Past Special Projects

MAAA has participated in special projects in the past. Below are listed past initiatives and partnerships. Any questions on projects can be directed to maaa@tcaging.org.

Return to current special projects.

Initial project partners include Hennepin County, Carver County, Metropolitan Center for Independent Living, East Metro SAIL ElderCare Development Partnership, and the Elderberry Institute.

Alzheimer's Disease Demonstration Project
Through a grant to the Payne Phalen Living At Home/Block Nurse Program the metro Alzheimer’s demo project facilitates the adaptation of the Chronic Care Networks for Alzheimer’s Disease (CNN-AD) tools and referral processes in order to provide culturally acceptable support services to Hmong and Latino elder with dementia and their families.

Dementia Care Transitions Project:
The detection, diagnosis and treatment of dementia has tremendous potential to help persons with dementia and their families to use community based support services to improve quality of life and sustain their life-style choice, as well as more effectively manage other existing chronic conditions and avoid crisis emergency room visits and hospitalizations.  The Dementia Care Transitions project, establishes hospital to primary care clinic patient care transition processes between hospitals and primary care clinics in two health care systems in metro area to improve rates of dementia assessments and referrals to community support resources.  Funded by the Minnesota Department of Human Services, the project builds on the previously funded Dementia ID project that successfully embedded screening, dementia nursing care protocols and referral for diagnosis and community resources in two hospitals.

Dementia Identification Project
The detection, diagnosis, and treatment of dementia has tremendous potential to help persons with dementia and their families use community-based support services to improve quality of life and sustain their life-style choices. The Dementia Identification Project funded by the Minnesota Department of Human Services teaches health-care professionals how to screen for early signs and symptoms of dementia when completing health care assessments; Instructs health-care professionals to refer persons and their family members to their primary care physician for further testing for a possible dementia or health issue that may appear to be a dementia and for follow-up treatment; Provides information and referral resources for persons with dementia and their family members to learn how to access education and support services to address health, legal, financial, social and care management topics; and Supports the coordination of dementia care services among providers, evaluates project effectiveness and disseminates best practices to health care providers, county and aging network staff.

Download an article on caregiving and Alzheimer's Disease.

Elder Refugee Initiative
Implementation of the Elder Refugee Project began in April, 2006. This initiative is a two-year grant project funded by the Office of Refugee Resettlement and designed to increase effectiveness of the information, referral, and assistance systems for refugee elders, families, and service providers. Thus far, the project has focused on identifying unmet needs and trends within various communities including the Hmong, Laotian, Vietnamese, Karen, Oromo, Somali, and Burmese. An advisory committee with representation from refugee elders, caregivers, and service providers will further guide project activities and advise on the development of a web-based tool kit which will contain Minnesota-specific information about services, rights, benefits, and community long-term care options available to refugee elders. Upcoming activities will include continued relationship building and information gathering via focus groups, participating in community outreach events to increase visibility of the project and service options among refugee populations, and encouraging collaboration and resource sharing to increase accessibility to mainstream services.

Encompass Project
The Encompass Project is a new model of health care for seniors in the east metro. Health services are coordinated and delivered through the clinic’s own staff in collaboration with a broad array of community service providers. Home and community-based services are coordinated by experienced care managers and by the community resource specialist (CRS) at the clinic, in close cooperation with the physicians. A CRS from MAAA is stationed at the clinic and works directly with senior patients and caregivers. MAAA is assisting in project development and implementation.

Golden Tracks (2006-2007)
The focus of the Golden Tracks project is to build on the foundation of the Aging & Disability Resource Center grant that Hennepin County received through the Minnesota Board on Aging. This grant is directed at providing people with information and tools to make informed choices about long-term care as well as streamlining access to resources and services. The information can be obtained in multiple ways: by telephone (Senior LinkAge Line®), online (www.MinnesotaHelp.info) (Off Site), in written form, and face-to-face.

Living the Questions...As Minnesota Ages
Communities, individuals and organizations are asking for ways to act smart and strategically regarding the aging of the baby boom generation and its impact on communities. They recognize the need for community planning, to find doable strategies that meet the demands to be placed on the services sector and new ways to anticipate and address the financial implications for individuals.

Making The Link
In the Metro area, Making The Link, a nationally campaign developed sponsored by the National Association of Area Agencies on Aging is designed to increase the number of caregivers referred by healthcare professionals (clinics) to the Senior LinkAge Line®, resulting in increased referrals to caregiver service providers. Metro area caregiver providers work with health care providers to inform professionals about caregiver services and the benefit of intervention.

Partners in Care
Pam Zimmerman, Project Manager
The Partners in Care Project is a partnership of neighborhood and faith-based organizations as well as health and service providers. These local organizations are working together to demonstrate how faith-based and community organizations can join with seniors and families to meet common goals and to improve knowledge about health and healthy living styles, manage chronic disease and illness, and learn about community resources. The Normandale Center for Healing and Wholeness is the project lead, and MAAA is a project partner.

Supporting Seniors Across Systems (2004-2005)
Leveraging the networks of health care professionals, area agencies on aging, counties, and faith-based organizations the Supporting Seniors project, funded by the Minnesota Department of Human Services and Medica Foundation, worked to:

• Inventory parish nurse and faith-based services in a 23 county area.
• Create linkages between parish nurses, Living at Home Block Nurse programs, counties, area agencies on aging, social service providers and health care professionals through technology, referral tools, training and other venues.
• Conduct information exchanges, mentoring and training in key subjects such as risk management for faith-based services.
• Provide a virtual learning center for faith-based service development through the North Central Region Health Ministries Network (Off Site).
• Offer information about faith-based supports for seniors and caregivers utilizing MinnesotaHelp.info (Off Site).
• Demonstrate the effectiveness of parish nursing to reduce acute health care and long-term care costs.

Sustaining Minority Elders in Their Communities
The Sustaining Minority Elders in Their Communities project is helping four organizations from ethnic communities undergo a business planning process to develop new, sustainable eldercare services through technical assistance, training and coaching. An additional 3-5 organizations will participate in training and receive technical assistance to increase management capacity to develop new services for their communities in the future.

The project is supported by the Bush, Saint Paul, Mardag and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota foundations, and Older Americans Act program development and coordination funds.

Vital Aging Network Technical Administration & Coordination (2003-2006)
The Vital Aging Network (Off Site) works to promote the sharing of the strengths of individuals and organizations, which in turn promotes and supports the self-sufficiency, community participation, and quality of life of older adults. MAAA provides website administration, distributes monthly Bulletin and Forum notes, provides website planning and email and listserv administration as well as coordination of VAN business meetings and forums. MAAA partnered with VAN, Twin Cities Public Television and, Evercare to welcome Dr. Bill Thomas, founder of the Eden Alternative to speak at the February 2006 VAN Forum.