Now that we have seen that services to the elderly have improved

during the period studied, let us look at the relationship of area

agencies to that change.

The first

Westat developed two major measures of effectiveness. measure describes the share of improvments in which Area Agencies are involved, as reported by service providers. Westat found that

Area Agencies contributed to about 1/5 of all of the improvements in the 17 possible areas of change in services for older persons.

Taking into account that the Area Agencies did not attempt to influence the services of all their service providers, our analysis showed that the Area Agencies were credited with contributing to an an average of 31 percent of the improvements made by those service providers they attempted to influence.

It is important to note that for an area agency to be credited with involvement under the methodology used in this study, three things had to happen. First the Area Agency had to describe what had occured, then the service provider had to state that a change was made and finally the service provider had to describe the events that led to the change including any area agency involvement.

The second measure determined what percent of the time that an area agency succeeded when they attempted to bring about change.

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An attempt was one or more activities, such as a series of phone

calls or meetings, aimed at causing a single change.

Westat found that on the average, area agencies succeeded in about 60% of their attempts to improve services to older persons.

Acea Agencies were credited with helping in the establishment of

48% of new services by service providers to assist older persons and about 40% of those services modified to include older persons or

increase the number of older persons served.

When we discuss area agencies influencing improvements in the
delivery of services to older persons, what techniques did they use?

Based upon service provider descriptions of events leading to change,
Westat found that coordination, pooling (which is the drawing down
of other funds), training and technical assistance, advocacy, providing
Title III/VII funds, monitoring and improving their own Information
and Referral Services were the techniques used. Coordination,
training and technical assistance, advocacy, providing Title III/VII
funds, and improving their own I and R Services were the most effective
of these techniques.

However,

Planning was not included on this list. This is not surprising due to
the facilitative and behind the scenes nature of planning efforts.
while the providers did not interpret planning as an activity directly

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leading to changes, Westat found that area agency planning efforts were an

important factor in the change process.

Westat determined this by relating the time spent on planning to

the three measures of change I have discussed;

improvements in

the plannning and services area, share of improvements credited

to the area agency and the percent of their attempts that succeeded. Westat found that a greater relative emphasis on planning usually means that an area agency usually receives credit for having contributed to a larger share of improvements.

In looking at person years of planning for each hundred service providers in the area, Westat found that area agencies with low amounts of planning were found in areas with the least improvements per service providers.

Let me mention that one of the major purposes of this longitudinal evaluation will be to explain why area agencies differ in their The Westat final report includes some

levels of effectiveness.

discussion in this area.

It relates effectiveness of the area agency

to the characteristics of area agencies, service providers, and planning and services areas. I have not discussed these findings because they are tentative in nature and should not now be used in making policy When data is collected covering 80 plannning and services areas then it will be possible to perform the necessary analyses to

decisions.

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provide more useful information in this area.

Part VI Conclusions

I have only touched the tip of the data generated by these studies.

We will be examining this data over the next several months to identify: questions and issues which should be covered in the second phase of the study; and those which should be addressed through policy issuances or technical assistance.

As I stated earlier, Area Agencies are still relatively new. When this data was drawn, the agencies in the sample had less than two years of operation as Area Agencies. Most Area Agencies have a small budget and a small staff.

Also, as I stated earlier the roles assigned to the Area Agencies

are diverse, and each one is difficult. The achievement of change,

on the part of service agencies over which area agencies have no program

or financial control, is particularly diffcult.

Area Agencies during the first two years, were setting priorities,

developing two Annual Plans, and funding and monitoring service delivery. The data show that during the same period they were bringing about changes for the better in the service delivery system.

The changes included the commitment of additional funds for services for older people by other agencies, and changes in policy to the

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benefit of older persons.

Twenty-one percent of all changes for the

better with regard to services for the elderly were attributed to the work of Area Agencies. Over 40% of all new and modified services for older persons involved the Area Agency as a contributor. The area agency is cited much more often for the achievements in pulling together local area resources to serve the elderly than as a funding source. The findings are largely based on the opinions of service providers and other persons who receive no funds from the Area Agencies.

The most frequent recommendations for improving the program from service providers, influential individuals, and State Agencies were to increase the funding available to Area Agencies, increase the size of staff, and to give them more authority to carry out their roles.

These are not final answers on the performance of the Area Agencies. They are indicators of early performance. I believe that the indicators

are quite encouraging.

The diverse goals were being tackled, and successes were being acheived during the first two years. With more time to learn from experience, and to develop cooperative working relationships with the other funding agencies and service providers in the area, it seems reasonable to expect that the next report should be even more favorable.

That concludes my statement, Mr. Chairman. My colleagues and I would be

glad to try to answer any questions that you or members of the committee may have.