South Carolina State Plan on Aging – 2013-2017

Overview

This is a draft of the South Carolina State Age Plan submitted by the Lieutenant Governor’s Office on Aging (LGOA) in compliance with the Older Americans Act. South Carolina faces a number of challenges ahead including an increasing senior population (133.7 percent growth from 2010 to 2030), less funding for senior services, a growing disability rate, and increasing poverty (particularly among minority groups). Understanding the programs and incentives used by other states in age preparation strategy enables local governments and community planners to better assess available solutions in their own area.

Key Points

Currently, only three percent of the older population of South Carolina utilizes services offered by the LGOA. In addition, “the elderly and disabled account for 23 percent of those covered by Medicaid, but they consume 62 percent of the resources” (page 39). The LGOA is responding by focusing on several areas including “modernizing and improving Programs and Services, long term care reform and community living incentives, senior transportation initiatives and incentivizing for a geriatric trained professional workforce” (page 46-49).

Other plan highlights include:

1. Appendix C lists the issues and strategies facing South Carolina. One example is a lack of funding. The unit responsible for home and community-based services (HCBS) was appropriated $2.9 million in supplemental state funds in the 2006-2009 state plan, but it shrank to $1.4 million by 2012. The result was increased waiting lists for HCBS. The budgetary strategy is to request $5 million, knowing $10 million is needed, with the hopes that it will receive more than $1.4 million moving forward.
   
2. Creating Aging and Disability Resource Centers (ADRCs), which is funded from a range of sources and provides access to shared information across a variety of initiatives and programs, is working for South Carolina. ADRCs provide single point of contact for seniors and greater impact on the local level.
   
3. South Carolina strategies require the cooperation and coordination of other health services throughout the state. This is especially true given reduced funding options. Therefore, a component of their strategy moving forward is to create forums and opportunities to foster that collaboration.
   

How to Use

South Carolina LGOA does well at understanding the extent of the age-related challenges they face. Community planners and local governments can use this state plan to determine which challenges mirror their own, and which strategies focus or diffuse their own age planning efforts.

View full report: South Carolina State Plan on Aging – 2013-2017 (PDF – 3.2 MB)