Changes In Aging Servicesin NYC

If you receive EISEP case-management services or know someone who does, then you or your friend recently received letters from the NYC Department for the Aging (DFTA) and from the neighborhood agency that sends the social worker to visit you. You may even have received a letter from an agency that used to provide the service and another letter from an agency that will now provide it. Confusing?

The letters were about changes in DFTA’s senior services — some changes happening now (in case management) and others that are coming (in Meals-on-Wheels and senior centers). These changes stem from DFTA’s effort to modernize the way the city contracts with its partners—-community non-profit agencies—-who provide case management, Meals-on-Wheels and senior-centers programs in all five boroughs.

These changes are major, and are affecting community agencies that work under contracts with DFTA. With DFTA’s move to “regionalize” its funding for services, fewer agencies are being awarded contracts to serve larger areas. The result is that some agencies that had long provided services in their communities lost out to more competitive bidders. The winning bidders, most but not all of whom are long-time providers of case management, have to make many adjustments as they figure out how to deal with larger service areas, how to serve more people, and how to serve more people without commensurate budget and staffing increases. But the biggest effect is on the clients and people in neighborhoods who will be learning to deal with agencies and social workers who are new to them.

The changes are taking longer than DFTA intended, but now that the case-management contracts have been awarded, the new programs are scheduled to be fully operational by July 1. Meals-on-Wheels is next and after that, senior centers.

(For more information on DFTA’s Modernization Plan, including community agency Partner’s responses to DFTA’s initial Concept Paper on the Plan, see its website.)

No significant change occurs in New York City without some pushback. In response to the advocacy by The Council of Senior Centers and Services of NY (CSCS) the timetables have been extended for submitting new proposals for Meals-on Wheels and senior centers. For some insights into the concerns of the aging services network regarding the Modernization Plan, see The Council of Senior Centers and Services (CSCS) website.

We will probably be seeing letters from DFTA and the newly contracted Meals-on-Wheels providers late in the fall of this year and into 2009. And sometime, also in 2009, we’ll be hearing about the changes in senior centers. In the meantime, the services are continuing to be provided—-even as agency auspices shift, and the former social worker is replaced by a new one.

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