Senior: Community Health Needs Assessment, Calhoun and Barry County

The State of Michigan requires senior service providers to conduct a community needs assessment every three years. An assessment of the community’s senior programming and needs allows service providers and other organizations in the community to obtain a picture of the major needs facing aging residents. When organizations conduct a needs assessment together, they gain the benefit of a variety of perspectives, knowledge, and expertise.

This needs assessment exemplifies a partnership between the Region 3B Area Agency on Aging (AAA) and the Calhoun County Office of Senior Services (OSS). These organizations strive to be responsive to the needs of the aging population of the areas they serve. This assessment is one tool being used to accomplish that goal. We have made an effort to approach this community needs assessment with no pre-conceived ideas about the needs of the senior populations of Barry and Calhoun counties. In this assessment partners reviewed data from secondary sources, sought input from community members through surveys and focus groups, and prioritized a set of issues that are especially prevalent to those 60 and over in both counties. To chart the changes and development of senior needs, we chose to build on the foundational work performed by the Wayne State University Institute of Gerontology in the most previous needs assessment performed in 2013.

 

The AAA was designated by the Offices of Services to the Aging as one of 16 area agencies on aging in Michigan in 1996 to serve older adults and their caregivers in Barry and Calhoun counties through home and community based services that help older adults age with dignity in their own homes or the homes of their caregivers. The agency is also a contracted MI Choice Waiver agent through the Michigan Department of Community Health providing support and services for adults with disabilities and frail seniors at risk of nursing home placement. The AAA’s mission is to promote health, choice, and independence, serving older adults, people with disabilities and their caregivers by providing advocacy for older adults and older adult services, assessing service needs and securing funding to meet those needs, assuring the provision of high quality home and community-based services through provider monitoring and assessments, ensuring that priority is given to those older adults with the greatest social and economic need and coordinating and providing access to available resources.