Government Programs for Older Americans

The Older Americans Act of 1965 created a program to provide community aging services to Americans 60 years of age and older. Over the years, with numerous amendments, the focus of the act has been changing to provide more long-term care services and caregiver support to help individuals remain independent in their homes and avoid going into long-term care institutions. Programs created by the Older Americans Act are managed by the Department of Health and Human Services, Administration on Aging.

The Administration on Aging has guided the development of the national aging services network that today consists of 56 State units on aging, 655 area agencies on aging, almost 250 Tribal organizations, 29,000 community-based provider organizations, over 500,000 volunteers, and a wide variety of national non-profit organizations. This nationwide infrastructure currently provides a wide array of home and community-based services to over 8 million elderly individuals each year, which is 17 percent of all people aged 60 and older, including 3 million individuals who require intensive services and meet the functional requirements for nursing home care. It also provides direct services to over 600,000 informal caregivers each year, who are struggling to keep their loved ones at home. The national aging network is the largest long-term care provider network in the country. (45 pages printed)

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