ACL’s Commit to Connect initiative, in collaboration with engAGED: The National Resource Center for Engaging Older Adults, is launching a call for social engagement innovations. The aim is to identify innovative interventions, programs, and services that are addressing social isolation and loneliness.

Presenters will discuss the unique impact of dementia on social isolation and loneliness, tools for measuring these experiences, and common types of programs for addressing social isolation and loneliness among people living with dementia (PLWD) and their caregivers.

As part of the 2024 Physician Fee Schedule final rule, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released a Medicare Learning Network Booklet that outlines four services in the Physician Fee Schedule intended to address health equity priorities, including new service codes for community health integration (CHI) and principal illness navigation (PIN).

The ARCH National Respite Network, through their ACL-funded grant to manage the Lifespan Respite Technical Assistance and Resource Center, invites you to join a webinar to highlight the recent release of the Cultural and Linguistic Competence Assessment for Respite Organizations (CLCARO) and a companion guide for using the assessment.

This virtual event is free and includes a full day of sessions on how to best meet the mental health needs of older adults. In partnership with Rush University’s E4 Center of Excellence for Behavioral Health Disparities in Aging, the National Council on Aging (NCOA) anticipates offering free continuing education credit for several professions.

Disability, aging, health, and housing organizations — along with state officials and policymakers — can collaborate to expand access to TBI programs and services. Presenters will discuss types of services that can enhance housing stability and best practices for collaboration between housing, health, and social care services to increase access to those supports.

The proposed rule would set new standards for prompt, safe, and dignified assistance; require enhanced training for airline employees and contractors who physically assist passengers with disabilities and handle passengers’ wheelchairs; and specify actions that airlines must take to protect passengers when a wheelchair is damaged during transport.

The RERC on Technology for People Who Are Deaf or Hard of Hearing will conduct research, development, and evaluation activities toward understanding and optimizing technologies and services used by people who are deaf or hard of hearing.

As we continue to celebrate Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month (DDAM), we are highlighting some of the many ways that ACL is working to break down barriers to create more inclusive communities so that all people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD) can do well and succeed. We at ACL believe that “all means all,” and that’s why we are putting our resources into projects that address the needs of those most often overlooked in our society — such as people with communication disabilities.

ACL has released an Innovations in Nutrition Programs and Services (INNU) cooperative agreement funding opportunity for innovative approaches to enhance the quality, effectiveness, and outcomes of nutrition programs and services in the aging services network through collaboration with senior centers.