The Benefits Of The Prevention And Public Health Fund

The Older Americans Act (OAA) funds critical services that keep older adults healthy and independent—services like meals, job training, senior centers, caregiver support, transportation, health promotion, benefits enrollment, and more. The Act is overdue for reauthorization—and Congress needs to seize this opportunity to update and renew its commitment to these programs and those they serve. To ensure America’s aging population is able to maintain and live healthy lives provisions are needed to the current OAA. These provisions include:

Since 1980, the United States has taken on 10-year plans that outline certain key national health objectives set to be accomplished during a 10-year timeframe (Shi & Singh, 2015). These initiatives are founded on medical care with prevention services, health promotion, education, community health care, and increased access to integrated services. The initiative, Healthy People 2010: Healthy People in Healthy Communities, launched in 2000. The initiative emphasizes the role of community partners such as

“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” This saying goes to show that investing in preventative care is the only way to effectively reform health care plans in America. It is no secret that there are many issues facing health care; however, the most important issue seems to be the lack of funding for preventative care. Redistributing health care related funds into areas like public health and preventative medicine can increase the overall quality of life for patients. If health care reform revolves around preventative medicine, then America’s standard of health will rise. A healthier society will lessen the demand for expensive life-saving surgeries, thus decreasing the overall cost of health care. The overall solution for this issue would be to set a realistic health care budget that correlates to the United States’ current standard of health, thus majority of the budget focuses on preventative medicine.

Department of Health & Human Services, 2015). These provisions were aimed at providing new protections for health insurance consumers, lowering the cost and improving the quality of health care, and increasing access to health insurance and affordable care. While many of the ACA’s provisions had implications for community health centers, the ones that impacted them most directly were the expansion of Medicaid and availability of subsidized health insurance through exchanges and the creation of the Community Health Center Fund, which allocated $11 billion in new funding through fiscal year 2015 for operations, capital projects, and expansion of services to enable community health centers to serve an anticipated 20 million newly insured patients (National Association of Community Health Centers, n.d.; “Valley Community Healthcare,” 2015).

The Elder Justice Act was passed on March 23, 2010 as part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) as the first piece of federal legislation to allow funds to address elder abuse, neglect and exploitation nationwide (Federal Laws, 2015). Part I of the Elder Abuse Act is the Elder Justice Coordinating Council made up of federal government representatives charged with the responsibility of coming up with programs for the promotion of elder justice. They have to provide recommendations to the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services on the issues of abuse, neglect and exploitation of the elderly. Then there are 27 professionals from the general public who are to give recommendations to the Coordinating Council as well. Part II of the Elder Justice Act talks about funding and enhancing long-term care. Long-term care is important because you need programs committed to training long-term staff,

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention mission is to collaborate to create information and tools for people and communities to protect themselves through health promotion, prevention of disease, injury and disability, and the preparedness for new health threats The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention seeks to accomplish its mission by working with partners throughout the nation and the world to monitor health, detect and investigates health problems, conduct research to enhance prevention, develop and advocate sound public health policies, implement prevention strategies, promote health behaviors, foster safe and healthful environments, and provide leadership training. In order for the Centers for Disease to achieve their mission, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention relies on external partners including public health association, state and local public health agencies, schools and universities, and volunteer organizations. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has a created a set of four health protection goals. The goals are all people especially those at a greater risk of health disparities will achieve their optimal life span, the place where people live, work, learn, and play will protect and promote their health and safety, people in all communities will be protected from infectious, occupational environmental, and terrorist threats, and people around the world will

By the numbers, Alzheimer’s disease looks even worse than it may be. The cost of Alzheimer’s overwhelms the caregiver and everyone involved with the patient. The price businesses pay for Alzheimer’s it detrimental to their industry, show by “A 2002 study showed that United States businesses lost $36.5 billion that year because employees missed work or quit and had to be replaced so that they could care for someone with Alzheimer’s disease” (Adams 24). The caregivers play vital roles in the lives of the sufferer, but the business take an even heavier loss. Heath care is necessary for someone with Alzheimer’s disease, however it can get expensive “The costs of

