Council on Aging of Southwestern Ohio

Enhance the lives of older adults by assisting them to remain independent at home through a range of quality services.

Every senior adult in our region shall have a choice and an range of services and programs that will assist them to remain independent in their chosen environment.

We are committed to building strong relationships with our customers to enable COA to continue to meet the needs of senior adults and caregivers.

Our mission and vision: Enhance the lives of adults by assisting them to remain independent at home through a range of quality services. Every senior adult in our region shall have a choice and a range of services and programs that will assist them to remain independent in their chosen environment.

In this way, we’re helping to build communities that are not only good places for growing up, but good for growing old.

Programs administered by the Council on Aging preserve dignity and choice for older adults.

They are part of a range of long-term care available in the community. This care begins with planning. On a large scale, we plan so communities can thrive as the population ages. On a small scale, we help individuals and families plan to meet their own needs as they age.

After planning, long-term care ranges from services based in the home and community, (such as home-delivered meals, housekeeping help, adult day centers and senior centers) through assisted living, nursing homes, and hospice.

Annual data
With our community partners, we provide nearly 18,000 people with home-care services. This includes 1.78 million hours of in-home care and 1.9 million home-delivered meals.

We fund community and senior center-based activities to nearly 43,000 people. Services include transportation, meals, recreation, education, health promotion, ombudsman services and legal assistance.

We help nearly 30,000 people gain access to information, programs and community resources.

We help caregivers through award-winning training and support programs, visiting more than 350 family caregivers in their homes and graduating about 150 professional home health aides.

We are fortunate to have many resources in our community for the aging. The hard part is finding out about them and sorting through all the options! You can search all around, talk to friends, co-workers, relatives – and never be sure you’ve got the right information. Or, you can call Council on Aging. We’ll get you started on the right path.

None of us likes to think about getting old and needing help. But we do hope that we will have choices about where and how we will live as we age. For most of us, the first choice is to stay in our own home for as long as we can. COA makes that possible for anyone, including those of modest means.

In 1970 - five years after passage of the Older Americans Act - Council on Aging was founded to promote the interests of older adults. A year later, COA incorporated as a tax-exempt, private, non-profit corporation.

In 1974, the Ohio Department of Aging designated COA to be the Area Agency on Aging for Ohio’s Planning and Service Area I. This area includes Butler, Clermont, Clinton, Hamilton and Warren counties. More than 252,000 adults ages 60 and older live in this region.

As an Area Agency on Aging, COA is part of the national aging services network. The Older Americans Act of 1965 established this network and created the Administration on Aging (a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services).

The aging services network is divided into state units and regional Planning and Service Areas. Ohio’s state unit is the Ohio Department of Aging which represents two million Ohioans age 60 and older.

States are divided into Planning and Service areas, each with its own Area Agency on Aging (AAA). There are 660 AAAs nationwide. Ohio has 12. AAAs work with the public and private sectors to shape how communities serve their older - often vulnerable - citizens.

Council on Aging is overseen by a Board of Trustees, assisted by an Advisory Council. The five counties in the COA service area have elderly services programs that are funded by county tax levies. COA administers these programs under contracts with county commissioners in Butler, Clinton, Hamilton and Warren counties. Oversight is provided by citizens groups appointed by the commissioners. In Clermont County, the program is administered by Clermont Senior Services.

Every aspect of American life is being affected by the aging of our population. The greatest effects are still to come now that the nation’s 78 million baby boomers have begun turning 60. The population of Americans over age 65 is expected to double to 71 million by 2030.

What are the implications of this so-called silver tsunami? Clearly, it will place unprecedented pressures on our economy, our health care system, transportation, housing, social services, emergency planning, and long-term care resources. Most directly, it will affect families who are being called upon in ever-increasing numbers to care for their elderly loved ones.

In terms of the size of its elderly population, Ohio ranks 6th in the nation. Ohio today has more than two million people age 60 and older. Every month, another 12,000 Ohioans turn 60. By 2020, we’ll have 40 percent more older Ohioans than we do now.
Most older adults are healthy and active. As they age, they are more likely to have chronic conditions that require care. Growing numbers of seniors, combined with increased longevity, means a tremendous increase in the number of frail elderly age 85 and older.
About 175,000 Ohioans are age 85 and older, including 50,000 over age 90.
By 2010, more than half a million older Ohioans will need someone to help them with at least one activity of daily living, such as bathing, dressing or getting out of bed.
In 2005, Ohio’s Medicaid program (government-funded insurance for the poor) served about 51,000 people in nursing homes, spending $2.8 billion – a per capita ranking of 9th in the nation. Ohio has been criticized for spending too much of its Medicaid funds on institutional long-term care rather than on in-home services. In home care preserves independence and dignity for seniors and is much less expensive than nursing homes.
PASSPORT allows elderly Medicaid recipients to receive care in their homes, rather than in nursing homes. It costs about $1,140 a month compared with $4,800 a month for nursing home care.
The expansion of PASSPORT means the way Ohioans use long term care has changed. Of Medicaid recipients receiving long-term care in 1993, fewer than one in ten received that care at home, via PASSPORT. Today, that number is closer to four in ten.
Today, more than 34,000 Ohioans are on PASSPORT, including about 3,000 in the five southwestern counties served by Council on Aging.
Unpaid (usually family) caregivers provide 80 percent of home care services.
Ninety percent of older adults want to remain in their homes for as long as possible. (AARP survey)