Agency Meetings & Activities in January

Veteran's Self-Directed Program   

Activities:

We have obtained our baseline data for our process improvement project (NIATx) and are now in the process of testing our change to hopefully decrease errors made by providers and participants submitting their timesheets for payment for services. We hope to have results within the next month.

Upcoming Meetings and Events

Staff is meeting with the Planning Council for Health and Human Services to begin to conduct the evaluation process for the Community Living Program (CLP) and the Veteran-Directed Home & Community-Based Services (VDHCBS) Program to be completed in September 2012.  

Veteran's Caregiver  Connections (VCC)   

The VCC Program's goal is to create a dementia-capable system with efficient referral processes that reduces family caregiver burden and delays nursing home placement for veterans with dementia.

Activities:

Lisa continues to hold caregiver programs and workshops and are referring and enrolling veterans and their families into additional programming opportunities.

Work on the DVD to educate veterans and their caregivers on Aging & Disability Resource Centers (ADRCs) and how they can provide assistance has been finalized.  A brochure is in development to  accompany the DVD; both will be posted on the GWAAR website.

Two caregiver events are in the planning stages to provide education to caregivers of veterans with dementia, as well as caregivers to other individuals with dementia. Tentatively scheduled for June 2012, events will take place in the Brookfield and Racine/Kenosha areas. More information to come.

For more information on these programs, contact Lisa Drouin. 

Volunteerism
Staff:  Janell Keeter & Lyndsay DeKeyser

Activities:  

The team met via conference call on January 11 with guest Mike Lew, member of GWAAR's Board of Directors, to discuss the role of volunteers. Mike discussed the importance of the match between an agency and volunteer, treating volunteers like paid employees, and helping volunteers and the agency get the most out of their experience. Our team agreed with his views on volunteerism and appreciated the opportunity to collaborate with an actual volunteer.

Team members had a conference call on January 18 with Chris Rutledge from AARP regarding the Money Management Program (MMP). This program utilizes trained volunteers to help low-income older adults and people with disabilities who have difficulty budgeting, paying routine bills, and keeping track of financial matters. AARP is allowing us to share and replicate their materials so that counties can develop their own unique MMP. The team will discuss this at the April PSA meetings.

Learn more about GWAAR's Volunteerism activities and technical assistance.

Pam VanKampen and Mike Glasgow (along with GWAAR colleagues John Schnabl, Bob Kellerman, Jill Ballard, Kris Krasnowski, and Valeree Lecey) continue to be involved with the Elderly Nutrition Program Modernization statewide task force.  The team is also working on nutrition program local-level modernization projects with Eau Claire and Bayfield Counties.

Pam completed nutrition education and theme month materials for the first quarter of 2012.

Mike was awarded a grant through the Meals on Wheels Association of America and attended their Senior Nutrition Institute training in Orlando in January. 

Medicare Education & Counseling

Staff: Peg Nugent (Statewide Medicare Trainer & Counselor/MIPPA Coordinator),
Jane Mahoney (Eau Claire, Clark, and Dunn Counties), Debbie Bisswurm (Waukesha County)

Activities: 

The entire Medicare team has also been working to update their related portions of their sections of the GWAAR website.  This is extensive work because of all the materials with changes in Medicare costs, asset limits, and income limits since November 2011.

Peg Nugent completed data analysis of new zip code targets for Medicare Improvements for Patients & Providers Act (MIPPA) outreach to share with MIPPA awardees at the next quarterly conference call. 

Peg also participated in several other advocacy calls and research related to the Virtual PACE demonstration project (see Wisconsin Aging Network Advocacy Work Group).   

Peg is also preparing materials for the quarterly report on MIPPA outreach that will be submitted in early February.  Results will be reported in Program Updates--so stay tuned!

Jane Mahoney continued writing articles for outreach and scheduling presentations; she presented at a senior apartment complex in Eau Claire in January. 

Debbie Bisswurm met with and provided Medicare resources to the staff at St. Vincent de Paul of Waukesha County and with an outreach worker at Interfaith of Waukesha.  She continued to focus Medicare outreach on churches in Waukesha County, meeting with staff and providing resource kits at four locations. She also continued outreach with social service staff at area hospitals and scheduled Medicare presentations.

Find more information about GWAAR's Medicare Counseling and Training project. 

Key issue:
The State Legislature established the Transportation Finance and Policy Commission as part of the 2011-13 budget to examine issues related to the future of transportation finance in Wisconsin, including:  

• Highway maintenance, rehabilitation, and expansion projects
• Local aid and assistance programs, including general transportation aids (this includes 85.21 and 85.215 funding)
• Transportation fund revenue projections
• Transportation fund debt service
• Options to achieve balance between revenues, expenditures, and debt service
• Impact of highway project planning on abutting property

Activities:
Carrie Porter distributed advocacy materials and talking points to aging units in advance of the Transportation Finance and Policy Commission public hearings that will be held through May. The emphasis for aging units can be rebalancing the transportation fund to create more transportation options that will be needed as the population ages.

