NYSOFA Recognizes the Aging Services Network Efforts to Assist Older New Yorkers and Their Families During Pandemic

COVID-19 Pandemic Highlighted the Importance of Area Agencies on Aging (AAAs) Work in Support of Older Adults

Governor's Executive Orders Provided Maximum Flexibility to AAAs and Community-Based Providers

Albany, NY – The New York State Office for the Aging (NYSOFA) recognized the aging services network, including the 59 Area Agencies on Aging (AAAs) and their almost 1,200 community partners, staff, and dedicated volunteers for their outstanding service assisting older New Yorkers and their caregivers during the Coronavirus pandemic.

“NYSOFA and the AAAs continue to provide life-saving services in the fight against COVID, including ensuring home-delivered meals, grocery and supply delivery, and prescription drug delivery,” Director Greg Olson said. “They have also provided transportation to critical medical appointments - such as dialysis and cancer treatments, combatting social isolation, as well as scam prevention and elder abuse identification and mitigations continued with little interruption.”

The network is currently working to help Older New Yorkers access vaccines by helping schedule and secure appointments, identifying homebound individuals who need a mobile vaccine and providing transportation to vaccine sites when required.

The COVID-19 pandemic presents new risks and magnifies existing threats to the health and wellbeing of older adults. During the pandemic, stay-at-home orders reduced older New Yorkers' ability to shop for groceries and pick up prescriptions safely. It also limited their access to informal supports and social engagement from friends and family.

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of AAAs work supporting older adults – and especially during a disaster. According to a study by the Lerner Center for Public Health Promotion at Syracuse University, AAAs were critical in reducing the public health impact for vulnerable populations like New York State’s older adults.

The study concludes that AAAs rapidly expanded capacity and dramatically modified their program offerings, communications activities, and service delivery to address emergent needs and minimize COVID-19 exposure risk for staff and clients. Participants described diverse approaches to service delivery during the pandemic, reflecting differences in AAAs' geographic and political context and the needs and preferences of older adults in their communities.  

Director Olsen pointed out that New York State served almost 30 million meals during the pandemic to more than 300,000 older adults. Before the pandemic, New York State served more meals to older adults than any other state in the nation. During the pandemic, the massive uptick of meals only widened New York's leadership in home-delivered meals.

NYSOFA launched several new initiatives during the pandemic, including:

• Establishing a virtual senior center model to bring programming to older adults in their homes.
• Partnering to purchase more than 50,000 classes older adults can access to stay connected and combat social isolation.
• Partnering to expand transportation options to older New Yorkers through Go Go Grandparent and provide an economic opportunity to older adults to become transportation vendors.
• Launching the Animatronic Pet Project to combat social isolation.
• Partnering with the Developmental Disabilities Planning Council to cross-train aging services professionals to better serve older adults who are caring for an individual with an Intellectual or Developmental Disability.
• Partnering with the NYS Council on the Arts to bring arts programming into the homes of older adults.
• Launching a multi-county pilot with an evidence-based intervention that uses complex analytics to identify caregiver burnout, which is a leading cause of placing an older adult in a higher level of care.
• Working with the Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services to bring FEMA resources to the State to continue to meet the nutritional needs of older adults.
• Partnering with the NYS Department of Health and Hospital Association of New York State to better integrate clinical and community-based care to improve outcomes for older adults under the Age-Friendly Health System priority.
• Changing our business model to allow the aging network to provide services differently to slow the spread of the virus while meeting the needs of older adults.

COVID-19 also strengthened NYSOFA's existing partnerships with sister agencies. NYSOFA worked even more collaboratively to meet needs, such as with the Department of Agriculture and Markets on access to food, the Department of Labor on connecting working caregivers to local supports, the Department of Health (DOH) on all COVID-related issues, and the Office of Mental Health on combatting social isolation and addressing COVID-related issues such as anxiety and depression.

About the New York State Office for the Aging

The mission of the New York State Office for the Aging (NYSOFA) is to help older New Yorkers be as independent as possible for as long as possible through advocacy, development, and delivery of person-centered, consumer-oriented, and cost-effective policies, programs, and services that support and empower older adults and their families, in partnership with the network of public and private organizations that serve them. Stay connected to the New York State Office for the Aging—download the NYSOFA mobile app for iOS or Android; visit the NYSOFA Facebook page; follow @NYSAGING on Twitter; or visit www.aging.ny.gov.

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CONTACT:

Kelly Mateja  |  Kelly.Mateja@aging.ny.gov  |  518-473-7424

John Cochran  |John.Cochran@aging.ny.gov |  518-486-3661