Diverse Populations
Providing SMP services to
Medicare beneficiaries requires an understanding of and sensitivity to
the needs of older adults. Needs related to culture, ethnicity,
literacy level, and primary language must also be considered. For other
older adults, residing in a remote area, being homebound, having a
disability, lacking access to transportation services, or having a low
income may limit their access to SMP services. SMPs are asked by AoA to
overcome barriers and find ways to serve these "hard-to-reach"
populations. In addition to the services featured under Professional
Resources below, here are some suggested approaches:
- Research the demographics of the population to be served and
identify barriers to program access
- Recruit bilingual volunteers to help reach diverse populations
- Partner with the appropriate community organizations, such as:
- Cultural, minority, or ethnic community centers
- Home-delivered meal programs
- Area Agencies on Aging
- Develop a training and outreach plan for staff and volunteers that
takes diverse populations into consideration
- Review replicable outreach models for reaching rural and Native
American older adults that were used by past AoA-funded SMP Integration Grantees
- For reaching Hispanic beneficiaries, seek assistance from the National Hispanic SMP
National Hispanic SMP
A project of the National Hispanic Council on Aging and funded by the
Administration on Aging (AoA), the National Hispanic
SMP is developing models to close the gap in Medicare fraud education
between Hispanic older adults and mainstream populations. For more
information on this project, click here.
Professional Resources
- AoA Diversity Toolkit: helps professionals make a
cultural shift in order to serve all diverse populations with respect,
inclusiveness, and sensitivity. This toolkit supports the full
participation of professionals, their agencies, and partners to work
together to reach this goal.
- Asian Pacific Resource Center: provides information
and links to other resource centers that can help you reach Asian
American beneficiaries.
- Medicare.gov: provides publications online in
multiple languages for people with Medicare.
- National Center for Frontier Communities: the only
national organization dedicated to the smallest and most geographically
isolated communities in the United States – those in the
frontier. The term “frontier” is also defined.
- National Hispanic Council on Aging (NHCOA): a
nonprofit organization empowering a national network of 42
community-based organizations (CBOs) that, in turn, support a
broader network of 7,000 individuals, reaching 10 million Hispanics each
year.
- National
Indian Council on Aging (NICOA): Serves as a central access
point for information on employment, health care, conferences, and more
for American Indian and Alaska Native elders.
- Rural Assistance Center: a product of the U.S.
Department of Health & Human Services’ Rural Initiative,
the Rural Assistance Center (RAC) helps rural communities and other
rural stakeholders access the full range of available programs, funding
research that can enable them to provide quality health and human
services to rural residents.
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