TESTIMONY
Anya Herasme, Associate Commissioner at New York City Department for the Aging, on Services for NYC's Immigrant Older Adults
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10 min
Anya Herasme discusses the enhancement of culturally competent services for immigrant older adults by the NYC Department for the Aging.
- Describes the tailored services for older adults, including meals, case management, and mental health services, without regard for immigration status.
- Highlights the significant proportion of foreign-born individuals among NYC's older adults, underscoring the necessity of culturally sensitive services.
- Emphasizes efforts to include multilingual support and culturally relevant programming across various services.
- Mentions legislative and community engagement efforts to ensure services meet the evolving needs of NYC's diverse older adult population.
Anya Herasme
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Good morning.
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Chairperson Hudson and Avelis and members of the committees on aging immigration.
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I'm Anya Arasmy, associate commissioner for the Bureau of Community Services, for the New York City Department for the Aging.
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Joining me here today is Penny Petra Rapopan, our General Counsel at New York City Aging.
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Additionally, we are pleased to be joined by Miyos Otis Munoz, the deputy commissioner for external affairs and Miguel Santana chief of staff from the mayor's office of immigrant affairs.
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I appreciate the opportunity to testify before you today and discuss this incredibly important subject.
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I'm happy to share some of the current highlights from New York City Aging and our work with immigrant populations and discuss the ways that as an agency, we We achieve cultural competency in all areas.
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New York City Aging is tasked with serving New York City residents over the age of sixty.
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Our goal is to ensure that any older adult can walk into an any older adult center also known as an OAC and call our in house helpline agent connect to be referred to a program they may qualify for or receive some service to assist their lives in combat social isolation regardless of their background.
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Immigration status or preferred language.
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There are 1775,783 older adults living in New York City.
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Meaning slightly more than 1 in 5 New York City residents is over the age of sixty.
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Overall, New York City agents growing, population is growing, and will encompass more than 40% of all New York State residents in the future.
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We need to focus on addressing populations in need and closing funding gaps with the state.
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According to the American Community Survey, in 2022, 3,165,136 New Yorkers were born born or around 36 point 7% of the city's population.
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For those over the age of sixty, there are 1,023,698 who are foreign born or close to 58% of all older adults.
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This is a larger fraction than is seen in the under 60 adult population and greater than all of New York state's older adult population.
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Older adults in New York City are less likely to be white, more likely to speak a language at home other than English, more likely to live alone, be considered frail, and receive SNAP benefits when compared to the overall population of older adults in the United States.
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In short, we know that older New Yorkers are more likely than their counterparts in other cities in the United States to live alone below the poverty level experience some kind of language barrier, and require some kind of public assistance.
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The need to ensure that aging services meet the wide range of needs for older adults is a paramount goal for New York City and this administration.
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After all, any older adult of any background with any citizenship status is able to access meals, add an OAC, or other programs provided by New York City aging as long as they are sixty or older, and in some cases, fifty five or older in particular workforce programs.
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Because our goal is to reach every older New Yorker, we have been following the current migrant crisis situation in New York City as we collectively address the many asylum seekers crossing our southern border.
0:14:42
It is our understanding that a majority of asylum seekers are not older adults and those who who arrive in New York and and are over 60 typically are quickly connected with family and are not navigating processes on their own.
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Nonetheless, We continue to work with our partners, and New York City Emergency Management, DOH MH, and health and hospitals as they navigate this current crisis.
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New York City Aging offers a wide range of services for all adults over 60 regardless of immigration status.
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Our case management, home delivered meals, caregiving, elder abuse, friendly visiting legal assistance, transportation, geriatric mental health, and, of course, are OACs or older adult centers do not deny services based on residency or immigration status.
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Furthermore, we work continually to be inclusive of an individual's background, language needs and culture because that is how we build a more age inclusive city as New York City's aging population grows in the future.
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New York City Aging Services follow guide guidance from local authority of 2017 regarding language access, and we provide translation services through language line for Agent Connect as well as a host of other programs.
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This year, as part of our annual plan summary hearings, which occurred yearly and are the public's opportunity to weigh in on New York City Aging Services, we translated the summary report into Spanish, Mandarin, Chinese.
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This is not a requirement of the report, which is determined by the state.
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However, we are committed to ensuring that as many older adults as possible, can give comment and share their thoughts on the services we provide.
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Additionally, in conjunction with Mayor Adams, we have hosted a series of 9 older Delton halls at our centers throughout the five boroughs beginning last August.
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Many of these have been bilingual with translation in communities where older adults may not be English proficient, or may be more comfortable speaking a different language or come from an immigrant background with particular needs and concerns.
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These events have allowed us to expand our reach into more immigrant communities and really bring together partner agencies to better serve older New Yorkers.