As part of the LogistiCare Advisory Council, Carrie continued to get calls about issues with the medical assistance (MA) brokerage system and is compiling a list of discussion points for the meeting or with Department of Health Services (DHS) staff prior to the next meeting in February.

Carrie is working on materials to assist with development or revitalization of transportation committees. If aging units would like more information while these are being drafted, please contact Carrie directly.

The transportation webpage Process Improvement project initiated by Carrie and Kris Krasnowski was successfully completed in January.  Project outcomes included a more than 90% improvement in the amount of time it took testers to find information in the transportation section of the GWAAR website.
 

Learn more about GWAAR's activities in the area of Elderly & Disabled Transportation.  

Activities:

The team had a conference call with Lynn Gall (Bureau of Aging & Disabilty Resources) to discuss the National Family Caregiver Support Program (NFCSP) Assessment Process. The annual assessment will now be tied in with the aging unit plan assessment. 

The team met January 6 and 23 in preparation for a presentation at the American Society on Aging (ASA) Conference in Washington, D.C., on March 30.  

The team is part of the NFCSP training planning committee and met on January 9 by phone. They also participated in the quarterly NFCSP statewide conference call on January 30. 

The team will collect and review the 2011 Caregiver Coalition grantee final reports, due January 31. 

Lyndsay DeKeyser facilitated (and the team participated) in the Grandparents Raising Grandchildren (GRG) advisory group call on January 23. This group plans for the GRG portion of the quarterly NFCSP statewide calls.  She also participated in a webinar titled, "Finding and Engaging Volunteers in Relatives as Parents Program (RAPP) and Dealing with Dual Relationships in Volunteer/Client Roles."  She will send shared materials to NFCSP coordinators and GRG contacts. 

In addition, Lyndsay and Lynn Gall hosted the quarterly Alzheimer's Family Caregiver Support Program (AFCSP) statewide call on January 13. 

Janell Keeter attended a planning meeting on January 26 for the State Alzheimer's Conference. 

Claire Culbertson led a web-based Share The Care Station training for the Appleton and Waupaca areas on January 31. In addition, she worked with the LGBT community to develop a workshop for the September Aging Network Conference. 

Jane Mahoney (along with John Schnabl and grantwriter Carrie Rothsbrud) helped develop a grant proposal to establish Respite Care Time Banks in Vernon and Monroe Counties.  The grant is being offered by MetLife for innovative caregiving programs. In addition, Jane is a member of a caregiver coalition for St. Croix, Pierce, Dunn, and Polk counties.  They have monthly meetings to plan for a regional caregiver conference  held in September.

Learn more about GWAAR's Family Caregiver Support Program activities and technical assistance. 

Team: Janell Keeter, Jill Ballard, Lyndsay DeKeyser, Pam VanKampen, Valeree Lecey 

Activities:

The team held an in-person meeting in Stevens Point on January 25. 

The team completed Dimensions of Wellness--an employee wellness initiative that received very positive feedback from those who participated.

The Evidence-Based Prevention Program Coordinating Committee (EBPPCC) met on January 17 at the Wisconsin Institute for Healthy Aging (WIHA) office in Madison. The Health Promotion Team is part of this committee. 

Janell Keeter met with Oneida Tribe to plan the Living Well leader training to be held in Green Bay in February. She and Valeree Lececy also met to  plan the Stepping On leader training to be held in Wausau in February. 

Valeree Lecey assisted Anne Hvizdak (State EBPP Coordinator) in training five Stepping On leaders to become Stepping On fidelity coaches. She continued to work with Dr. Jane Mahoney and her staff and the University of Wisconsin Department of Engineering's Active Aging Research Center (AARC) staff on the E-CHESS (Elderly-Center for Health Enhancement System Studies) project related to Stepping On and falls prevention. 

Lyndsay DeKeyser is collecting and reviewing the semi-annual reports for the four HomeMeds grantees (Dane; Milwaukee; Vernon; and the ADRC serving Green Lake, Marquette, and Waushara Counties). 

Pam VanKampen completed the first quarter theme month and nutrition education materials, many of which are health promotion-related, which will be posted on the GWAAR website. 

Jill Ballard is working on assisting five Community-Academic Aging Research Network (CAARN) projects in applying for funding.

Learn more about GWAAR's Health Promotion activities and technical assistance.