From Past to Future: 30 Years of Innovative Living for People with Disabilities and Older Adults

Summary: This program will examine the current post-pandemic confluence in disability housing.  The landscape for Payors, Providers, Licensed and Community Based Services has undeniably changed and the future demographics present seemingly insurmountable challenges. The historically binary statutory and regulatory structure addressing the needs of people with disabilities by type or age of onset, such as Developmental Disabilities and Older Adults have converged with the same or similar cognitive and functional needs.  Since the “Great Society” legislation in the 60s; the Willowbrook Decree in the 70s,  The Americans with Disabilities Act, and Olmstead in the 90s; Medicaid escalation in the 00s, the Affordable Care Act in the 10s and expected benefit program realignments currently there is opportunity to address the segmentation in ways that reduce costs, preserves assets, and avoid Medicaid or Benefit dependency. Amongst the symmetries and common needs of people with acute and chronic disabilities in housing and services is the development of IT and AI in providing communication, security, monitoring, prompting and support as well as the potential dangers.
 

Since the pandemic there have been calls for innovative options to address the acute and chronic housing needs for people with disabilities. This program builds upon the prior series of disability housing CLEs and will focus upon the symmetries of innovative housing and service options that are consistent with existing laws, regulations and programs. Of primary concern in these times where support programs are challenged, the program will address the need to reduce costs with better Value Based Care and Quality of Life. 

These are going to be challenging times for all practitioners in industry, planning, and services whether profit, non-profit or private pay. The program will also discuss returning the financial flight of assets typical in elder/disability planning such that resources and income can be preserved and utilization maximized so as to provide affordable housing that keeps spouses, child or caregiver together in shared residences with appropriate services. We will discuss the economics of small home economies of scale and analyze the division of labor between licensed care and supportive services that can alleviate current staffing stressors and promote quality of life in sustainable and replicable environments.