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At our first town hall in the Bronx at Bronx Works, Morris Heights, 75% of the older adults and attendants prefer to speak Spanish.
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So the table discussions with older adults as well as the larger town hall portion were conducted both in English and Spanish.
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At this particular town hall, there were questions about immigrant services and benefits which we were able to answer or direct people to their appropriate resources.
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A paramount goal of New York City Aging is to strive for cultural competencies in all our services and ensure that older adults, regardless of their background, connect with our programs in a way that makes them feel most comfortable.
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In particular, we are proud of where our meals and OEC programming has come when considering the cultural needs of a particular neighborhood.
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Our own staff are assigned based on the culturally competent backgrounds they bring to the table when those considerations can be made.
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This helps to ensure that program evaluation is executed with an understanding of the unique cultures in the community they are serving.
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In early 2023, we worked with counsel to develop but ultimately became local law 19, which requires OACs to identify the languages spoken in the surrounding communities and tailor programming to those relevant languages or cultures.
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Many of our programs were already doing this, and we have worked to include more more culturally competent language into subsequent requests for proposals or also known as RFPs to ensure that whatever an older adult's background or programs can serve their specific needs.
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Meal provision is a large portion of the work that New York City aging undertakes every day.
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We are proud of the great work our contracted providers whose mission it is to serve the unique and nuanced needs of older adults in a specific community serve.
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New York City Aging Meals are offered in a wide range of options, including Halal, kosher, pan and pan Asian, which seeks to address the cultural and dietary needs of clients.
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These meals are available at the OECs depending on what their immediate community's cultural needs are.
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The HCM program providers are required for their contracts to serve culturally relevant cuisines to clients receiving those meals.
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Different community boards throughout the city make up various catchment areas for delivered meals providers and are required to provide meals for those cuisines.
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This includes kosher, halal, Latin, Chinese, Caribbean, Russian, and other cuisine types.
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The populations that make up those communities are considered when cuisine types are determined.
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The case management program also requires cultural competency and is part of the standards required for employment in those programs.
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Case management providers are going into people's homes and making specific evaluations about their lives and abilities with the ultimate goal of meeting the client where they are.
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In order to do that, they must understand the specific cultural considerations, which may factor into their current situation.
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Because case management is the first step in receiving meals through the Home Delivered Reals Pro Provider, the case manager should understand that individuals cultural background to better provide the meals which are contractually required as an HDM provider.
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While we strive to further include culturally appropriate considerations into other programs, we recognize the immediate importance of meals and the center programming and have of course prioritize those areas.
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Additionally, the geriatric mental health program, which operates within our OEC network, has expanded in the past 2 years to include 88 sites across the city with a high priority put on neighborhoods which are in the need of these services.
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This includes communities which have been historically underfunded or need additional investment to meet growing needs.
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In deriatric mental health sites were identified with these needs in mind surrounding mental health and access with which communities like newly arrived immigrants need in order to live successful in full lives.
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Center staff, and mental health providers in these neighborhoods who reflect the overall needs of communities which surround those locations and may be multicultural bilingual.
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And able to understand those unique experiences.
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The clinicians speak English, Spanish, Mandarin, Cantonese, Russian, Ukrainian, and Italian.
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Beyond meals and languages spoken at centers, the geriatric mental health program offers a glimpse into ways in which New York City Aging is serving immigrant older adults.
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I know that today's hearing is also discussing the pre considered introduction to direct New York City agent to make information available to older adults about the New York City care program.
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In our centers or program offices and the New York City Aging website.
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Our goal remains to ensure that all older adults regardless of language needs or cultural can access the information they need to address critical issues in their lives and successfully age and place within their communities.
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As we continue to review this bill, we look forward to discussing this legislation with counsel in the future in our shared goal of sharing information and working with partner agencies.
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These are just some of the ways that New York City Aging is working to serve the needs of New York City's older adult population, more immigrants to this country.
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We are pleased to provide culturally competent programs and resources for this vulnerable population.
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And look forward to continuing to adapt to the needs of this community in the future.
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I'm grateful to Chair Hudson and the agent committee for your continued advocacy and partnership and support for this important community of older New Yorkers.
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I acknowledge that while this is a hearing about the needs of immigrant older adults, and the population of immigrant older adults is diverse.
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We are working through a migrant crisis right now in New York City.
0:21:43
I look forward to sharing information on what New York City agent does to serve immigrant populations However, I would like to acknowledge that our partners at the office of asylum seeker operations, New York City Emergency Management, Department of Health And Mental Hygiene, and health and hospitals are more directly involved in the day to day operations of processing the many thousands of asylum seekers crossing the southern border arriving New York City.
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I look forward to answering your questions.
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Thank you.