Report from the Aging and Disabilities Advisory Council

State Budget

  • Housing Trust Fund – $175 Million is provided for Affordable Housing Projects in the capital budget.
  • The Dementia Action Collaborative proposal received over $1M – full funding for three of their four requests:  1)  Dissemination of best practices to primary care through Project Echo at the UW, $482K ; 2) Expand public information and education using evidence-based public health messaging around brain health, warning signs of dementia and value of early diagnosis, $300K; and 3) Early legal and advance care planning, $233K.  The request for to Develop Dementia Care Specialist Program and direct services ($4.3M) was not funded.
  • Long Term Care Case Management Program will receive an increase of $1.7M, recognizing the impact of mental illness on the complexity of managing cases.  This translates into a about 1% rate increase.  W4A and local AAAs are appreciative of the increase, however, they are disappointed that it was much less than the amount in the Governor’s proposed budget ($7.2M). 

In addition to the above priorities, other budget wins for the Aging Network include:

  • An increase of $1.5M for Adult Day Health
  • Additional funding for Kinship Caregiver Programs – $200,000 for kinship care legal aid coordinator;  $500,000 to expand Kinship Care Support Program; and $468,000 for Tribal Navigators. 

For those of you who would like to dive into the details, here is a link to the final operating budget –  see pages 272-278 for DSHS Long Term Care section.  Also, an analysis from the Washington Budget & Policy Center may be of interest – a comparison of current and pre-recession spending. 

Finally, a reminder that it’s great time to reach out to your legislators to thank them for their hard work during this session. 

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