California Community Choices Forum and Survey Results
The project team held five community forums and a web cast from March 25-28, 2008 to learn about the priorities and perspectives of stakeholders. The forums were held in Sacramento, Nevada City, Oakland, Los Angeles and Orange County and were attended by 172 participants representing consumers; advocates; family members; caregivers; Independent Living Centers; community organizations; Area Agencies on Aging; researchers or research organizations; provider organizations and local or state agencies. A web based survey was also conducted to provide stakeholders who could not attend a forum an opportunity to offer their perspectives.
Affiliation |
Forums N=172 |
Survey* N=86 |
|---|---|---|
Consumers |
4.8% |
11.4% |
Advocates |
11.5% |
20.3% |
Family members |
3.0% |
8.9% |
Caregivers |
6.1% |
3.8% |
Independent Living Centers |
10.9% |
2.5% |
Community organizations |
12.1% |
15.2% |
Area Agencies on Aging |
5.5% |
7.6% |
Researchers |
1.8% |
0.0% |
Provider organizations |
23.0% |
16.5% |
Local or state agencies |
21.2% |
13.9% |
* In addition, 2 respondents were affiliated with a Regional Center and 2 with an IHSS Public Authority.
During each Forum, participants were asked to rate the importance of a series of questions using electronic voting keypads. Five questions were rated very important by over 70% of the participants. Highlights:
- Nearly 90% of the participants responded that it was very important to establish a long-term services and support center in each county/region (one-stop-shopping) to help people find and receive the services they need;
- Over 86% said it was very important to increase hospital-to-home discharge planning services;
- Seventy five percent said that allowing case managers to expedite the Medi-Cal financial eligibility process for beneficiaries who are at-risk of entering a nursing home was very important; and
- Developing strategies to retain and expand the long-term care workforce received high ratings.
Questions with the lowest “very important” ratings were: to create incentives for and encouraging purchase of long-term care insurance; use a single assessment tool for Medi-Cal beneficiaries who apply for admission to a nursing home that provides opportunities for options counseling; develop a single assessment tool for long-term care services and establish one Department for long-term services and supports.
Results from the web survey were consistent with the forums. The top six rankings were nearly identical and both groups rate long-term insurance lowest.
At each forum, participants were asked to identify the most important change that should be made in California’s long-term care system and from among the changes listed, to vote for the most important change. The highest ranked changes are presented in Table 2.
Location |
Priority |
Percent |
|---|---|---|
Nevada City |
Increased Funding for LTSS and IHSS |
31% |
Sacramento |
Single payer healthcare |
54% |
Los Angeles |
Ending Institutional Bias |
33% |
Orange County |
Pass the Community Choices Act of 2008 |
24% |
The complete forum results are presented in table 3. Summary web based survey results are presented in table 4 and the results and comments on each question from the web based survey are presented in the tables that follow (questions 1-18).
Table 3: California Community Choices Forum Results
Questions – How important is it to:
Provide information about services and supports that enable people to live at home and in the community rather than in nursing facilities.
Very Important 89.4%
Important 8.8%
Somewhat Important 1.2%
Not Important 0.6%
Not sure 0.0%