Inside Aging November 2024 Now Available
Shapiro Administration
Maternal Health Roundtable Listening Session to Be Held December 6
Message from the Office of Long-Term Living (OLTL):
The Commonwealth is working collaboratively — Governor Shapiro’s office and the health hub agencies (Health, Human Services, Drug and Alcohol Programs, and Insurance) — to develop a statewide maternal health strategic plan. We need your help to make it a robust, comprehensive, collaborative, living, and most importantly, active plan.
As you are likely aware, Pennsylvania, like the nation, is experiencing a maternal health crisis.
According to the Pennsylvania Maternal Mortality Review Committee report, in 2020, Pennsylvania residents experienced a pregnancy-associated mortality ratio of 83 deaths per 100,000 live births with large disparities identified. In total, 107 individuals lost their lives during pregnancy, delivery, or up to one year postpartum.
Those numbers are far worse for Black women, where the rate was twice as high at 163 deaths per 100,000.
We also know that women and birthing people with disabilities experience unique challenges and needs on their health journey, so we are inviting you to join us for a 90-minute Zoom listening session where members of the Commonwealth’s health agencies and members of the statewide maternal health strategic plan can engage with you to learn what specific needs you have and how you feel the Commonwealth should address those needs.
We want our strategic plan to address all Pennsylvania women and birthing people, and sharing your voice at this listening session will help inform our plan.
The Zoom listening session is scheduled from 10:00 am – 11:30 am, on Friday, December 6, 2024. Please RSVP electronically by December 1 if you plan to attend. We will send the Zoom link by end of day December 4 to those who RSVP.
Thank you for considering spending 90 minutes with the disability community and state health team members to share your thoughts and needs around maternal health.
Huntingdon Daily News: First-Ever Alzheimer’s, Dementia Division Established
Governor Shapiro Proclaims October 2024 as Down Syndrome Awareness Month
Shapiro Administration Recognizes Suicide Prevention Month
Governor Shapiro Proclaims Sept. 8–14 DSP Appreciation Week
RCPA Urges Senators to Preserve OVR Employment Funding
The Rehabilitation and Community Providers Association (RCPA), in conjunction with our provider members and partner stakeholders, have written to PA Senator Casey and PA Senator Fetterman to express our full support for ensuring the mandated inflationary increases are preserved for the Pennsylvania Office of Vocational Rehabilitation (OVR) so that critical OVR employment programs will continue for working and job-seeking Pennsylvanians with disabilities. Vocational rehabilitation funding is essential in Pennsylvania to maintain services that support the advancement of employment. We are fortunate that our state legislature has consistently funded Pennsylvania OVR in a manner that has allowed OVR to collect the full federal match and even draw down more when there is a surplus.
If the mandated inflationary increases are rescinded, Pennsylvania’s OVR funding will be cut by millions of dollars, adversely impacting working and job-seeking Pennsylvanians with disabilities. Specifically, approximately $13M would be eliminated from a limited $200M budget, or 6.5%. The resources provided to PA OVR are too valuable and already limited. This potential action forces Pennsylvania to prioritize allocations at the expense of critical employment and related services. Maintaining funding levels is crucial for advancing employment for individuals with disabilities.
Should you have any questions, please feel free to contact Intellectual/Developmental Disabilities Division Director Carol Ferenz or IDD Policy Analyst Cathy Barrick.
GoErie: An Elder Boom is Coming, Are We Ready to Care for the Aged?
An Elder Boom is Coming, Are We Ready to Care for the Aged?
Geoff Gross, Philadelphia, founder and CEO of Medical Guardian
Aging adults are at the center of many strategic conversations lately and I hope that continues. According to the Pennsylvania Department of Aging, the population of Pennsylvanians aged 60 and over is projected to surpass 3.8 million by 2030 — the fifth highest in the country — accounting for one in three Pennsylvanians. Soon, older Pennsylvanians are expected to outnumber every other age group which is unprecedented in U.S. history, according to the Population Reference Bureau (PRB).
This dramatic demographic shift impacts strategic planning and product development in all industries from housing, to health care, and beyond. How older adults are living is also shifting. Instead of slowing down, aging adults are demonstrating that aging can be an exciting period of growth, reinvention and maintained independence. This shift in lifestyle also requires a deep rethinking of how to support older adults.
Fortunately for Pennsylvanians, Governor Shapiro’s strategic plan for older adults, Aging Our Way, proposes strategies to bring together services and investments from 29 different commonwealth agencies in new ways that address the shifting needs of this growing population. But we can’t stop with a plan; it needs funding, voices and ambassadors to ensure it goes into action so that Pennsylvania’s largest population is taken care of.
I encourage you to reach out to your legislators and ask them to support funding, planning and programming for our older adults. It is time to invest in those who got us through some of the most challenging times in our country’s history. It is time that we care for, engage with and uplift Pennsylvania’s — and all — older Americans.
GoErie: RCPA Member Barber Center Leaders Call for Sustained Relief for Chronically Underfunded ID/A Services
RCPA Member Emmaus Hosts Press Conference to Thank Legislators and Governor for Budget (Video)
