As the number of coronavirus cases increased among older adults in long-term care facilities in Kalamazoo County, the Area Agency on Aging Region IIIA created a Long-Term Care Facility (LTCF) Task Force in partnership with the public health department to provide community education and initiate preventive measures to safeguard this vulnerable population. In collaboration with the public health department, the LTCF Task Force worked to eliminate group activities, increase personal protective equipment, rearrange rooms to allow for isolation when necessary and test for COVID-19 in older adults, as well as the staff caring for them.

When communities across southern Arizona shut down in mid-March due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Pima Council on Aging (PCOA) wanted to create a regularly scheduled outreach channel to give older adults in its community something engaging and informative to look forward to.

After clients began reaching out to Appalachian Agency for Senior Citizens (AASC) with concerns about visiting pharmacies to pick up their prescriptions during the COVID-19 pandemic, AASC staff brainstormed ways they might be able to help older adults who live in more rural areas where pharmacies may not deliver. After talking with pharmacies AASC had existing relationships with, AASC staff developed an emergency medication delivery policy that allows AASC staff to pick up a client’s prescription from the pharmacy and deliver it to the older adult’s home following a client request. Given that the local pharmacies have worked with AASC for years, AASC already has a delivery policy in place for its PACE program and AASC staff have undergone background checks, the pharmacies felt comfortable that AASC staff would be able to follow the appropriate medication delivery chain of control.

With the COVID-19 pandemic sweeping the country, Pima Council on Aging (PCOA) looked to new ways it could help Pima County residents get the nutrition they need while staying safe and healthy. With emergency federal funding from the Families First Coronavirus Response Act and the CARES Act providing an opportunity for PCOA to increase its home-delivered meals from five to seven meals per week and switch to grab-n-go meals for participants in the congregate meals program, PCOA also began exploring the idea of partnering with low-income apartment complexes in the community to help older adults stay safe and nourished at home.

When North Carolina first began considering a stay-at-home order at the start of the COVID-19 crisis, the Centralina Area Agency on Aging cancelled all in-person workshops. Staff began listening to national and federal webinars on to learn about options they could use to deliver online health programs, specifically evidence-based programs.

n4a has interviewed several AAA directors from the hardest-hit areas of the country to learn how they prepared for and are addressing COVID-19 outbreaks in their communities. Read on for an interview with Emily Shea, Commissioner of the Boston Age Strong Commission, the AAA in Boston—or listen in instead!

n4a has interviewed several AAA directors from the hardest-hit areas of the country to learn how they prepared for and are addressing COVID-19 outbreaks in their communities. The below interview is with Mae Carpenter, Commissioner of Westchester County’s Department of Senior Programs and Services in New York. As part of New York state and because it is in close proximity to New York City, Mae’s agency has, unfortunately, seen a large number of coronavirus cases. Today we’ll talk with Mae to learn how she and her agency is handling the crisis.

Recently, n4a began interviewing AAA directors from the hardest-hit areas of the country to learn how they prepared for and are addressing COVID-19 outbreaks in their communities. Read our interview with Shireen McSpadden, Executive Director of the San Francisco Department of Disability and Aging Services and n4a Board Member. Shireen and her team have been operating under a shelter-in-place order since March 16. Shireen’s perspective is unique as she is both a AAA director and president of the California Association of Area Agencies on Aging.

Recently, n4a began interviewing AAA directors from the hardest-hit areas of the country to learn how they prepared for and are addressing COVID-19 outbreaks in their communities. Read our interview with Cathy Knight, Director of Aging and Disability Services for Seattle-King County. As Cathy says during the interview, it is times like this “when you understand what it means to be mission driven.”

Because helping older adults meet their nutrition needs has always been central to the mission of AAAs, n4a is working to help our members ensure that older adults in their communities have access to nutritious food, particularly as the nation weathers the COVID-19 national health crisis.

Given the incredible demand for nutrition resources to meet the unique needs of older adults during the COVID-19 crisis, n4a and the National Association of Nutrition and Aging Services Providers (NANASP) have entered into an agreement with Tivity Health® to help fill any food product gaps our members are experiencing.

The Council on Aging of Southwestern Ohio (COA), the state-designated Area Agency on Aging for Southwest Ohio, provides care management as well as home and community-based services to more than 25,000 individuals in its region. COA was able to provide care transitions with funding from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ Community-based Care Transitions Program (CCTP). But when CCTP funding ended, COA’s care transitions program did not. COA found a way to braid together local and federal funding to support a scaled-down version of its CCTP program. Called Fast Track Home, the program has grown and is now in place in most large hospitals in Cincinnati, OH.