Like many organizations, MAAA has adapted to a long-lasting pandemic—a pandemic with the greatest consequences for the people we serve. We extend our collective and deepest sympathies to families and friends who have lost a loved one to COVID-19.
We continue to be focused on the health, safety and security of older adults living in the community and we are accomplishing our work with a renewed commitment to mission.
MAAA’s workforce shifted to full telework and we expect to remain in this status through at least the end of the year. Our Senior LinkAge Line staff barely missed a beat in answering calls, processing Preadmission Screenings for nursing home care or providing care planning and coordination for people leaving nursing homes. We did need some time to re-group on outreach activities. We shifted those that we could to virtual presentations and discussions.
We also set in motion actions to revise Older Americans Act funding agreements with our partners and make them as flexible as possible. We revisited funding levels to support infrastructure costs to help our partners maintain financial viability through the pandemic.
Area agencies across the country welcomed an influx of federal stimulus funding. We received $1,376,654 in Families First Coronavirus Response Act funds for nutrition services and $4,250,211 in Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act funds for nutrition and other services.
Our board of directors revised MAAA’s procurement policy to create a fast-track to move funding into the community. The MN Board on Aging supported these changes and we appreciate their partnership.
We are responding in other ways, too—some examples:
- Shifted funding from service categories in low-demand areas to services that reduce isolation
- Funded new virtual services for family caregivers
- Pivoted to virtual delivery of healthy aging classes
- Created a new service—Social Connect—to alleviate loneliness, stress, and anxiety
- Developed the website helpolderadultsmn.org to give people current information about services during the pandemic
- Submitted an editorial to the Star Tribune on ageism and the pandemic (was not published)
- Responded to media invitations to provide information for the community
- Assisted AARP MN to get information to its members about services in a virtual town-hall
If you would like to discuss our work, please call me at 651-295-4124 or send an email to dsimonson@metroaging.org. I am interested, too, in learning your ideas for how MAAA can better serve older adults and our community.
