Other

in part by Title III. In FY 1976, Title III contributed on the
average 2/3 of the median total budget which was $310,000.
funding was obtained from a wide variety of sources. Over 80%
received local funds, and over 70% received local in kind contri-
butions. States provided funds to more than half the agencies.
Title XX funds are received by 1/5 of the agencies and CETA funds
are received by 40% of the agencies.

While matching funds are required, 71% of the Area Agencies reported they received State and local funds in excess of the required match.

These range from a low of $218 for one agency to a high of $94,867 for another area agency.

The budget data obtained through the Westat Study closely matches

that obtained through the Andrus Study.

Number and Types of Service Providers

The category of service providers includes those persons and organizations involved in direct provision of services to the elderly. This does not mean, however, that their services are necessarily provided only to the elderly.

The total number of service providers in the 39 Planning and Service Areas covered by the Westat Study was approximately 5,400. The median

8

per PSA was 88. More than 15% of the service areas had more than 200

such organizations.

In terms of services supported with Title III funds, Westat found that even before the implementation of priority services expressed as in the 1975 amendments, more than 90% of Area Agencies funded at least one project in transportation, home repair, legal and other counseling, and in-home services.

Part IV Effectiveness and Activities of Area Agencies

The Westat study focused on the changes in the delivery system and the relationship of the Area Agency activities to achievement of those changes. The changes are viewed in the context of three

questions:

Has the Service Delivery System become more Comprehensive?
Has the Service Delivery System become more Coordinated?
Have the Service Providers increased their concern for and

attention to the needs of the Elderly?

The study is designed to measure changes in service delivery, define the process which produced those changes, and identify the participants in the process.

At least two-thirds of the respondents assessed the Area Agency as

being either "highly effective" or "moderately effective" in bringing about

improved services for the elderly in the area. And, with the exception of

the service providers (21%), more than one-third of the respondents rated them as "highly effective".

Influential persons were not asked this question.

On a second question in a similiar vein, two-thirds of influential
individuals in the community when asked to rate their Area Agency's
impact on the local service delivery system, said that it had had
"a considerable impact." One-third of the service providers con-
curred with this assessment.

The service providers receiving Title III funds in the Westat sample were also asked to evaluate the training and technical

assistance received from Area Agencies, 61 percent of those who had received training from Area Agencies assessed it as "very useful."

The Andrus Center study looked at multiple funding of area agencies
as a measure of pooling. They found that in FY 1975, 55% of the
97 agencies studied were obtaining multiple sources of funds beyond
the required match which was double the number receiving such funds
in FY 1974. About 1/4 of the agencies obtained more than one non-AoA
dollar for each AoA dollar received with an average of 80 cents
for each AoA dollar, including match and in-kind contributions.

These findings on the effectiveness of pooling are underestimated since many of the pooling efforts do not result in actual dollars showing up in the area agency budget but, instead, are channelled

through other agencies which provide direct services to older persons.

One of the major findings of the Westat evaluation is that there has been an overall improvement in the characteristics of services delivery to the elderly during the period studied. This improvement is found in all three of the goal areas: comprehensiveness, coordination and concern for

the elderly.

Improvements concerning 17 possible areas of change were studied.
These areas are listed on a separate page which has been distributed
and which we will submit for the record. They include under compre-
hensiveness; average volume or amount of services provided to the
elderly and physical accessiblility of services for the elderly.
The changes measuring coordination included: a global measure of
efforts to coordinate community services and involvement of the
elderly in planning and priority setting. Finally, the measures
of "system concern" included the percent of clients who are elderly,
and the percent of elderly clients who are low income or minority.

Westat found that over 90% of the service providers improved on at least one of these characteristics of service delivery. They averaged improvement in 7 out of 17 areas studied while only 32% of service providers showed a decrease and they averaged a decrease in only 1 out of 17 areas studied.

In the two-year evaluation period, about two-thirds of all service providers reported an increase in their volume of services for the

elderly and that they had increased their expenditures for the elderly.

Service providers also reported a 26 percent increase in the median

period. This parallels the rate of increase in their median expenditures for the elderly, which was reported as being 11 percent per year between FY 1975 and FY 1976. Among service providers who serve all age groups, this 11 percent growth in expenditures for elderly clients is the same percent increase reported for their total expenditures for services to all clients.

As this finding supports, the period under study was one of general growth for social services. However, there is a long history of the elderly being underserved by mainline programs and service providers which was documented by the recently published Age Discrimination Study, of the Commission on Civil Rights. Just growing at the same rate as services to other groups is not enough.

Another area of improvement was that service providers increased the
variety of services offered to elderly clients over the two year
period. The number of types of service available to the elderly rose
by 23 percent. Twenty-six percent of the services offered in 1974 by
service providers currently serving the elderly have been modified

to include the elderly or increase the number of elderly served.