Photo credit: Virginia Small
A sweeping change in how services and advocacy for seniors are managed is being proposed as part of Milwaukee County’s 2021 budget. Late last month, County Executive David Crowley’s office informed the Commission on Aging (COA) of its intention to merge Milwaukee County’s Department on Aging (MCDA) into the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). The commission and other senior advisory groups were not consulted until after the reorganization decision was made.
Programs for seniors are mandated and codified by federal, state and local statutes. Wisconsin state law requires that an appointed Commission on Aging (COA) oversee the planning and delivery of those programs. Milwaukee County’s COA members recently expressed concerns in a press release about the proposal to “demote” the department, citing “lack of transparency, input and unsung governing authority.”
Crowley administration officials say it is merely “an organizational change that will not affect the delivery of any services.” Nonetheless, state law requires that the county’s Board of Supervisors approve how aging services are provided, and that the chairs of the Commission on Aging and COA’s Advisory Council must sign off on any reorganization plan.
The Milwaukee County Department on Aging was created as a stand-alone agency “to provide a single point of access to services for people aged 60 and over,” according to the county’s website. Decision makers deemed older adults better served by separate, rather than merged, departments, according to the Commission on Aging’s statement. Congress established the Older Americans Act (OAA) in 1965 recognizing the need for social services for older adults. Area Agencies on Aging, required by the OAA, are responsible for the development of a coordinated system for the delivery of social and other critical services to the community, including “funding to home- and community-based services and programs that affirm the dignity of older adults by supporting their choices for living in and giving to our community,” according to DOA’s website. The Area Agency on Aging receives funding through the OAA, the State of Wisconsin and Milwaukee County.
The move to eliminate an independent department leaves many unanswered questions, said Richmond Izard, the COA’s chair. He was invited to testify at the October 15 Milwaukee County Board Finance Committee’s budget hearing, when the plan was formally proposed. He said that commissioners were blindsided by the abrupt announcement, especially since they had stated their support last January for “maintaining an independent Milwaukee County Department on Aging” among top priorities for local aging services.
|
|
The appointed, all-volunteer COA is an “advocacy and research agency charged with representing the voice and interest of older adults in Milwaukee County, pursuant to Wisconsin Statute 46.82 and Chapter 53 of the Milwaukee County General Code of Ordinances. The mission of MCDA’s is to be “committed to the independence and dignity of older adults through advocacy, leadership and service…” The commission and department serve 170,000 senior citizens, comprising 20 percent of the county’s population, as well as their caregivers and partners.
According to the COA’s statement, initial signs county officials were “not being transparent and forthcoming date back to February.” Officials informed (COA’s) Advisory Council that “the county would be adopting a ‘No Wrong Door’ approach to delivering services, centered around removing silos and improving access. Commissioner and Advisory Council Chairwoman, Bettie Rodgers asked for a copy of an existing ‘No Wrong Door Whitepaper’ on February 13 but did not receive it until September 14.”
COA Vice Chair Sharon Abston-Coleman said at the commission’s executive meeting in June, “I’m really concerned about will there even be a Department on Aging, making sure it’s free-standing and that it still exists and doesn’t get gobbled up somewhere,” according to the COA release.
At the recent county board hearing, Izard spoke about a concept called “the aging difference, a distinct approach to programs for elders.” He said, “Mandated senior participation and self-determination distinguish the aging difference from other social services. The aging difference is so significant to program development and delivery that A Manual of Policies, Procedures, & Technical Assistance for the Wisconsin Aging Network cites the phrase 41 times.”
Izard also cited the manual’s guidance regarding proposed reorganizations: “Considerations about where aging units fit in local government occasionally focus on imagined efficiencies...However, the major point to consider is the effectiveness of the aging unit at representing older people in their government. When counties...are considering altering the place of the aging unit in local government, they are strongly advised to conduct the deliberations in a very public fashion, and must involve older people and their organizations at every level.”
County administrators listed recent meetings that have been held with various seniors, including the COA. Izard pointed out that all such meetings were held after the merger plan was developed. Shakita LaGrant-McClain, executive director of the Department of Health and Human Services said that seniors would be involved in the process of reintegration of aging services into the DHHS.
