Muskie School Launches National Program to Enhance Community Efforts for Vulnerable Older Adults

The University of Southern Maine’s Edmund S. Muskie School of Public Service announces the launch of Community Partnerships for Older Adults, a new initiative sponsored by The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. This $28-million national grant program is designed to improve the systems delivering long term care and supportive services to vulnerable older adults and their caregivers by promoting local efforts to increase coordination and communication.

The Community Partnerships for Older Adults program will help communities develop and implement a variety of collaborative strategies to support older adults who have, or who are at risk for, physical and cognitive impairments and their caregivers. Grant funds will promote effective local approaches to strengthen long term care and supportive service systems. The program will foster partnerships among a range of public and private groups to raise awareness, prepare for changing needs, and promote better long term care and social supports for vulnerable older members in the community.

"As our older population increases in communities across the nation, it is critical that local groups prepare to meet the changing needs of vulnerable older citizens," said Robert L. Woodbury, Dean of the Muskie School and Chair of the Maine Governor’s Year 2000 Blue Ribbon Commission on Health Care. "Each of us shares the desire to protect the dignity and quality of life of our older family members and friends. This national program helps communities meet this challenge and commitment."

The Foundation selected the Muskie School as the initiative’s National Program Office to draw on the School’s national leadership in health policy and innovative public service. National Program Director Elise J. Bolda, Ph.D., of the Muskie School’s Institute for Health Policy, brings more than 25 years of experience in planning, implementing, and evaluating community long term care services to the project. The Muskie School will administer grants to a diverse network of communities nationwide. Grantees will develop and implement strategies for the coordination and delivery of services ranging from health and in-home care to transportation.

The Muskie School will work with the Duke University Long Term Care Resources Program to provide grantee communities with assistance and to share information from the Community Partnerships for Older Adults program with localities across the nation. The Duke program, directed by George L. Maddox, Ph.D., a nationally recognized expert in aging and long term care, brings unique experience and expertise from similar initiatives in North Carolina funded, in part, by the Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust.

A Call for Proposals for the Community Partnerships for Older Adults program is available on the Muskie School’s Web site at:

www.muskie.usm.maine.edu/communitypartnerships/

About the Muskie School: The University of Southern Maine’s Edmund S. Muskie School of Public Service educates future leaders, broadens civic participation, and conducts leading research in: health policy, child & family policy, community & economic development, and public sector innovation. Four graduate academic programs at the School offer: a doctoral degree in Public Policy & Management; Master’s degrees in Health Policy & Management, Community Planning & Development, and Public Policy & Management; and a range of professional development certificates. The Muskie School’s three nationally recognized policy institutes receive more than $20 million annually to conduct research projects and public service activities in every county of Maine and every state across the nation. The Muskie School is based in Portland and Augusta, Maine. Learn more about the Muskie School at: www.muskie.usm.maine.edu

About The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation: The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, based in Princeton, New Jersey, is the nation's largest philanthropy devoted exclusively to health and health care. It concentrates its grantmaking in three goal areas: to assure that all Americans have access to basic health care at reasonable cost; to improve care and support for people with chronic health conditions; and to promote health and reduce the personal, social and economic harm caused by substance abuse -- tobacco, alcohol, and illicit drugs. Learn more about the Foundation at: www.rwjf.org
For mor information, contact Michael Puelle at 207-228-8587.