insurance Assistance Programs (known as the Medicare/Medicaid Assistance Program/MMAP in Michigan) and cut funding for Elder Justice by 14 percent.
What Happens Next?
Ultimately, both the House and the Senate will have to pass identical funding bills for all federal programs. We have not yet seen the Senate Labor-HHS funding bill. However, we do know that Senate leaders have allocated more money overall for the Labor-HHS spending bill than their House counterparts did. In the Senate, funding bills require 60 votes to pass, which means that at least eight Democrats would have to approve the measure. Senate Democrats have been committed to rejecting cuts that go below the BCA levels in current law and have advocated for alleviating at least some of the pressure from even those budget caps, so a bill that does neither likely wouldn't gain enough Democratic support to pass.
It is possible that lawmakers on both sides of Capitol Hill may be unable to push FY 2018 funding bills through normal legislative channels; and House and Senate leadership may resort to passing a continuing resolution, or CR, that simply extends current funding levels into next year. They could also draft a funding bill that rolls multiple individual appropriations bills into one, known as an omnibus. As it stands, spending bills are still subject to the reduced budget caps for FY 2018, which trigger an across-the-board sequester if Congress exceeds those caps. However, we are hearing that lawmakers want to avoid the threat of sequester, and they could come to some agreement to raise top-line budget caps. Whether the President would sign any funding bill that increases budget caps is unknown, so there could still be a government shutdown showdown later this fall.
Now Is the Time for Advocacy! The endgame for FY 2018 funding is unclear. However, our best chance to fix the House-proposed elimination of SHIP and deep cuts to Elder Justice is to ensure the Senate fully funds these programs! We can ask our Senators to reach out to colleagues on the Senate Appropriations Committee-especially their Republican colleagues-to tell them to reject these cuts. It is important that as many Members as possible are weighing in against the proposed SHIP elimination and Elder Justice and SCSEP cuts.
Thanks to n4a for this information.
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