Q&A
Impact of Community Care Plan on institutional care avoidance and quality of life improvements
1:29:23
·
3 min
Commissioner Cortés-Vázquez discusses the impact of the Community Care Plan on institutional care avoidance and quality of life improvements for older New Yorkers. While exact numbers are not provided, the Commissioner highlights trends and comparisons.
- There are approximately 41,000 people in nursing homes in New York City
- NYC Aging serves over 220,000 older adults with their services
- The Community Care Plan is believed to be preventing institutionalization as the number of older adults in nursing homes has not grown proportionally to the increasing older adult population
- The department is looking at trends such as elder abuse rates and pedestrian fatalities for older adults, which have shown decreases
- A new needs assessment will be conducted to evaluate quality of life issues
Crystal Hudson
1:29:23
With regards to creating an age inclusive and age friendly New York City, can you estimate the number of older adults who have avoided or delayed institutional care since the implementation of the plan?
Lorraine Cortés-Vázquez
1:29:35
So I'm gonna give you a statistic that I think it's trend.
1:29:40
Okay.
1:29:40
Chris, I don't think there's an actual number
Crystal Hudson
1:29:42
or also like a percentage
Lorraine Cortés-Vázquez
1:29:43
of older adults.
1:29:45
Right.
1:29:46
So there's 41,000 people in nursing homes.
1:29:51
And and we serve over 220 people with our older adult services at NYC.
1:30:00
So 220,000, 220,000.
1:30:03
Right?
1:30:05
Which is why the work of the cabinet is so important because then we start seeing how many more older adults are served outside.
1:30:15
Of NYCHE, which is a much larger number when you start thinking about screen entry and all of those other services.
1:30:21
SNAP and all of those other services.
1:30:24
So when you look at that, I would say that the community care plan is preventing institutes realization because that number has not been growing, but the number of older adults in the community has been.
Crystal Hudson
1:30:37
Okay.
1:30:37
So maybe a correlation, but not necessarily causation.
Lorraine Cortés-Vázquez
1:30:40
No.
1:30:41
No.
1:30:41
And it would be as if we would have to keep the state data steady and then do a comparison.
1:30:48
We have not done that.
Crystal Hudson
1:30:49
Okay.
1:30:50
Do you plan to do it or you
Lorraine Cortés-Vázquez
1:30:53
look at it?
1:30:54
I could I could seriously have my the research team look
Crystal Hudson
1:30:57
I think that would be helpful.
Lorraine Cortés-Vázquez
1:30:59
Yeah.
1:30:59
And to see and to see why they would require to do that.
1:31:02
Right?
1:31:02
Yeah.
1:31:02
Like, what are the elements that we would have to look at so that it's not a a trend number but an actual data number.
Crystal Hudson
1:31:08
Yeah.
1:31:08
I mean, I think it's good for you to have 2 just to show.
1:31:12
Yeah.
1:31:12
The impact
Lorraine Cortés-Vázquez
1:31:13
of the work.
1:31:15
Let's think that if we keep institutionalization down, we know that there's a direct correlation with Absolutely.
1:31:21
You know?
Crystal Hudson
1:31:22
I want I want you to have those numbers for everybody else.
1:31:25
I don't need them.
Lorraine Cortés-Vázquez
1:31:26
Yeah.
1:31:26
Yeah.
Crystal Hudson
1:31:26
You know?
1:31:27
Like, I I I don't need to be safe.
Lorraine Cortés-Vázquez
1:31:29
No.
1:31:29
No.
1:31:29
You don't need them, but I we need them for the state, so we can tell the state take turn some of those long term care dollars into community care and not all for a medical model till we all need them.
Crystal Hudson
1:31:43
Do you know what if any improvements in quality of life, health, and safety metrics have been observed among older New Yorkers?
Lorraine Cortés-Vázquez
1:31:51
One of the things that we look at in terms of we the trends that we do look at is elder abuse train trends, and we see a decrease on that.
1:32:00
The other thing the other trend that we've been looking at is the number of fatalities, pedestrian fatalities for older adults looking at that.
1:32:12
So those are the ones that we've been looking at.
1:32:16
Numbers gone down.
1:32:18
Yeah.
1:32:18
Okay.
1:32:19
And then the other thing that we looking at, we will be looking at with our latest needs assessment is some of the quality of life issues.
Crystal Hudson
1:32:27
Okay.
1:32:29
And how many new age friendly initiatives have been introduced?
Lorraine Cortés-Vázquez
1:32:34
You mean age inclusive.
1:32:38
I'll get back to you, but there's a I'll get back to you on a cabinet report.
Crystal Hudson
1:32:42
Okay.
