Expanding Specialized Transportation: New Opportunities under the Affordable Care Act
Explains how states can use untapped funding options under the Affordable Care Act to expand services for targeted low-income populations
The following is a selection from NCMM’s recently released research paper on “The Role of Transportation in Addressing Social Isolation in Older Adults. You can download the full research paper below.
Social isolation and loneliness are persistent societal problems, and lead to poorer population health outcomes, greater mortality, and greater health care spending. Older adults face unique risks related to social isolation and loneliness, largely because of the many major life transitions that they are likely to experience, including retirement, death of a spouse, death of other social contacts, and changing health and functional abilities.
Given these many life changes and the diminishing independence that can come with aging, public transportation plays a key role in solutions to address social isolation in older adults. As the proportion of older adults in American society increases, it is imperative that we design solutions to increase the continued integration of older adults into their community. Robust public transportation, including human services transportation offerings, are an essential component of these solutions, especially for older adults who do not have access to private transportation or who are unable to drive.
Recognizing the importance of this topic and the need to raise awareness on key related issues, the National Center for Mobility Management contracted with the University of Minnesota to prepare a research paper to inform future stakeholder engagement, programs, and policy.
The University of Minnesota research team investigated the hypothesis that a lack of transportation can be shown to be associated with incidences of social isolation among older adults; specifically, that a lack of mobility directly affects patterns of social engagement by dictating people’s access to resources, amenities, and socializing opportunities. A second part of that premise is that an improvement in older adults’ access to transportation services that fit their needs—with regard to affordability, convenience, and safety—will meaningfully increase their access to life-sustaining activities. The University’s research focused on this research question: How can public transportation be used as a preventive intervention tool to address the potentially harmful effects of social isolation?
The resulting research paper summarizes key findings, showcases program examples, and offers recommendations for programmatic, policy, and research interventions to use public transportation to prevent and reduce social isolation and loneliness among older adults.
The following describes key findings from the literature review and key informant interviews:
Given the urgency of loneliness and isolation as public health concerns and the fundamental role that transportation plays in helping individuals to connect with one another, several recommendations emerged from this study that fell into three buckets: additional research, expanded collaboration, and operational improvements.
Additional research
Expanded collaboration
Operational improvements
The research team also identified three case examples (Nevada’s N4 Connect and Ride on Time, Minnesota’s Dakota Area Resources and Transportation for Seniors (DARTS) Loops, and Virginia’s Senior Connections, Ride Connection) that together illustrate several common ingredients for success: cross-sector collaboration and patience in generating it; diverse funding streams; the importance of keeping transportation services affordable; the ability to be nimble in terms of repurposing staff and resources when interventions are not in high demand or piloting program tweaks; and knowing who the client is and what the client needs.
Overall, the research illustrates that the prevalence of social isolation and loneliness among older adults, leads to unnecessary costs, poor health outcomes, and even mortality, requires urgent and coordinated action to ensure that all older adults have equitable access to destinations that support their well-being.
Explains how states can use untapped funding options under the Affordable Care Act to expand services for targeted low-income populations
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Have more mobility news that we should be reading and sharing? Let us know! Reach out to Kirby Wilhelm (wilhelm@ctaa.org).