Judith Ruiz-Branch
Illinois News Connection
Illinois residents and elected officials are participating in a statewide day of advocacy to bring awareness to the Older Americans Act.
Services provided by the law could be at risk due to federal restructuring and funding cuts. A variety of services for older adults are provided by the federal program, including nutrition, transportation, health and education programs.
Diane Slezak, CEO of the advocacy group Age Options, said many of the home and community-based senior services under the law are interconnected. She explained without them, there could be dire consequences.
“There’ll be an increase in the number of people ending up in nursing homes,” Slezak projected. “It’s more expensive to care for people in an ER or in a nursing home bed than at home. So all of the services together that are provided under the Older Americans Act help to keep people out of poverty and out of more expensive health care.”
Last year, nearly 500,000 seniors across the state received services authorized by the law. Illinois annually receives about $53 million in funding for the services. The funding is scheduled to end in September.
Andrea Proulx Buinicki, CEO of the Meals on Wheels Foundation of Northern Illinois, with is one of the programs receiving federal funding under the act, said the organization provides about 1.2 million meals every year through their delivery and congregate programs.
She pointed out it is estimated malnourishment affects up to 50% of seniors and increases health care costs by up to 300%. Social isolation also creates $6.7 billion in health care costs each year.
“We really want to make sure that people are not just surviving but that they’re thriving,” Proulx Buinicki emphasized. “Two of the building blocks of a thriving person have to be healthy food and social connection. One of the results is that people are able to age with dignity in their homes.”
Marla Fronczak, CEO of the nonprofit AgeGuide Northeastern Illinois, said for every federal dollar the state receives, about $3 is leveraged at the local level for supportive services like caregivers, transportation and home health care.
“Big return on investment that we see in these programs,” Fronczak stressed. “We just want to make it clear to people that this is a great network, it’s been working for 60 years, supporting older adults in their homes, in the community where they belong, and it is a good investment.”
Fronczak added cuts to other safety net programs like SNAP, Medicaid and low income energy and heating assistance programs will create gaps their programs will have to fill.
