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Caregivers Corner
November, 2000
A Pennsylvania-Based Partnership for Aging
The Southwestern Pennsylvania Partnership for Aging (SWPPA) is a ten-county, 387-member coalition of older adults, caregivers, non-profit and for-profit aging, long term care, and healthcare providers, business and community organizations, institutions, governmental entities, and universities committed to improving the social, emotional, physical and psychological well being of older adults.
SWPPA is comprised of members from Allegheny, Armstrong, Beaver, Butler, Fayette, Greene, Indiana, Lawrence, Washington and Westmoreland counties - a region having one of the highest population densities of seniors in the nation.
The first coalition of its kind in the state, SWPPA seeks to provide a neutral forum for networking, collaborating, information sharing, education, discussion and advocacy, with the goals of positively influencing aging public policy, improving the aging program delivery system and improving the quality of life for older adults by fostering independence and control over life situations for as long as possible.
SWPPA was organized in 1990. Since its formation, SWPPA has held annual meetings, regional conferences, and issue forums that have attracted speakers including Maggie Kuhn, founder of the Grey Panthers; Jeannette Takamura, Deputy Secretary of Aging for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Washington, DC; Catherine Unsino of New York City, one of the founders of the National Culture Change Movement; Sarah Greene Burger, one of the founders of the National Citizens Coalition for Nursing Home Reform in Washington, DC; Connie Evashwick, Director of the Center for Health Care Innovation at the University of California, Long Beach; and Elizabeth Clemmer, Senior Coordinator for the AARP, Washington, DC. Additionally, SWPPA has worked with the American Society on Aging, the premiere aging educational and policy organization, to host three annual "Summer Series on Aging" educational forums for administrative and line staff working in the field of aging.
SWPPA has produced numerous position papers and studies including "Personal Care...Today and Tomorrow," "The State of Assisted Living in Pennsylvania," "Getting to Know HMOs...A Consumer Education Kit," and Pennsylvania's first and only current "Guide for Guardians." Additionally, SWPPA has developed a 40- and a 56-hour Aging Caregiver Training Curriculum for entry level direct care staff and, in an effort to defer or delay older adult movement into a higher level of residential/institutional care, a restorative conditioning program aimed at maintaining strength and independence in the older community is in operation at twelve community-based sites across southwestern Pennsylvania. Current SWPPA projects include applied research projects beginning implementation of an adult day care quality outcomes measurement tool and a nursing facility pain management project.
Overall objectives of SWPPA's include consumer and professional education; development and support of community and educational programs; dissemination of a broad range of information regarding aging; applied research based on best practice models; and advocacy for the development of a regional continuum of care system.
