The Illinois Department of Aging (IDoA) has released a comprehensive plan to address the needs of older adults. The multisector plan – titled “EngAging Illinois: A Comprehensive Plan for Living Well” – features strategies designed to elevate the quality of life for senior citizens and caregivers while keeping them involved in community leadership and service.
The state built the plan on four pillars, establishing a blueprint developed through input from 15 state agencies, a 25-member council, aging and caregiving experts and nine public engagement sessions. These focus areas include:
- Creating Livable and Connected Communities.
- Ensuring Health for All Ages.
- Investing in Caregivers.
- Affording Aging.
The plan will implement a series of policies and actions to provide support and resources across multiple sectors for aging residents, including community development, health, housing, financial services, work and more.
Although the state will pursue dozens of strategies and initiatives over the next decade, the IDoA highlighted 10 top priorities to build a transformative, supportive framework for elderly residents across Illinois. Among these priorities, the IDoA will develop and deploy a comprehensive website that will serve as a resource center for aging individuals. The online portal will pull from a repository of existing knowledge to make resources, programs, services and benefits more accessible to residents.
As housing remains a prominent concern for elderly residents, the program will create new housing models and expand affordable, accessible housing for people of all ages. In a related effort, the IDoA plans to improve cost efficiency and align home and community-based service (HCBC) modernization with the needs for older adults and people with disabilities. Modernization efforts will involve evaluating the current HCBS assessment tool and potentially replace it, ensuring maximation of Medicaid Administrative Claiming and investing in cross-agency IT infrastructure.
The state will also execute transportation infrastructure projects to help address ongoing mobility and accessibility issues. The Blue-Ribbon Commission on Transportation Infrastructure will lead the charge on implementing critical solutions to resolve these challenges for older people.
To better advance conditions and designed to foster positive aging, plans include establishing the Statewide Academic Collaborative on Aging. The collaborative will provide universities and colleges with a vehicle to conduct partnerships, collaborative research, education, enhanced workforce training and support for policies, programs and services targeted at supporting older demographics.
As caregivers play an essential role in improving the livelihoods of senior citizens and people with disabilities, the state will launch a statewide comprehensive awareness campaign providing care givers of all ages to access support through the online portal. Additional top priorities covered by the plan include:
- Achieving a statewide age-friendly designation and provide implementation support to increase the number of age- and dementia-friendly communities.
- Advancing the statewide Healthy Illinois 2028 initiative to improve health and advance health equity.
- Provide training on geriatrics and age-related topics in all residency, health professions training and certificate programs.
- Develop a streamlined application to help residents understand and access benefit programs and financial education tools.
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