Linking residents to long-term care services: first-year findings from the community connector program evaluation

Abstract

Background: Long-term care (LTC) is a major health policy issue owing to increasing LTC expenditures and the anticipated growth in the aging population. However, accessing LTC services, especially home- and community-based LTC services, is often difficult.

Objectives: This manuscript describes the Community Connector Program, the first known program to use a model in which community health workers (CHWs) help to connect adults in need of LTC to such services. We examine the community-university-government agency partnership created to implement and evaluate the program, summarize the evaluation design, and provide first-year implementation results.

Methods: Descriptive statistics were used to characterize persons served and services to which persons were connected. The quasi-experimental evaluation design, which is planned to estimate the program's impact on LTC service utilization and costs within the Arkansas Medicaid program, is described.

Results: Community Connectors linked 686 persons (92% > or =18 years, 80% African American, 58% female) to at least one needed service. Only 39% of adults served needed LTC based on an LTC screening tool. Nearly all (93%) adults in need of LTC had health insurance; 53% had Medicare; 37%, both Medicare and Medicaid; and 11%, Medicaid. Community Connectors referred adults in need of LTC to 68 agencies and helped them to connect to services to address an average of two needs per adult.

Conclusions: Preliminary results from the first-year implementation evaluation indicate the program is effective in linking persons to needed LTC, although program refinements were made to improve targeting of intended program recipients.