LTSS Newsletter— December 2022

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) sent this bulletin at 12/20/2022 09:00 AM EST

Stay tuned for the January 2023 LTSS webinar
American Indian/Alaska Native Long-Term Services and Supports

Technical assistance for culturally competent care
December 2022
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Promoting discussion of advance care plans

Research suggests that Native people who participate in culturally tailored conversations about end-of-life care are more likely to have an advance care plan.

However, opportunities for American Indians and Alaska Natives (AI/ANs) to participate in such conversations are limited.

Recognizing the need for more of those conversations to happen, an article in the fall 2022 issue of Generations Journal suggests:

  • Training Title VI staff to share information about advance care planning with AI/AN elders

  • Developing educational materials to help Title VI staff assist with advance care planning
     
   

Advance care planning at Southcentral Foundation

  
       
   

Patients with an advance care plan are more likely to receive health care services that are consistent with their wishes.

 

In March 2022, two health care professionals from Southcentral Foundation in Alaska delivered a presentation on their relationship-based approach to:

 

  • Helping patients come up with advance directives
  • Making sure those directives are carried out

 

To hear about that approach, visit the LTSS TA Center and watch The Many Facets of Advance Care Planning.

 

  

Addressing food insecurity among elders

Accessing enough nutritious food can be especially challenging for elders who are socially isolated or have limited transportation options.

 

Earlier this year, a series of four webinars addressed the topic of food insecurity among elders. Recordings, PowerPoint slides, and handouts from those webinars are now available on the Administration for Community Living website.

 

The webinars cover the following topics:

 

  • Combating food insecurity with collaboration
  • Promising practices to combat food insecurity
  • Identifying and screening for food insecurity
  • Referrals and interventions for elders with food insecurity

 

Workforce recruitment toolkit

LTSS providers continue to experience staffing challenges. That’s why LeadingAge created a workforce recruitment communications toolkit (PDF, 4.6 MB, 13 pp) to help recruit people for jobs in aging services.

 

Based on research to identify the job attributes and benefits that potential employees value (PDF, 2.5 MB, 30 pp), the toolkit offers:

 

  • Strategies to increase the appeal of jobs in aging services
  • Themes that resonate well with potential employees
  • Tips for talking with potential employees
  • Sample job postings
 Front cover of workforce recruitment communications toolkit
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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.
Upcoming webinar

Stay tuned for the January LTSS webinar

We hope you are enjoying our monthly LTSS webinars. Each month, we bring in experts from the field to share information on long-term services and supports for tribal elders and people with disabilities.

 

Please stay tuned for our next LTSS webinar on January 25, 2023. In the meantime, check out our January 2022 webinar, Managed Care and Home- and Community-Based Services.
Caregiver's corner

Guidance for caregivers of people with dementia

Caregivers of people with dementia can benefit from guidance to help them adapt activities and tasks to a care recipient’s changing abilities.

 

To that end, the International Association for Indigenous Aging (IA2) periodically trains people to serve as leaders for Savvy Caregiver in Indian Country, a culturally appropriate adaptation of an evidence-based program developed by the University of Minnesota.

 

A slide deck and two-part manual for program leaders are available on the IA2 website.

 Image from two-part manual's front cover, showing an elder's hands molding clay

 
Funding opportunities

Evidence-based fall prevention

Deadline: January 11, 2023
Learn more about the evidence-based fall prevention funding opportunity

The Administration for Community Living (ACL) is offering cooperative agreements to support implementation of evidence-based fall prevention programs for elders and people with disabilities.

 

ACL’s primary goals for this funding opportunity are to:

 

  • Develop capacity to increase participation in evidence-based fall prevention programs
  • Identify and implement one or more strategies to promote the sustainability of evidence-based fall prevention programs

 

Federally recognized tribes and tribal organizations are eligible to apply.
Upcoming events

Webinar on supportive services for grandfamilies

January 11, 2023, 2–3 p.m. Eastern

Register for the January 11 webinar

 

Many Native children are raised by grandparents, other relatives, or close family friends, all of whom could benefit from supportive services. Plan to attend a webinar that will cover:

 

  • How Area Agencies on Aging and Title VI Native American Aging Programs support kinship and grandfamilies
  • Why programs to support grandfamilies matter

 

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.

 

About the newsletter

American Indian/Alaska Native 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.
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Indian Health ServiceAdministration for Community Living