New Govt Agency Combines Three

In April, the new Administration for Community Living (ACL) was created bringing together the Administration on Aging, the Office on Disability and the Administration on Developmental Disabilities.

This single agency supports both cross-cutting initiatives and efforts focused on the unique needs of individual groups, such as children with developmental disabilities or seniors with dementia. This new agency will work on increasing access to community supports and achieving full community participation for people with disabilities and seniors.

The Administration on Community Living will seek to enhance and improve the broad range of supports that individuals may need to live with respect and dignity as full members of their communities. These support needs go well beyond health care and include the availability of appropriate housing, employment, education, meaningful relationships and social participation.

This is timely. Care is moving beyond hospital walls and nursing home walls and assisted living walls. The continuum of care is blurring.

It would seem the ideas of wellness, population health, chronic disease management and bundled payments eventually will move the care and the incentives outside the walls. But many facilities continue to build their "hotel-like" structures and very much operate in silos.

While many have sneered at Highmark Blue Cross's purchase of a hospital, the insurer realized that owning more of the continuum makes sense. Just as United Healthcare realized when it purchased physician organizations. And while I don't suggest ownership is virtuous, it acknowledges that owning the continuum is not only good for business but also assures continuity of care, a consistent culture, and with data at their disposal, a clear focus on improved outcomes, quality and a true understanding of what a person needs to enjoy a quality of life.

Treating the whole person throughout the continuum of care and the entirety of their life is what we should be charged with doing. And I think the administration's move recognizes this.

This idea of person-centered living is one I have come to embrace. And I have done so through the Consumer Consortium for Advancing Person Centered Living (CCAL) of which I am on the board. CCAL coined the term person-centered living (PCL) as a reminder that as people grow older or have disabilities they should not experience a loss of humanity. PCL means living as one chooses to live. If support is needed, support is centered on personal preferences and values that stress dignity, choice, self-determination, respect, privacy and individuality. PCL means being kind, respectful and sensitive to those being served and honoring their right to make their own choices, regardless of the setting.

I see the disconnect. PCL can be a connector.

Learn more ~ or join the conversation!

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@Administration for Community Living