Sunday, 16 January 2005 - 10:15 AM

This presentation is part of: Volunteer Service Among Older Adults

Centers for Independent Living: Older Consumers’ Vews of Their Role as Service Providers

Purpose Over the past twenty-five years, the disability movement has created a nation-wide network of approximately 410 Centers for Independent Living (CILs), which are consumer-controlled non-profit agencies whose central purpose is to support people with disabilities to gain control over their services. While aging people constitute a large proportion of people with disabilities, CILs have traditionally served younger adults with disabilities. This presentation will discuss findings from a mail survey of CIL survey recipients regarding how CILs can provide services and supports for older people with disabilities who wish to live independently. This is the first phase of a broader, mixed-method study funded by the Hartford Foundation.

Methods A mail survey was sent to all CIL service recipients over age 65 who were service recipients of CILs within the state of Minnesota during 2001-2003. The survey asked service recipients both open- and closed-ended questions regarding their participation with the CIL, satisfaction of CIL services, and level of consumer control. Service recipients were also asked about their recommendations about how CILs could make their services more appropriate for older people with disabilities. Finally, respondents were asked about the level of control they perceive they have over their own services. The response rate from this survey was 50%.

Results Of the 263 CIL service recipients completing the survey, 63.1% are female; 36.9% are married or living with a partner and 62.7% are single, widowed or divorced; 74.1% considered themselves as having a disability; and 67.1% acquired their disability over age 55. Findings from the survey show that most respondents (86.1%) did say that consumer control of services was either very important or important to them. However, when asked their greatest concerns, remaining in their own homes (58%), personal health (56%), transportation (37.4%) and affording help (35.4%) were the greatest, with consumer control of services (16.5%) rated last. When asked how CILs could improve their services for older persons, the most common themes were to advertise CIL services to older people; to provide information regarding other community services available to older people with disabilities; to develop or improve CIL services specifically for older people; and to provide a venue for social activities.

Implications for practice For CILs to meet their mission of serving older people with disabilities, they need to address their top concerns. Although most older service recipients endorse the consumer control philosophy, CILs need to recognize that the practical concerns of remaining in their own homes, health, and transportation are deemed more pressing, and to conduct outreach and develop programs accordingly. These findings do not negate the importance of consumer control, but rather suggest that for older people, consumer-control may be embedded within practical concerns. Findings also show that the majority of older CIL participants have newly acquired disabilities. Because respondents suggest CILs provide services that are already available from aging service provides, CILs are faced which a challenge of whether they want to target their services for people aging with a disability, or for all older people.

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