by Doug Powell, President
As most of you know, the Alliance on Aging and Vision Loss is a special-interest affiliate of ACB focusing on the concerns of older people who are blind or who are losing vision. We are hard at work advocating for our needs this year as the Older Americans Act (OAA) comes up for reauthorization.
In March, the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee (HELP) named an eight-member bipartisan subcommittee to work on the reauthorization that is due by September 30. Several of us listened to the first hearing of this subcommittee, and were concerned that the deplorable plight of members of our community was not mentioned. Anisio Correia, Larry Johnson, Jeff Thom, Pris Rogers from our partners at the Aging and Vision Loss National Coalition (AVLNC), and I wrote the letter below to the OAA subcommittee.
We may be calling on you to support our cause as the reauthorization moves through Congress. Thank you, in advance, for helping us support all our futures, as well as all of those other older blind and low vision citizens whose needs are not currently being met. One way you can follow what's happening is to go to our website, www.aavl-blind-seniors.org, and sign up on our AAVL-L email list.
Honorable Senators,
I attended your hearing on the Older Americans Act a few days ago, and was dismayed that heart disease, diabetes, and Alzheimer’s were mentioned, but not issues for older people who are blind, low vision, deaf and hard of hearing or deaf-blind. In some ways, the lack of recognition at the hearing and in the act of the plight of older people who have lost, or who are losing sight, hearing, or both makes the need for my request obvious.
Medicare and census data indicate that older people with vision loss report a higher prevalence of chronic health conditions:
- 19% of visually impaired individuals report having had a stroke versus just 7% of those without visual impairment,
- 43% versus 25% report having diabetes,
- 26% versus 15% report having depression, and
- 49% versus 30% report having had a fall in the past year.
Access to good nutrition and fall prevention programs along with health information and the opportunity for socialization will help prevent poorer health among blind, low vision, and deaf-blind people and promote their independence, as it has been shown to in other senior populations. Moreover, seniors with vision loss are disproportionately low-income, less educated and are more likely to be members of underserved minority populations.
Finally, the failure to mention vision rehabilitation services at both the hearing and in the OAA, the provision of which enables greater independence and promotes aging in place among people who are blind, low vision or deaf-blind perpetuates an important gap in service delivery for this population.
As you well know, Area Agencies on Aging provide many useful programs and services for older Americans, such as Meals on Wheels, Senior Companion, Home Weatherization, Benefit Counseling, Fall Prevention and Nutrition classes. They benefit many millions of seniors. However, those who are blind, low vision, or deaf-blind are often left out. Our informal survey of approximately 25 randomly selected AAAs from around the country show us that:
- There is no specific outreach by AAAs to seniors who are losing or have lost their vision and/or hearing to let them know about the programs and services;
- No initiative by AAA staff to make information available to our community in accessible formats to explain how they can apply;
- Not even the assessments used in determining eligibility are geared toward the unique daily living skills that blind, low vision, or hearing-impaired citizens need to have to continue to live independently in the community.
We commented on our vastly underserved status during the recent rule-making process of the Older Americans Act. Those who promulgated the new rule decided that mentioning “severely disabled” would be enough. We do not believe that this term will raise the awareness of the plight of blind, low vision, and deaf-blind to the level where change will happen.
We are, therefore, requesting that you amend the OAA to explicitly include and recognize older Americans with vision and hearing loss as a distinct, important, and vastly underserved segment of the senior population which has unique and specialized needs that should be directly addressed through initiatives by local Area Agencies on Aging.
Thank you for considering this request.