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Efforts to plan for the issues that will arise from the aging population, and to efficiently provide this population with services, have frequently been stymied by the lack of coordination between sectors and across geographical areas.  Agencies must be able to coordinate at a regional level, organizing services by need when it makes sense to, rather than exclusively by geographical region, if service delivery to a growing population of older adults is to be as effective and efficient as possible.   

Planners, elder service providers, and other municipal and non-profit organizations must also work more explicitly and intentionally together to ensure that all of the intertwined elements involved in accommodating an aging population are adequately addressed.  This level of cross-disciplinary thinking requires the formation of new relationships and opening new dialogues across groups that have not traditionally worked together.

This coordination and collaboration is already starting to happen, for example when a variety of Boston-area advocates and service providers came together to form the Boston Partnership for Older Adults, an organization that conducted interdisciplinary research and advocacy for older residents of the city for 5 years before folding due to a lack of funding.  Beacon Hill Village, a nonprofit organization serving Beacon Hill’s elderly residents, is an example of an organization that is transcending the barriers between different service providers to offer its population a one-stop shop for the different home care, health, and other services they may need.  This organization charges an annual fee –with assistance available for those who cannot afford it – and in exchange provides many of the services provided by a retirement community to residents who are still living in their homes.  These organizations are harbingers of things to come, as the increasing size of the region’s over-55 cohort will necessitate much greater efficiency and coordination.

29)    Collect data to ensure that older adults are being well served by state and local service providers

30)    Coordinate transportation planning and service provision to the Commonwealth’s elderly population   

31)    Provide housing options attractive to older adults