Ohio Long-Term Care Ombudsman Office

The 2020-2022 SAPA Implementation Toolkit provides an opportunity to strengthen efforts to support healthy aging by aligning with the SAPA. It enables partners to focus attention and resources in the same areas, increasing the potential for a stronger and broader impact. The toolkit includes worksheets and templates to guide the alignment and implementation process, covering topics such as community conditions, healthy living, social connectedness, population health, and access to care. It emphasizes prioritizing issues, identifying priority populations, and selecting evidence-informed strategies to support healthy aging, while also advancing elder justice and fostering collaboration among partners.

The 2020-2022 Strategic Action Plan on Aging (SAPA) Implementation Toolkit is designed to strengthen the implementation of Ohio's SAPA. It provides guidance, best practices, tools, and resources for state and local partners to create a comprehensive and coordinated system that empowers older Ohioans and advances healthy aging. The toolkit focuses on key areas such as advancing elder justice, aligning priorities, fostering partnerships, implementing strategies, advocating for policy changes, and evaluating effectiveness.

The committee reviewed and edited the goal document, a distilled version of the Strategic Action Plan, approving its structure with the addition of Policy considerations. Sub-committees were assigned to work on the first three goals, while the fourth goal was put on hold. The committee also reviewed the Information/State Plan Scan Document to learn from other states' efforts and successes, stressing the need for policies that interface with needed support and ancillary services. Action items included tweaking the goal document, matching Diamond Topics to specific goals, and bringing responses to goals 1-3 to the next meeting.

The meeting covered discussions on long-term services and supports, addressing funding inequity across counties, inadequate public information, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on service provision, and disparities in mortality rates. It also addressed safety and legal issues, including the need for immediate reporting of incidents to the police, background checks for skilled caregivers, the structure around males working with women, the increased need for trained guardians, and coordination with various committees and organizations to prevent fraud and improve responses to Silver Alerts.

The meeting focused on reviewing and editing the 3 Pillars Document (Prevention, Early Detection, and Intervention & Management). Key discussion points included addressing inequities in socioeconomics, refining the goal of each pillar document, changing the Prevention Pillar to Pre-diagnosis/Risk Mitigation, changing Success to Impact, addressing end of life considerations, and planning for consultant needs. Sub-committees were assigned to work on specific pillars.