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This is the second round of the Community Partnerships for Older Adults (CPFOA) Program Survey of Older Adults. Like the first round, which was fielded in 2002 and released as ICPSR 4301 (Community Partnerships for Older Adults (CPOA) Program Survey of Older Adults, 2002), the second round was conducted as part of the evaluation of the CPFOA Program, an initiative of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) aimed at promoting improvements in the organization and delivery of long-term care and supportive services for older adults through local public-private partnerships. The 2002 survey was conducted in the 13 communities in which partnerships received development grants from RWJF, and, in 2008, the survey was repeated in the eight of them in which partnerships received implementation grants from the Foundation. The goal of the survey was to improve understanding of the characteristics of older adults, their knowledge and perceptions about issues related to long-term care, and their use of long-term care services and support. In addition, the data collected by the survey enabled the communities to target the partnership's activities in the most effective way.

The second round was based on the 2002 survey instrument. Changes to the instrument were minimized so that the data from the 2002 and 2008 rounds would be comparable. The instrument was modified to delete questions that had low item response in 2002, to add questions requested by the partnerships, to add questions for decision-makers, or to modify questions that were outdated. As in 2002, the 2008 survey interviewed respondents about supportive and long-term care services for older adults in their communities, including the availability, use of, and quality of the services and sources of information about them. Respondents were asked if they expected to stay in their community, if their homes needed repairs or modifications to improve their ability to live in them, how important it was to be able to live in their own home as they grew older, the age at which they thought they would need help to continue living in their own home, and the age at which they thought they could no longer live at home because of health problems. The survey also collected information on health status, problems with activities of everyday life, health insurance coverage and long-term care insurance, hospital stays, living arrangements, social activities, support from family and friends, access to transportation, and demographic characteristics.

Funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and The Atlantic Philanthropies, Better Jobs Better Care (BJBC) was a demonstration program that sought to bring about changes in public policy and management practice that would lead to improved recruitment and retention of high-quality paraprofessional direct care workers (DCW) in nursing homes as well as in home- and community-based settings. This was to be accomplished by implementing both policy and management practice goals. Policy goals included developing initiatives related to wages and benefits, incentives for job redesign, curriculum and credentialing, professional associations, and promotion of public awareness and policies. Practice goals involved interventions related to caregiving skill development, peer mentoring, team building, top management training, supervisor training, and provider-specific interventions. The program established demonstration projects in Iowa, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Vermont which enrolled long-term care establishments across the spectrum of long-term care settings: skilled nursing facilities, assisted living facilities, home care agencies, and adult day service providers.

Conducted as part of the BJBC evaluation, which used a before-after design to assess the implementation of the interventions and their impact, this survey of the top clinical manager at each participating long-term care provider explored the establishments' organizational characteristics and management practices. One version of the survey was administered at the beginning of the demonstration (Time1), and a second version, toward the end of the demonstration (Time 2). Organizational characteristics covered by the survey include nonprofit/for-profit status, whether the establishment was free standing or part of a chain, number of competing establishments, whether the DCWs were unionized, and the type and amount of services provided. Management practices investigated by the survey include participation in care planning, communication about tasks, feedback, DCW training, management communication, organizational readiness for change, professional development, and work design practices. The survey also collected information about the racial and Hispanic origin composition of DCWs and patients/residents/clients.

Funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and The Atlantic Philanthropies, Better Jobs Better Care (BJBC) was a demonstration program that sought to bring about changes in public policy and management practice that would lead to improved recruitment and retention of high-quality paraprofessional direct care workers (DCW) in nursing homes as well as in home- and community-based settings. This was to be accomplished by implementing both policy and management practice goals. Policy goals included developing initiatives related to wages and benefits, incentives for job redesign, curriculum and credentialing, professional associations, and promotion of public awareness and policies. Practice goals involved interventions related to caregiving skill development, peer mentoring, team building, top management training, supervisor training, and provider-specific interventions. The program established demonstration projects in Iowa, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Vermont which enrolled long-term care establishments across the spectrum of long-term care settings: skilled nursing facilities, assisted living facilities, home care agencies, and adult day service providers.

Conducted as part of the BJBC evaluation, this survey interviewed DCWs at two points during the demonstration. The Time 1 interview was fielded as soon as establishments enrolled in the demonstration and provided a list of their DCWs (July 2004 to December 2006), and the Time 2 interviews were completed 12 to 28 months after the Time 1 interviews (April 2006 to June 2007). Both rounds of the survey used the same self-administered questionnaire which included questions about length of employment, job satisfaction, job rewards and problems, supervision, perceptions of quality of care, job confidence, training, intent to quit, and demographic characteristics. The survey also elicited recommendations for improving DCWs' jobs by asking the open-ended question "What is the single most important thing your employer could do to improve your job as a direct care worker?"

