Mid-Florida Area Agency On Aging Inc

- Empower seniors, individuals with disabilities, their families, and other consumers to choose and easily access options for existing mental and physical health and long-term care.

- Enable individuals to maintain a high quality of life for as long as possible through the provision of home and community-based services, including supports for family caregivers.

- Empower seniors and their caregivers to live active, healthy lives to improve their mental and physical health status.

- Ensure the legal rights of seniors are protected and prevent their abuse, neglect, and exploitation

- Promote planning and collaboration at the community level that recognize the benefits and needs of its aging population..

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- Provide streamlined access to health and long-term care options through the Aging and Disability Resource Centers.
- Encourage individuals, including people under 60, to plan for future long-term care needs by providing access to information.
- Ensure that complete and accurate information about resources is available and accessible.
- Ensure that elders have access to free, unbiased, and comprehensive health insurance counseling.
- Increase public awareness of existing mental and physical health and long-term care options.
- Identify and serve target populations in need of information and referral services.
- Identify and serve target populations in need of home and community-based services.
- Provide services, education, and referrals to meet specific needs of individuals with dementia.
- Continue to increase the use of Evidence-Based (EB) programs at the community level.
- Promote good nutrition and physical activity to maintain healthy lifestyles.
- Promote social connectivity, community service, and lifelong learning to maintain positive mental health.
- Advocate for prevention and early intervention of mental health and substance abuse services for elders.
- Promote primary prevention of elder abuse, neglect, and exploitation.
- Reduce the rate of abuse, neglect, and exploitation (ANE) recidivism through education, outreach, and the provision of services.
- Foster opportunities for elders to be an active part of the community.
- Promote safe and affordable communities for elders that will benefit people of all ages.
- Promote cultural competency and awareness of a diverse population.
- Promote volunteerism by and for seniors when possible.

- Established in 1977, Elder Options has extensive experience in advocating for seniors and persons with disabilities and serving as an effective and dedicated steward for state and federal grants for seniors. This includes serving as an unbiased advocate for elders to receive needed services and support and access to health and wellness, elder rights and elder abuse prevention.
- Elder Options’ contracted lead agencies also have extensive experience serving communities, elders and addressing service needs. They are part of a strong community network at the local level and assist with access to local resources.
- Elder Options has a long history of working collaboratively with its partners to provide a strong, collaborative aging network that works increasingly well together to meet needs of clients, including government, senior service providers, health care and elder abuse prevention partners.
- Elder Options has developed new and expanded current partnerships within the health care and other non-traditional industries.
- As a private, non-profit, Elder Options is a mission driven, holistic agency that oversees and administers an experienced, cost-effective service delivery system.
- The role of Elder Options has been identified in state statute as the statewide single point of entry for long term care services. This stabilizes the infrastructure and staffing for our agency and provides a standard and consistent process for individuals seeking to access services through an unbiased advocate that is focused on clients.
- Elder Options provides the highest tier of evidence-based community health and wellness programs through experienced trainers. These programs have been proven to produce positive health outcomes for participants, including increasing their quality of life and improving their ability to remain independent and healthier.

The Aging Network Comes Through for Seniors During the Pandemic (2020)

- 28.723 Calls to the Elder Helpline
- 5,324 New clients screened for eligibility
- 1,764 Annual re-screenings for eligibility
- 2,096 Clients released for service
- 9,361 Client contacts made by 63 SHINE volunteers
- 1,009 Clients served in 50 Healthy Aging Workshops
- 1,199 Clients assisted through Community Care Services
- 215 Graduates from Savvy Caregiver Training
- 1,199 Telephone Reassurance Calls

- SHINE (Serving Health Insurance Needs of Elders) Counselors provided 6,668 hours volunteer service worth $181,370. Elder Options leverages the contributions of volunteers. Capitalizing on their experience, knowledge and trusted community relationships to serve more people, more effectively.

- 1,505 low-income persons assisted with Extra Help & Medicare Savings Program (MSP) benefits to help with Medicare costs, putting money back in their pockets for other essentials.