On December 1, Community Catalyst hosted the third webinar in its series on Health and Housing – “Aging in Place: Housing and Health Integration for Low-Income and Chronically Ill Seniors.” Two resources are now available – both a recording of the full webinar and the slides presented. The three presenters shared various state and local examples of innovative and successful practices to integrate support for safe and continuous housing with well-coordinated home-based care and services for vulnerable older adults with complex and chronic conditions.

Taken together, the speakers’ presentations make clear the centrality of adequate and sustainable housing as a vital social determinant of health for vulnerable older adults, and highlighted new partnerships across communities and service sectors that are emerging to address needs in this area in comprehensive and person-centered ways.

The timing of this webinar coincided with the recent release of a Center for Consumer Engagement in Health Innovation issue brief that bears on this topic, Bringing Independence Home: Housing-Related Provisions Under Medicaid 1915(c) Home and Community Based Services Waivers. Many of the best-practice approaches examined in six states discussed in this brief can be generalized beyond this specific type of Medicaid waiver, to address the issues presented in the webinar. 

The three webinar presenters featured in the recording are:

  • Robyn Stone, Executive Director of the Leading Age Center for Applied who discussed HUD-assisted housing facilities, with an example from an innovative model in Vermont
     
  • Nancy Archibald, Senior Program officer at the Center for Health Care Strategies, who shared examples of state approaches in California , New York, Tennessee and Oregon

  • Marty Lynch, Executive Director of Lifelong Medical Care in the San Francisco Bay Area, which provides services to vulnerable older adults through 15 clinical locations

We were very excited to see the highly multi-disciplinary registration for this webinar which in itself speaks volumes about a growing convergence, from many quarters, of folks who work with vulnerable populations, all raising the vital connections between health and housing. The 250-plus participants came from advocacy groups in the health or housing spheres, direct service providers at community-based organizations, hospitals, public health departments, managed care organizations, legal services staff, health plans and government. Community Catalyst is energized to be helping build bridges in this movement toward new and synergistic approaches to supporting older adults living according to their preferences in the community setting. 

There will be additional webinars in our Health and Housing series which will be announced in the months ahead to continue this conversation, so please stay tuned!