As a person ages, theirs body cannot perform the way it used to. This will cause many elderly people to loose their job or choose to go into retirement. Both of these options cause a loss in health care as well and a reduced or exterminated income. Here alone lies a reason that the elderly population is challenged. The elderly population also has a tendency to develop a chronic illness that can be life threatening if not treated or controlled properly. This means that need for health care treatments also increases. At least 40% of those over age 65 will have nutrition-related health problems requiring treatment or management (Gigante, 2012). It is important to realize that 10% of people over the age of 65 and will develop Alzheimer’s disease and 50% of those over the age of 85 will develop this disease (Gigante, 2012). More elderly African American men and women use government aid than white men and women. Therefore, this population will be vulnerable because of the lack of funding, proper health care and insurance.

This was to be accomplished through education and preventative care, the third goal (Strategic Goals, n.d.). By focusing on this strategy of promoting preventative care, this can help combat medical bills (Adepoju, Preston, & Gonzales, 2017). This cuts down on overall health care spending (Weiner, Marks, & Pauly, 2017). While there are serious health concerns within the upper and middle classes, there are significant issues going on in low-income populations, particularly inner-city and rural areas. The ACA was designed with initiatives to bridge these disparities. To combat these diseases, there is going to have to be better patient education initiatives. In these areas, there are few places to access quality care for these individuals. However, if we educated them on the importance of their health and controlling chronic illnesses such as hypertension, and promote prevention services, the health care system and the patients would both benefit. Preventative health

The advisory committee is responsible to provide feedback on each of the programs components such as the brain bank, memory disorder clinics, respite care and model day care. The committee should oversee the training, research and coordination among all the components. The committee also enlists the services from a broad range of representatives that includes health care professionals, providers, individuals associated with the Alzheimer’s Association and other care givers to assist and seek direction in the fight against this disease.

In the fiscal year 2010, (O’Shaughnessy, 2012) only about 5.1%, or 3 million people, out of the 57.8 million people age sixty and over, received services funded by the Act. These services included home delivered meals, home care, personal care, or case management services on a regular or intensive basis. About 14%, 8 million people, received other services, such as transportation, congregate meals, or information and assistance on a not so regular basis. A report was made by the Government Accountability Office stating that their findings were that many older people are in need of meals and other supportive services to help remain independent in their own communities, but a large portion of them are not getting the help they are in need of. Some barriers causing this lack of help are lack of funding and lack of knowledge among the older Americans that they may be eligible for benefits and services can be available for them.

The health of the American people lags behind those from other developed countries. Federal public health agencies have a wide range of responsibilities and functions which includes public health research, funding, and oversight of direct healthcare providers. It has been a long time since changes have been made to the way the federal government structures its health care roles and programs outside of Medicare and Medicaid (Trust, 2013). With healthcare reform on the horizon now is the time to invest time and money in prevention, not medicine, making it a top priority to improve health and prevent disease. Funding efforts at all levels of the public health continuum need to focus on developing programs aimed at such leading initiatives

requirements for paid professionals at any level and in any provider setting (institutional or home

The Affordable Care Act also produced the National Prevention, Health Promotion, and Public Health Council, which gives federal leadership to engross states, communities, and private partners in building a happy and healthier America through the guidance of the National Prevention Strategy; a plan for guaranteeing Americans are in good health at every period of their life. The Prevention and Public Health Fund is reinforcing programs that assist our health care system change from placing emphasis on illness and disease to one built on wellness and

Independence Care System works very closely with HRA, to facility the services for their members. They also have a department that make sure their clients Medicare, Medicaid and social security benefits are active, the social workers at ICS work closely with Human Resources Administration (HRA), Department of Housing and Home Care Agency (HHA) to provide the necessary needs and resources for their members. At ICS the care coordinators including the social workers find linkage with adult’s day care or social day program so their members are provided with daily activities. These programs are under two models, medical and social model. Not only did the social worker Mrs. Alexander provide these resources to her clients and their family she stayed