You asked (1) what functions the former Department on Aging performed, who is performing those functions now, and how many state employees are currently devoted to each function and (2) what existing elderly-related functions were never in the Department on Aging and how many state employees currently exercise those functions.

SUMMARY

The Department on Aging existed from 1969 to 1993. Mainly, it planned, coordinated, managed, and funded certain social, health, educational, cultural, and nutrition programs for the elderly. These programs were authorized by the federal Older Americans Act (OAA) and funded mostly by federal OAA grants under that act, and, in some cases, matching or supplementary state funds. The department distributed these funds as grants to five local area agencies on aging, which decided how to use the money for elderly services in their areas within the parameters of federal OAA requirements.

In 1985, the legislature gave the department responsibility for administering the newly created purely state-funded Connecticut Pharmaceutical Contract to the Elderly and Disabled (ConnPACE) program.

The department also had responsibility for the purely state-funded Promotion of Independent Living Program (a precursor of the current Department of Social Services (DSS) Connecticut Home Care Program for Elders (CHCPE), which now has two components: a state-funded side and one that uses both state and federal money under a Medicaid waiver).

DSS currently exercises these major functions and most of the Aging Department’s other duties. ConnPACE and CHCPE are now administered by DSS’s Medicaid Division’s Pharmacy Unit and Alternate Care Unit, respectively. The OAA grants program and other activities are administered by the Aging Services Division in DSS’s Bureau of Aging, Community, and Social Work Services (ACSW), which was recently created to succeed and combine DSS’s prior Elderly Services Division functions with some of the department’s other activities. The prior Department on Aging’s organizational divisions no longer exist in DSS, but most of their functions still do in some form.

The Department on Aging’s former advocacy functions are now conducted by the Commission on Aging, which was created in 1993, after the department was disbanded. 2005 legislation moved the commission, which is an independent agency, from its location in DSS for administrative purposes only to the legislature on that same basis.

Table 1 below shows in detail these former Department on Aging activities and current numbers of staff devoted to them, as provided to us by DSS and the other agencies involved. Table 2 lists elderly-related functions that were never in the Department on Aging or were created after it was disbanded.

DEPARTMENT ON AGING BACKGROUND

Under the federal OAA, which provides federal funding for certain elderly services, each state must designate a “state unit on aging” to receive the federal funds and pass them to federally required area agencies on aging (AAAs) in the state that decide how to spend the money on services. Connecticut has five AAAs. Each creates its own area plan for how to spend the money it receives, and local service providers apply to it for funding of their specific projects.

Congress first passed the OAA in 1965 (42 U. S. C Chapter 35, § 3001 et seq. ). The act requires states, in order to receive this federal funding, to provide certain community-based services for the elderly, including such things as congregate meal sites and home-delivered meals, long-term care ombudsman services, legal services, protective services, and senior employment services programs. Each state must have a state unit on aging, designate AAAs, and periodically develop a state Plan on Aging. The federal Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration on Aging distributes the OAA funding to the states, administers the OAA programs, and is the federal agency that advocates for people age 60 and over.

Connecticut’s Department on Aging, with about 66 employees, was the designated state unit on aging, so it received the federal OAA funding. It planned, coordinated, managed, and funded social, health, educational, cultural, and nutrition programs assisting the elderly. In addition, the department (1) ran a conservator of the estate program for frail elderly; (2) employed a legal services developer who assisted groups and organizations concerned with elderly issues; (3) housed the Nursing Home Ombudsman Office; and (4) worked with senior centers to provide information, support, and recreational services. Non-OAA programs the department had responsibility for included the state-funded ConnPACE prescription assistance program, the Promotion of Independent Living Program, and oversight of continuing care retirement communities. DSS currently exercises most of these program functions.

Administratively, the Department, at least in its later years, was subdivided into:

1. The Commissioner’s Office, which contained the research and planning and information and referral units, conservator of the estate program, legal services developer, continuing care retirement communities oversight, and the Nursing Home Ombudsman Office;

2. a community service division, which administered the other substantive programs; and

3. A business management division, also containing a personnel office.

To assist the department in developing and implementing services for Connecticut’s seniors, it also had (1) a 21-person Advisory Council, appointed by the governor and the legislative leadership and (2) a Minority Advisory Council, appointed by the aging commissioner.

DEPARTMENT ON AGING AND OTHER ELDERLY RELATED FUNCTIONS

Most of the former Department on Aging’s functions are now exercised by various DSS divisions. Most of those related to the OAA are placed in the 12-person Aging Services Division within the newly formed Bureau of Aging, Community and Social Work Services (ACSW). Table 1 lists each function, what agency is currently performing it, and the staff resources devoted to it. In some instances these former Department of Aging functions became a small part of staff members’, or a group of staff members’ duties, and specific staff time devoted to them could not be separated out. In others, we have not been able to obtain specific staff time information and have indicated “not available” for these functions.

Table 2 lists other current elderly-related functions and staff resources devoted to them in various agencies. These functions were never performed by the Department on Aging either because they were always done by another department or because they were developed after the Department on Aging was disbanded. It was also sometimes difficult for the agencies we contacted to separate out the staff time devoted to the elderly functions and some of them have not responded; we indicate “not available” for those functions.

Table 1 follows on the next page

*Department of Social Services Bureau of Aging, Community, and Social Work Services = ACSW (which now consists of the Aging Services, Community Services, Energy Services, and Social Work Services divisions)

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Table 2: Elderly-Related Functions Outside the Department on Aging

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