The pandemic has laid bare the shortcomings of the Long Term Service and Supports (LTSS) system for older adults here in Massachusetts and around the country. Older adults have experienced higher rates of infection and death, particularly in communities of color and in areas with higher rates of LTSS use.

Robust conversations have begun among academics, policymakers, advocates and industry leaders to identify solutions to improve safety and create a sustainable LTSS system. As most impacted, older adults and family caregivers must be at the center of these discussions.

With generous support from the Tufts Health Plan Foundation, Community Catalyst, Massachusetts Senior Action Council and the Leading Age LTSS Center @ UMass Boston have launched a new three-year initiative, The Future of LTSS: Centering the Voices of Older Adults. This project will engage older adults and family caregivers across the Commonwealth to assure that their views guide the development and promotion of recommendations for transforming the way we provide and pay for LTSS.

Project objectives include:

• Gaining a deeper understanding from older adults and family caregivers across Massachusetts – particularly those from historically underserved communities – of their experiences with the LTSS system (before and during the pandemic) and how the system can be transformed to better address and account for their needs, preferences and values.
• Engage Massachusetts older adults and family caregivers as agents of change as the Commonwealth develops the reforms necessary to ensure safe, reliable and high-quality LTSS in a range of care settings that meet the varied needs of older adults and families.
• Learning from, complementing and informing other state and national efforts to improve the LTSS system.

Project partners will conduct listening sessions as well as field a statewide survey of older adults and family caregivers, with emphasis on those from Black and brown communities. Data gathered from these activities, combined with a set of key stakeholder interviews, will ground the development of recommendations for the policy and practice change necessary to create an LTSS system that delivers high quality care to older adults and family caregivers across Massachusetts.

Project partners will then support older adults/caregiver leaders as they share their insights on LTSS reform with policymakers and the public. They will also share strategies and lessons with advocates, older adults and family caregivers working to reform the LTSS system in other states and nationally.

For more information or to participate in this important effort, please contact:

Renée Markus Hodin, Deputy Director, Center for Consumer Engagement in Health Innovation rmhodin@communitycatalyst.org

Carolyn Villers, Executive Director Massachusetts Senior Action Council cvillers@masssenioraction.org

Marc A. Cohen, Ph.D. Professor, Department of Gerontology, UMass Boston; Co-Director, LeadingAge LTSS Center @UMass Boston   marc.cohen@umb.edu