In the News

Issue Briefs Section debuts with Mental Health and Substance Abuse Brief

The ATW Indicator Issue Briefs Series provides a series of concise articles, organized around topics from within the 16 life areas. Each brief will draw from national data to reflect on Texas’ survey results, compare the 2004 and 2008 data where significant differences occur, and explore current initiatives throughout Texas and the nation.

Aging Texas Well Indicators Survey Overview Report 2009 now available

The Aging Texas Well Indicators Survey Overview Report evaluates and measures successful aging activities in Texans age 60 and older living in the community. Based on telephone interviews with over 1,000 Texans aged 60 and older, the survey provides information on how these individuals think about themselves and the communities in which they live relative to successful aging.

2008-2009 Aging Texas Well Plan now available

The 2008-2009 Aging Texas Well (ATW) Plan is Texas Department of Aging and Disability Services' (DADS') response to the mandates contained in Executive Order RP 42. The executive order mandates that DADS create and disseminate a comprehensive and effective working plan to identify and discuss aging policy issues, guide state government readiness and promote increased community preparedness for an aging Texas. With guidance from the Aging Texas Well Advisory Committee, DADS will update the plan every two years.

Stakeholder Recommendations to Improve Recruitment, Retention, and the Perceived Status of Paraprofessional Direct Service Workers in Texas

Stakeholder Recommendations to Improve Recruitment, Retention, and the Perceived Status of Paraprofessional Direct Service Workers in Texas is the product of the Texas Direct Service Workforce (DSW) Initiative. The report includes background information about the DSW, methods used to collect and analyze stakeholder input and 14 overarching recommendations stakeholders made to improve workforce turnover and the perceived status of the paraprofessional DSW in Texas (June 2008).

Kaiser Commission Releases New Long-term Services and Supports Report

For the foreseeable future, Medicaid will remain the major financing system for long-term services and supports in our nation, and the only one addressing the needs of low-income Americans. Cost concerns drive much of the policy discussion concerning Medicaid's role as a provider of long-term care, but as in other areas of health care, there is increasing focus on quality and indicators that can be used to evaluate quality of care across providers and settings. Innovations in program design that allow coverage of a broad continuum of services and supports, more consumer involvement, and expansions in access (e.g., buy-in provision for higher income families of disabled children) are currently counterbalanced by a confusing array of eligibility criteria, inequities in access to services across and within states, and financial standards that require impoverishment to qualify. The needs for long-term services and supports that Medicaid addresses will not lessen in coming years; they will likely grow. The challenges for those who finance, design and provide long-term care under the Medicaid program are to align incentives to ensure access, meet needs, and provide cost-effective high quality services and supports to low-income elderly and disabled Americans. Read the report.