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LTSS Training and Technical Assistance Center
Visit the online LTSS TA Center for videos, best practices, toolkits, a resource library, and a step-by-step planning roadmap.
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Sundowning: Tips for caregivers
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As the sun sets in the late afternoon and evening, some people with dementia experience confusion or mood swings. This issue is called sundowning and the reasons for it are not fully clear. However, being tired, feeling depressed or bored, or experiencing pain may make sundowning more likely or worsen symptoms.
The National Institute on Aging provides tips for caregivers to help them recognize signs of sundowning, avoid situations that contribute to late-day confusion, and prepare to ease the patient’s stress.
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Connecting elders to health care coverage
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The National Indian Health Board offers resources that help American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) elders understand their health care coverage benefits and options. Some of the tools to help you discuss coverage with elders include:
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Choosing a care setting for elders
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For many families, deciding to move elders from home-based care to a nursing home or other facility is a difficult choice. Sometimes, services are available in the elder’s community that can help them stay at home, such as health care, housekeeping, and transportation. However, sometimes families decide their elder needs the support of a nursing home or other facility. This guidance from the National Institute on Aging can help family members decide whether their loved one should continue to receive care at home or move to a care facility.
Culturally sensitive care is an important consideration in deciding where a tribal elder will feel most comfortable. Many tribes and other programs operate long-term care facilities that provide culturally appropriate care by speaking the elder’s native language, preparing traditional foods, and engaging in traditional activities. Download the LTSS in Our Community: Assisted Living Summary Report (PDF, 1.18 MB, 17 pp) to learn more about how assisted living centers emphasize cultural competency.
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Assisting developmentally disabled sexual assault survivors
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American Indians and Alaska Natives with disabilities have one of the highest rates of sexual assault in the country, according to the National Indian Country Clearinghouse on Sexual Assault. Additionally, the Clearinghouse reports that women with cognitive disabilities are 4 times more likely to be sexually assaulted than women without disabilities.
One factor that contributes to these high rates of sexual assault is the difficulty some people with disabilities have communicating with health care workers and law enforcement about what happened to them. New tools from the Arc’s National Center on Criminal Justice and Disability and the Board Resource Center (BRC) are designed to help health care workers discuss sexual assault with women who have developmental disabilities.
Talk About Sexual Violence helps health care professionals have simple, honest conversations about sexual violence with women with intellectual disabilities. Materials include a training guide and two short videos: “How to Have the Conversation” and “Kecia Meets with Her Doctor.”
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LTSS video: Home-based care
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A new CMS LTSS video, Home-Based Care for Elders and Tribal Members with Disabilities, highlights ways tribes can help tribal citizens in their own homes, with services like prescription management, meals, and transportation to medical appointments.
The video is one in a series that features Kiowa-Choctaw artist and filmmaker Steven Paul Judd describing ways tribes can provide long-term care to elders and people with disabilities.
Find more information about how tribes can offer tribal elders and people with disabilities services in their homes on the Home- and Community-based Services page of the LTSS TA Center. This page offers information on funding sources, types of home-based care, and examples of tribally run home-based care programs.
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New Medicare cards arrive this spring
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Starting this spring, older adults will begin to receive new Medicare cards. To help protect elders from identity theft, these new cards will replace social security numbers with Medicare numbers that are unique to each beneficiary.
You can use the CMS Medicare messaging guidelines (PDF, 106 KB, 3 pp) to share these changes with elders in your community. To help prevent identity theft, remind elders to guard their cards.
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Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians, Tai Ji Quan: Moving for Better Balance Elders Program
Wednesday, January 24, 2018
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Join us to learn about how the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians adapted the Tai Ji Quan Moving for Better Balance program to support the health of its tribal elders.
Designed for elders, the program teaches about balance, self-awareness, and controlled body movements for daily activity. The Moving for Better Balance Elders Program helps elders rebuild and retrain their bodies to move at varying speeds, improve their range of motion, and stabilize their balance to help prevent falls.
Objectives:
- Learn how to adapt an evidence-based practice for American Indian and Alaska Native communities
- Prepare to increase elder awareness about the risk of falls and ways to reduce it
- Discover the similarities between some Tai Ji Quan moves and the cultural beliefs of the Anishinaabe
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Please note your
location's call-in time:
9 a.m. Hawaii
10 a.m. Alaska
11 a.m. Pacific
12 p.m. Mountain
1 p.m. Central
2 p.m. Eastern
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Arlene M. Naganashe, R.N., M.S.N.
Elder Director
Little Traverse Bay Bands Elders Department
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Tammy Shananaquet-Okuly, R.N., A.D.N.
Elder Outreach Coordinator
Little Traverse Bay Bands Elders Department
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Marlene Gasco
Health Heart Educator
Little Traverse Bay Bands Community Health Department
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Join the conversation on LinkedIn
Want to learn more about or discuss LTSS in Indian Country? Looking to connect with others working in the same field? Join the Tribal Affairs Group on LinkedIn and join the conversation.
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Send Us Your News
Do you have news to share about LTSS in Indian Country? Send it to ltssinfo@kauffmaninc.com, and we’ll include it in a newsletter. Contact us with other comments or feedback, too.
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About the Newsletter
Long-Term Services and Supports Solutions is published monthly by the CMS Division of Tribal Affairs to share information, funding opportunities, and resources with LTSS planners, tribal leaders, and supporters.
Download Adobe Reader for the best reading experience with PDF files.
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