Today, we kick off Older Americans Month (OAM), a time to recognize older Americans' contributions, highlight aging trends, and reaffirm commitments to serving the older adults in our communities.

To close Sexual Assault Awareness Month (SAAM), we are sharing this letter from Alison Barkoff, who leads ACL, Jeff Hild, who leads the Administration for Children and Families, and Admiral Rachel Levine, the HHS Assistant Secretary for Health, which was written to improve support for people with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities who experience sexual violence – and to prevent it from occurring.

In this Policy Round-Up:

Self Advocates Becoming Empowered and ACL's Administration on Disabilities are pleased to announce the 2024-2025 Self Advocacy Resource and Technical Assistance Center (SAR-TAC) award fellows. Seven fellows were chosen based on the policy or leadership project they wanted to do to help the self advocacy movement.

Final “1557 Rule” includes important provisions for disabled people and older adults Today, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) published a final rule implementing Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which prohibits discrimination based on race, color, national origin, sex, age, and disability in covered health programs and activities.

As part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s Care Workers Recognition Month activities and in support of President Biden’s Executive Order on Increasing Access to High-Quality Care and Supporting Caregivers, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced today that 20 states have been selected to participate in two separate technical assistance programs that together will help participating states better recruit, train, and retain direct care workers, who provide home and community-based services (HCBS) for older adults and people with disabilities.

The RRTC on Health and Function of People with Physical Disabilities will conduct research, training, technical assistance, and related activities to contribute to improved health and function among people with physical disabilities.

As we share

Find resources for World Elder Abuse Awareness Day and learn more about the upcoming June 2024 EJCC meeting.

The RRTC on Family Support will conduct research, training, technical assistance, and related activities on the family support of people with disabilities across the life course in order to improve the community living and participation, health and function, or employment outcomes of people with disabilities.