Linking residents to long-term care services: first-year findings from the community connector program evaluation

Long-term care (LTC) is a major health policy issue owing to increasing LTC expenditures and the anticipated growth in the aging population. However, accessing LTC services, especially home- and community-based LTC services, is often difficult.

This manuscript describes the Community Connector Program, the first known program to use a model in which community health workers (CHWs) help to connect adults in need of LTC to such services. We examine the community-university-government agency partnership created to implement and evaluate the program, summarize the evaluation design, and provide first-year implementation results.

Descriptive statistics were used to characterize persons served and services to which persons were connected. The quasi-experimental evaluation design, which is planned to estimate the program's impact on LTC service utilization and costs within the Arkansas Medicaid program, is described.

Community Connectors linked 686 persons (92% > or =18 years, 80% African American, 58% female) to at least one needed service. Only 39% of adults served needed LTC based on an LTC screening tool. Nearly all (93%) adults in need of LTC had health insurance; 53% had Medicare; 37%, both Medicare and Medicaid; and 11%, Medicaid. Community Connectors referred adults in need of LTC to 68 agencies and helped them to connect to services to address an average of two needs per adult.

Preliminary results from the first-year implementation evaluation indicate the program is effective in linking persons to needed LTC, although program refinements were made to improve targeting of intended program recipients.