BASSC has finalized the Bay Area Adult & Aging Services: 2022 Strategic Planning Report, assessing anticipated future needs in adult and aging services in the greater Bay Area. The report incorporates information from an array of sources, including 31 key informant interviews with Bay Area leaders in Adult and Aging Services, county administrative data, and publicly available data sets. Interviews were conducted between March and July 2022. Data were analyzed to...
County Adult and Aging Services (AAS) departments play a critical role in caring for older and disabled adults. In the Bay Area, rapid growth in the number of people seeking county AAS services, coupled with increased complexity of service needs, has placed tremendous pressure on county AAS to expand capacity. Additionally, recent policy changes at the federal and state level present unique challenges and opportunities to county AAS as they work towards creating a Bay Area where people of all ages and abilities can thrive. This report summarizes key findings from a year-long strategic...
In California, older adults aged 60 years or older are the fastest growing age group, and are expected to make up one quarter of the state’s population by 2030. County adult and aging services programs play a critical role in caring for socioeconomically vulnerable older adults and disabled individuals, but are heavily impacted by nationwide workforce shortages exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2021, the Bay Area Social Services Consortium (BASSC) partnered with the Mack Center and CalSWEC at the University of California, Berkeley, to develop a statewide...
County Adult and Aging Services departments experience ongoing challenges with recruiting and retaining sufficient skilled staff in Adult Protective Services, In-Home Supportive Services, and other programs. The Mack Center and BASSC are collaborating on an initiative designed to identify successful recruitment and retention strategies that can be implemented across BASSC agencies.
Current work involves a scoping literature review by Mack Center Director Em Chuang and Mack Center Faculty Affiliate Janette Dill that synthesizes available evidence on recruitment and retention in...
The Mack Center and BASSC have an ongoing investment in analyzing current public policies, seeking alternatives, and deriving lessons learned from public policy implementation. Most of the policy analyses and policy implementation case studies and reports are in three primary service delivery areas: child welfare, adult and aging, and welfare to work. This policy work includes materials designed for non-academic audiences.
BASSC Policy Groups
The BASSC agency members have established three policy groups related to core services (child welfare, adult and aging, and welfare to work)...
Currently, our research focuses on identifying and addressing the challenges to workforce recruitment and retention in public Adult & Aging Services agencies.
Past work has included scoping literature reviews related to Home and Community Based Services for elderly and disabled adults, as well as elder abuse assessment issues in Adult Protective Services.
This analysis provides an overview of the major policy themes and promising practices emerging in recent years as policymakers and researchers struggle to design a long-term care system that meets the needs of an aging population. Themes that have dominated the long-term care policy debates include: recruiting and retaining a qualified long-term care workforce; devising financing mechanisms for those requiring long-term care; and moving away from an institutional-based long-term care system towards more home- and community-based services. Three promising practices that have emerged in the...
Assessment of elder mistreatment is hindered by a myriad of factors, including inconsistent definitions, divergent and untested theories of causation, and limited research attention to the problem. In addition to these difficulties, professionals encounter complex situations requiring considerable clinical assessment skills and decision-making capacity. Adult Protective Services (APS) workers, as well as mandated reporters such as healthcare providers and social workers, need an assessment tool that can reliably and accurately assess for elder mistreatment. Based on a structured review of...
Increasing caseloads in die area of financial abuse prompted Santa Clara County Department of Aging and Adult Services (DAAS) to develop a Financial Abuse Specialist Team (FAST) in May 1999 to provide an efficient system for investigating and acting on reports of financial abuse in Santa Clara County. The primary members of the team include staff from Adult Protective Services, the Public Administrator/Guardian's Office, the offices of the County Counsel, the officeof the District Attorney as well as other staff from within the Department of Adult and Aging Services. This is a case study...