Back in October I asked if you’d heard the exciting news that Gov. Gavin Newsom just signed Senate Bill 228, California’s Master Plan for Aging, authored by our own Hannah-Beth Jackson – so we’d be better prepared for the silver tsunami that is here and is still coming.
I also told you about the California Health and Human Services Agency’s “Together We EngAGE Pledge for Action” that allowed all Californians the opportunity to share their ideas and suggestions for how we collectively build an age-friendly California. I took the pledge and I encouraged you to as well.
Since then, many members of the silver tsunami have gone to www.chhs.ca.gov to take the time to give feedback on what they would like to see in the Master Plan.
“Housing” was the top concern. “Health and Wellness” was the next concern. “Long-term Services & Supports, Information & Assistance, and Family Caregiver Support” came next. Then “Other.” Next came “Purpose, Community Engagement, and Ageism,” then “Economic Security” “Transportation, Mobility, Accessibility” followed. “Elder Abuse Prevention & Reporting” and “Emergency and Disaster Preparedness” rounded out the concerns.
For those of you who are fortunate enough to have a computer, you can view the percentages of each of these concerns as well as pages and pages of individual public comments at their website. Click on “Committees” and choose “Master Plan on Aging.” Scroll down to “Engagement” and click “Stakeholder Feedback.”
Last week I received an email alerting me to a new opportunity for Master Plan for Aging input. This time the “Together We EngAGE” folks would like to hear our stories about how COVID-19 has impacted our lives and “how should lessons learned from the pandemic inform the Master Plan for Aging?”
The email I received asked to “Please consider taking 10 minutes to complete the survey to tell us about your experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic and your thoughts on how, together, we can increase support for older adults, persons with disabilities, and families and caregivers in California. We encourage you to share the survey with your personal and professional networks so they can add their voices too.
The California Department of Aging is committed to learning from the challenges, changes, and losses due to COVID-19. CDA will use these learnings to inform the Governor’s Master Plan for Aging, which will be released in December 2020.”
Again, for those of you fortunate enough to have a computer, please take the survey. It’s on the same page as mentioned above. The links to the survey, are in English, Spanish, and Chinese. It’s anonymous, of course. After you’ve taken the survey, you can find out more about engagement activities. There’s a wealth of information on these pages and I encourage you to do so.
I say, “For those of you fortunate enough to have a computer…” because this is most concerning to me right now. Not every senior has a computer or internet access. That means not every senior can participate fully in this new survey or access critically needed information and services.
I don’t have the answer to this problem, but you can bet much of my ten minutes taking the new survey was spent on this critical need. I hope you’ll do the same because “Together We EngAGE.”
Until next time … keep thinking the good thoughts.