The Elderly Affairs Division (EAD) is the designated Area Agency on Aging (AAA) and serves as the City and County of Honolulu’s focal point for older adults. The agency is part of a national network of 56 state units on aging created by the Older Americans Act of 1965. Each of Hawaii’s counties has a designated area agency on aging. All four agencies work closely with the State Executive Office on Aging, the State’s link to the federal Administration on Aging in the U.S Department of Health and Human Services.
Serving Oahu, EAD’s mission is to develop systems of home and community based services that assist older persons in leading independent, meaningful, and dignified lives. These services enable older persons, who may be frail or have limited economic or social support systems, to live independently in the community for as long as possible. The division carries out a number of functions to accomplish its mission. These activities include:
- Planning
- Service development
- Community education
- Advocacy, coordination
- Contracting for gap filling services
- Senior volunteer recognition
The Elderly Affairs Division provides a wide range of services to adults 60 years and older and to family caregivers. Delivery of services is made possible by leveraging federal, state, county, foundation and other private funds, and participant and volunteer contributions. Partnerships, utilization of local resources, and bottoms-up planning processes are important components of program development.
EAD works in close collaboration with the State Executive Office on Aging and county Area Agencies on Aging in the development of strategies to implement the Administration on Aging’s national initiative to establish Aging and Disability Resource Centers in every state. EAD recently launched its “virtual” Aging and Disability Resource Center in the form of a website, allowing further expansion of information and assistance services to older adults, persons with disabilities 18 years and older and their caregivers.
The ability to access information and services for older adults continues to be extremely critical as more family caregivers of all ages are called upon to provide care, both locally and long-distance.
Kupuna Care Program
The Kupuna Care Program, a collaboration of the State Executive Office on Aging and the county Area Agencies on Aging, provides assistance to frail older adults who cannot live at home without adequate help from family and/or formal services. Seven state-funded long-term care services were available in 2009 to help older adults avoid premature institutionalization. They include;
- Information and Assistance
- Attendant Care
- Chore
- Home Delivered Meals
- Homemaker
- Personal Care
- Transportation
To be eligible for Kupuna Care services, an older adult must: be a U.S. citizen or legal alien be 60 years of age or older not be covered by any comparable government or private home and community based services not reside in an institution such as an intermediate care facility (ICF), skilled nursing facility (SNF), adult residential care home (ARCH), hospital or foster family home have two or more ADLs or IADLs or significantly reduced mental capacity have at least one unmet need in performing an ADL or IADL
For more information on any of these programs, please call the Elderly Affairs Division’s senior hotline at 768-7700
