This is significant because reporting is often the first step in preventing abuse. This funding has allowed us to raise the salaries of Protective Services workers and supervisors employed by the ASAPs to the competitive levels necessary to recruit and retrain professionals with the skills necessary to help this vulnerable population. A key component of the Commonwealth s community based outreach is our network of 347 Councils on Aging. Through local initiatives, Councils on Aging offer programs and services that strengthen the lives of elders in the community and enable more independent living. Grants made to Councils on Aging help to serve over 410,000 people each year.
Councils stretch and maximize the dollars they receive through extensive use of volunteers.
An estimated 30,500 volunteers contributed 2.4 million hours of volunteer service to councils in Fiscal Year 1999. Along with the state-funded programs, Elder Affairs runs a number of federally funded programs. For example, the Long Term Care OmbudmanOmbudsman Program assists the 62,000 elders in Massachusetts who live in 747 licensed nursing facilities and rest homes by providing information and referral, complaint resolution and advocacy. Through 24 local Ombudsman programs across the state and thanks to the efforts of more than 300 dedicated volunteers nursing and rest home residents can live their lives with greater dignity and respect. During the past year, Ombudsmen made more than 1.5 million visits to residents and assisted on over 15,000 issues and concerns voiced by residents and their families - successfully resolving over 90 percent of these cases.