HCR N.O. 35 Task Force

Hawaii Alzheimer’s Disease Initiative

The ADI-SSS plans to strengthen the dementia-capability of Hawaiʻi’s communities by expanding person-centered practices that enable people with dementia and their families greater access to a continuum of long-term services and supports (LTSS) into the future. The project will accomplish this goal by building the capacity of professionals and organizations, as well as improving coordination between LTSS service providers.

Honolulu’s Age-Friendly City Initiative

Major Goal: Consultants for the Honolulu as an Age-Friendly City Initiative, backed by the Mayor and World Health Organization. Providing research, coordination, and facilitation for the initiative with the goal of producing an Action Plan report.

T-CARE: Tailored Caregiver Assessment and Referral

Major Goal: To evaluate an evidence-based, caregiver assessment and care planning tool called Tailored Care (TCARE). The project examines the feasibility of integrating TCARE within the Aging and Disability Resource Center model in the state of Hawaii.

One Mile Project Class

Major Goal: To provide curriculum support, content expertise, evaluation of the Iolani School class called the One Mile Project. The curriculum includes analysis of aging issues and using design thinking to develop proposals to help older adults in the community.

Restructuring Adult Protective Services

Major Goal: To conduct a needs assessment, evaluation, and develop core curriculum, and quality assurance measures for Adult Protective Services, Hawaii Department of Human Services.

Community Living Program Evaluation

Research Training for the Aging Network

Appropriate (End-of-Life) Care of Residents in Nursing Home Project (ACORN)

Through the ACORN project, we offered in-service training in end-of-life care to clinical staff (professional and paraprofessional) at eight long-term care facilities. This curriculum builds on two, 4-part curricula developed by the U.H. COA: Care of the Dying and Care of the Bereaved, funded by the HMSA Foundation and the Project on Death in America, SOROS Foundation, respectively. Facilities receiving training also were helped to develop organizational guidelines incorporating proper assessment of pain and use of cultural/spiritual protocols when caring for dying residents.

End-of-Life Care for Hawaii’s Ohana

Paraprofessionals in Aging Project (PAP)

Paraprofessionals make up the backbone of home care. They provide as much as 80% of personal care for the frail elderly and disabled living at home. The goal of PAP is to improve the care provided to older adults in Hawaii County by developing and providing an effective gerontology training program for paraprofessional workers who provide needed home- and community-based services to older adults, including home-delivered meals, homemaker services, chore services, attendant care, assisted transportation, personal care, adult day care, and case management.

Caregivers Resource Initiative Project

Families, not institutions, are the major providers of long-term care, providing 80% of all care at home. Shifting the long-term care spotlight on family caregivers maintains the strength and durability of the family network as the primary providers of long-term care.

Elder Abuse Project

Elder abuse and neglect is among the many challenges we face with the dramatic increases in the number of people living to advanced old age and the rapidly growing older adult population. Elder abuse and neglect is a serious concern not only in institutional settings, but increasingly so in domestic settings because so many elderly who need care do not residing in institutional facilities, but are living at home in the community as a matter of personal preference and public policy that respects self-determination and supports community-based care for as long as feasible. According to national estimates, only 5% of elders reside in institutional settings.

End of Life Project

The Complete Life is a two-part curriculum developed as part of a larger effort to improve end-of-life care in Hawaiʻi.

Hawaiʻi Family Caregivers