In
early 1999 a concerned community of elder services
providers formed a grass roots committee, the
Butte County Crisis Intervention Task Force,
in response to a few well publicized cases in
which elders diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease
were jailed after assaulting their spouses.
The
task force soon found that Butte County lacked
a coordinated countywide system able to respond
to the special needs of older and dependent
adults. As the task force explored options for
enhanced management of crisis care, they discovered
the broader need for coordination of elder care
ranging from prevention and early intervention
to complex long-term care services.
DESS,
acting as the lead agency for the Butte County
Crisis Intervention Task Force successfully
responded to a California Department of Aging
Request for Proposal for a Long-Term Care Innovation
Grant.
Committees
were formed to explore important issues in greater
detail. The first three committees convened
were Crisis Intervention, Resources Directory,
and Disaster Preparedness. Over the course of
the project three more committees (Training
and Education, Prevention, and Advanced Illness
Planning) were added, as the need became apparent.
The
second key goal of the planning project was
to form an Elder Services Coordinating Council
(ESCC). Recruitment for the council had been
an ongoing focus of the planning project. The
current contact list includes 80 representatives
from 50 Butte County public and private agencies.
On February 19, 2002, the Elder Services Planning
Project Task Force was officially designated
the Butte County Elder Services Coordinating
Council.
The
ESCC has become a model of collaborative planning.
Where professionals were once frustrated at
the unresponsiveness of other agencies, there
is now a concerted effort to understand the
roles, responsibilities, resources, and limitations
of each agency. That understanding has cleared
the way for inclusive, comprehensive planning
for crisis response.
