DCOA E*News At-A-Glance
Nearly 500 seniors, caregivers, providers and stakeholders attended the Mayor's Second Annual Senior Symposium: An Age-Friendly City held at the Omni Shoreham Hotel, 2500 Calvert Street, NW. Mayor Gray opened the event announcing several new initiatives including the Silver Alert Program, two RFAs for senior villages and transportation and the Nursing Home Transition Program.
Dr. Ruth Finkelstein, Senior Vice President of Policy and Planning of the New York Academy of Medicine (NYAM) facilitated the plenary session which asked a series of questions, collecting data from participants and beginning the discussion of Age-Friendly DC. The session was similar to the recent District sponsored One City Summit with seniors using handheld devices to answer questions. Answers were generated real time on large screens allowing participants to see the results of each question after the response period.
After lunch, participants had the opportunity to attend workshops to discuss each of the domains necessary to create an Age-Friendly City. The event also included an exhibit hall featuring health screenings, information from community based organizations, government agencies and business providing senior resources. A technology center was also available to connect seniors with online government benefits and other services including Smart 911. The technology center also provided demonstrations of various electronic devices including iPads, cellular phones, tablets and laptops.
Partners for the event included the NYAM, the Department of Health and Rand Corporation who will assist with future events to gather information from District residents. Other support from the event was provided by Verizon and MedStar.
At the Second Annual Age-Friendly City Senior Symposium, Mayor Vincent C. Gray announced a new public-safety initiative to aid in the location of vulnerable missing seniors: the District of Columbia Silver Alert Program. The Silver Alert Program, led by the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD), will coordinate the response among other District government agencies – including the District Department of Transportation (DDOT), D.C. Homeland Security and Emergency Management (HSEMA), and the Office on Aging (DCOA) – to promptly identify and locate seniors 65 years of age and older who are reported as missing in the District. (Read more here)
DCOA has reissued the Request for Applications (RFA) for the Washington Elderly Handicapped Transportation Service (WEHTS). WEHTS provides quality curb-to-curb
service for District residents 60 years of age and older to essential medical
and life sustaining appointments. Operations also include transportation
to sites and activities, the Call-N-Ride taxicab voucher program and Home
Delivered Meal (HDM) Program. Federal and District of Columbia
appropriated funds are available for a single or collaborative applicant
organization to operate one or up to four transportation services. The RFA is
available on the Office on Aging’s website, www.dcoa.dc.gov and on the Office of
Partnerships and Grant Services’ website, www.opgd.dc.gov. There will be a Pre-Application Workshop on May 15 to provide additional information to interested applicants. The RFA submission deadline is June 10, 2013 at 4:30 pm. No late applications
will be accepted. For more information, contact Aurora Delespin-Jones or Brenda
L. Turner at 202-724-8821.
The Office on Aging is soliciting applications from qualified
applicants to plan, develop, organize, implement and sustain “Aging in
Place” programs for wards 7 & 8 in the District. The programs should enable District residents age 60
years and older residing in a specific neighborhood to enjoy safer,
healthier and more independent lives in their own homes. There are many
models and examples of “Aging in Place” programs such as the “senior
village.” The “Village” concept is based on the Beacon Hill Village
model developed in Boston, Massachusetts (beaconhillvillage.org) to
assist seniors living in that neighborhood by partnering with and
connecting them to needed resources and service providers. As a
nonprofit, membership organization, the village can provide a variety of
programs and services more cost-effectively than most conventional
retirement communities are able to provide. The RFA deadline for submission is June 7, 2013 at 4:30 pm. A Pre-Application Conference will be held on May 17 at 10 am. To view the RFA and for more information, visit the dcoa.dc.gov or opgd.dc.gov.
Join Dr.
Regina Benjamin, U.S. Surgeon General, and Kathy Greenlee, Administrator of the
Administration for Community Living and Assistant Secretary for Aging, for a
one mile walk around Capitol Hill as part of the Surgeon General’s Every Body
Walk! Initiative. The walk
with be held on May 15 from 12- 1 pm. Participants will start and
finish in front of the Hubert H. Humphrey Building, U.S. Department of Health
and Human Services, 200 Independence Ave SW, Washington, DC.
Have you or a loved one been admitted prematurely into a nursing home or long term care facility?
Are you interested in returning to the community?
If the answer is yes, contact the DCOA Nursing Home Transition Team. The team will begin the process of determining if residing in the community is the best option for you. For more information, contact Mikaell Briscoe at 202-724-5626.
WORLD ELDER ABUSE AWARENESS DAY
Saturday, June 15, 2013
The Advocates For Elder Justice
Hilda and Charles Mason
Charitable Foundation, Inc.
Presents
Symposium
on Elder Abuse and Exploitation
-
Seldom Recognized Signs
of Abuse
-
Reporting Requirements
-
Medical, Legal and
Social Services Resources
-
Respite Services
-
Abuse and Exploitation
Prevention
10
am – 2 pm
Living Word Church
4101 Martin Luther
King, Jr. Ave., SW
Washington, DC 20032
www.advocatesforelderjustice.org
For more information, contact 202- 723- 2939.
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