ACL’s Commit to Connect initiative, in collaboration with engAGED: The National Resource Center for Engaging Older Adults, recently added 27 new program examples to the Social Engagement Innovations Hub. With these additions, organizations now have access to more than 100 model social connection programs, services, and interventions from across the country.

Today we kick off National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM), an opportunity to celebrate the many contributions of people with disabilities to America’s workplaces and economy. Led by the U.S. Department of Labor's Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP), NDEAM also showcases supportive and inclusive policies and practices benefiting workers and employers.

FEMA and federal, state, community and voluntary partners continue providing resources to aid response efforts across the Southeast as survivors begin recovering from Hurricane Helene.

The AFP grant awards will establish or expand programs that provide people with additional options to access and acquire AT devices through a low-interest loan fund, an interest buy-down program, a revolving loan fund, a loan guarantee, an insurance program, or other approaches. AFPs emphasize consumer choice and control to build programs that provide financing for the full array of AT devices and services to ensure all people with disabilities — regardless of type of disability or health condition, age, level of income, and residence setting — have access to the program.

Yesterday, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released comprehensive guidance to support states in ensuring the 38 million children with Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) coverage — nearly half of the children in this country — receive the full range of health care services they need. Under Medicaid’s Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnostic, and Treatment (EPSDT) requirements, eligible children and youth are entitled to a comprehensive array of prevention, diagnostic, and treatment services — including well-child visits, mental health services, dental, vision, and hearing services.

Starting today, every U.S. household can order free at-home COVID-19 tests through a partnership between the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR) and the United States Postal Service (USPS). These tests will detect the currently circulating COVID-19 variants and are intended for use through the end of 2024. Each order will include four tests.

Yesterday, ACL and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) released a joint letter to ACL grantees on the historic May 2024 final rule implementing Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. The comprehensive update — the first since the initial regulation was put into place more than 50 years ago — is a powerful tool to combat discrimination based on disability in health care and human services.

The training, resources, and technical assistance provided through this grant will help the ACL aging and disability network to develop new, practical skills to support older adults with behavioral health conditions and improve coordination among local aging and behavioral health service providers.

To better understand falls and these programs, we asked a few professionals to share their perspectives. Kathy Cameron and Emily Nabors are on the National Council on Aging (NCOA) team operating ACL’s National Falls Prevention Resource Center. Karla Cazer works on an ACL-funded falls prevention grant project at Sanford Medical Center in South Dakota.

Join the ACL-funded National Alzheimer’s and Dementia Resource Center (NADRC) for their upcoming webinar where presenters will discuss the process of choosing, implementing, and evaluating dementia programs. Additionally, the presenters will review the updated NADRC resource Grantee-Implemented Evidence-Based and Evidence-Informed Dementia Interventions and highlight key aspects of the guide.