Keeping Seniors Out of the Loop
Patricia Bruce opposed the merger in a written statement. She chairs the Aging and Disabilities Resource Center Governing Board (ADRCGB) and is a retired long-time social worker. She wrote that county officials have “not defined for us what was broken within the Department that is now going to be fixed by becoming a Division. None of this was presented by staff in time for study and informed review to the one voice we have, the Commission on Aging (COA).”
In Bruce’s early days working on the near north side, before the Department on Aging was formed in 1991, she said “our elders felt that they had no voice, no pride, no hope that ‘the system was working for them’. Society afforded them little dignity and the county service system was a ‘swamp’ they could not maneuver. They were often the object of age bias by programs and workers that were not skilled at understanding or working with older adults or their families.” She said that individuals working with the elderly at the grass-roots level “helped bring their voices to their County Supervisors and everyone together listened. Together the Department on Aging was formed. It became the backbone of aging services, fostered pride, showed hope and grew as a real voice with and for older adults in Milwaukee County.”
Bruce urged supervisors to “postpone this seemingly underhanded operational move until you can communicate with the COA, the variety of elders in Milwaukee County and together, once again identify and build strong leadership with and for thousands of elders…‘Age equity’ has melted away because of poor, woefully inadequate leadership in the past few years. I cannot believe that all of this can be taken away in just one COVID-laced budget cycle. No voices of older adults have collectively gathered or have been heard by County Supervisors or even the Department that is supposed to serve us, represent us. It seems as if DHHS, The Department of Aging and the County Executive are taking advantage of the pandemic.”
Milwaukee County’s five senior centers have been closed since March and will remain closed until at least March 2021 and perhaps much longer. Serving Older Adults, a nonprofit contracted to manage the centers, has continued working to connect with seniors by providing takeout and delivered meals, doing wellness checks by phone, and occasional outdoor activities.
Bruce wrote, “Seniors have no place to meet and a vast many do not have the technology to communicate among each other or with you. Most could never find their way into this e-comment tool.”
Crowley Pushing a Rejected Concept
Although Crowley, elected in April, is proposing this merger, former County Milwaukee Executive Chris Abele had long been pushing it. The county board passed a resolution in 2016 to keep the Department of Aging as an independent agency. Stephanie Sue Stein, who was director of the Department on Aging for 22 years and retired in 2015, said “Chris Abele proposed dissolving the Department on Aging every year” during her tenure and later, although such plans did not move forward.
Stein said she is concerned that, without administrators with deep experience in aging issues, the mission established by the federal Older American Act—calling for leadership and advocacy on senior issues—may not happen. Although she supports taking an “integrated approach” to providing services, she said that direct services for people in crisis are “just a small part of the work that the Department of Aging has been managing.”
The top executive position at the Department of Aging has been a revolving door since Stein’s retirement. In 2016, Abele hired Holly Davis as director, despite her having no previous experience in the field of aging. He passed over the acting director who had long served as the assistant director within the department. After Davis resigned last October, two other county administrators without expertise in aging have served as acting executive directors of the department. Supervisor Sequanna Taylor voiced concern that “when departments are merged sometimes one of them gets the back end,” in terms of attention.
Although proposed within the 2021 budget, the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors must approve the plan to place aging services within the Department of Health and Human Services. Contact information for county supervisors is here.
Several virtual opportunities for public engagement will be offered before the county board votes on the 2021 budget on November 9 at 9:30 a.m. All county board meetings are currently being conducted virtually and can be accessed through the County Legislative Information Center (CLIC). Registration may be required to participate in individual listening sessions through Facebook, so check with the respective supervisors’ web pages.
Update:
The Commission on Aging's Advocacy Committee of passed the following motion on Monday, Oct. 5, 2020:
Resolution: That the Milwaukee County Commission on Aging communicate to the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors its support for maintaining a separate and independent Milwaukee County Department on Aging and opposing merger as a unit within the Milwaukee County Department of Health and Human Services.
The Advisory Council passed the following motion on Monday, Oct. 26, 2020:
Resolution: The Milwaukee County Aging Advisory Council opposes amending the 2019-21 Milwaukee County Area Aging Plan to incorporate the Milwaukee County Department on Aging as a unit within the Milwaukee County Department of Health and Human Services for up to one year to allow further consideration by older adults in Milwaukee County in consultation with the Milwaukee County Executive’s office.
