·       Western and Central New York’s elderly comprise 17.7% of the population. This figure is higher than the United States (16.3%) and New York State (16.9%) averages. In five of our counties, roughly one of every five residents is 60 years of age or older.

·       The current healthcare system, much of which is driven by financing issues instead of people’s needs, doesn’t meet the needs of the elderly. The frail elderly are often driven unnecessarily to institutional care such as nursing homes.

·       The providers and influencers of health care operate in a fragmented system with numerous organizations and providers that don’t work together, to the detriment of the elderly and their families trying to negotiate the system.

Our Goal for Frail Elders: Improved overall quality of life

To achieve this goal, we will work to promote:

·       Coordinated care that respects elders’ preferences and meets their healthcare needs in the least restrictive setting with the best possible health results

·       Providers who are skilled with geriatric concerns and make possible care for the whole person

·       Families and communities supportive of options for care and of informed decision-making by elders, their caregivers and the community 

Key Foundation Initiatives

Promises to Keep:

An initiative focused on early onset of frailty when community supports and non-institutional alternatives can enhance self-sufficiency and quality of life.

 

Currently under development, this Initiative is designed to increase the availability and sustainability of approaches to maintaining frail persons in the community with dignity.

 

While the current array of long term care services exhibits many fine qualities, there is widespread agreement that changes are necessary:

 

·         People wish to remain in their own homes as long as possible and when not, the alternate setting should be residential in character.

·         The system is unbalanced reflecting a history of care in institutional settings

·         Medicaid support of long term care represents a heavy burden for both state and county budgets now and even more so in the future.

·         The sustainability over time of long term care, as we know it, is questionable.

 

Along with committed, engaged partners, CHF will be working to develop a strategy for Upstate New York to tip the balance of services for most frail elders from the current institutionally-based system to a more person-centered, community-based system of care.

 

Fulfilling Good Intentions:

A multi-year, multi-track initiative designed to sustain quality of care, quality of decision-making and quality of life for elders whose frailty has advanced to the point where traditional curative approaches are no longer likely to be sufficient.

Fulfilling Good Intentions incorporates these concepts:

·         patient centered care in which the well-informed preferences of the individual come first and are honored by their families and providers;

·         the highest quality of appropriate medical care;

·         palliative care, which is care designed for mitigation of pain and suffering;

·         physicians, nurses and institutional health care providers participating in coordinated approaches to care; and

·         committed families and communities carrying out their roles in achieving these goals.

With Fulfilling Good Intentions, the foundation is positioned to fundamentally catalyze improved quality of care through support for the three necessary components of successful efforts:

·         Community Involvement and Engagement

·         Provider Education

·         System Improvement

 

Visit the “What’s Happening” page to find out about our current projects related to these initiatives.