The National Health and Aging Trends Study (NHATS) began in 2011 and fosters research to guide efforts to reduce disability, maximize health and independent functioning, and enhance quality of life at older ages. NHATS aims to provide the basis for understanding trends in late-life functioning, how these differ for various population subgroups, and the economic and social consequences of aging and disability for individuals, families, and society.

NHATS gathers information on a nationally representative sample of Medicare beneficiaries ages 65 and older. The sample is refreshed periodically so that researchers may study national-level disability trends as well as individual trajectories. Annual, in-person interviews collect detailed information on the disablement process and its consequences.

The NHATS interview is guided by a conceptual framework that recognizes physical and cognitive capacity is distinct from the environment in which activities take place. Among the specific content areas included are: the physical, social, technological and service environment, physical and cognitive capacity, use of assistive devices and rehabilitation, help received with daily activities (self-care, household, and medical), participation in valued activities, and wellbeing. A last month of life interview focuses on quality of end of life care. Periodically caregivers of NHATS respondents are interviewed in the supplemental National Study of Caregiving (NSOC). Linkages to Medicare records are also available.

Content was developed by a multidisciplinary team of researchers from the fields of demography, geriatric medicine, epidemiology, health services research, economics, and gerontology. NHATS is being led by the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health in collaboration with the University of Michigan, with data collection by Westat, and support from the National Institute on Aging.

These data are part of NACJD's Fast Track Release and are distributed as they were received from the data depositor. The files have been zipped by NACJD for release, but not checked or processed except for the removal of direct identifiers. Users should refer to the accompanying readme file for a brief description of the files available with this collection and consult the investigator(s) if further information is needed.

This study examines criminal background checks that were carried out by the New York State Department of Health (DOH) for individuals with criminal history records who have been provisionally hired to work as unlicensed direct care employees in the long term care industry. These individuals applied for jobs in this industry for the first time in 2008 and 2009.

This information was then augmented with criminal history information provided by the NY Division of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS).

The collection contains 1 Stata data file (Criminal_background_check.dta (n=7209; 40 variables)).

The Survey of Long-Term Care Awareness and Planning was designed to measure the attitudes of Americans ages 40-70 towards long-term care (LTC), retirement planning, and insurance policy preferences. Few people have private LTC insurance, and Medicare does not cover LTC. Many older adults pay for LTC out of their income and personal savings until they are poor enough to qualify for Medicaid. Others, to avoid exhausting their financial resources and relying on Medicaid, depend on unpaid family support or go without needed services. The Survey of Long-Term Care Awareness and Planning collected data on LTC in order to help inform federal policy in this area.

The survey collected respondents' current health information, willingness to take risks, plans for disability care, retirement preparation, and insurance coverage. Part of the survey was a discrete choice experiment (DCE) or conjoint analysis designed to elicit respondent preferences on specific features of LTC insurance. This section included choices on daily benefit, benefit period, deductible period, health requirements, type of insurer, monthly premium, and voluntary or universal. Respondents were also asked about the types of investments they had, where they received health information, opinions on the US healthcare system, whether they had been diagnosed with specific health conditions, willingness to make lifestyle changes due to a disability, concerns about long-term disability care, and opinions on who should be responsible for the costs of LTC. Demographic information collected includes age, education, household size, race, gender, income, marital status, and region.

The National Home and Hospice Care Survey (NHHCS) was reintroduced into the field in 2007 after a 7-year break. During that time, the survey was redesigned and expanded to include a computer-assisted personal interviewing (CAPI) system, many new data items, and larger sample sizes of current home health patients and hospice discharges. All agencies that participated in the survey were either certified by Medicare and/or Medicaid or were licensed by a state to provide home health and/or hospice services and currently or recently served home health and/or hospice patients. Agencies that provided only homemaker services or housekeeping services, assistance with instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs), or durable medical equipment and supplies were excluded from the survey. The 2007 NHHCS included a supplemental survey of home health aides employed by home health and/or hospice agencies, called the National Home Health Aide Survey (NHHAS). The 2007 NHHCS data were collected through in-person interviews with agency directors and their designated staffs; no interviews were conducted directly with patients or their families and/or friends. Agency data collected, available in agency administrative records, included information on the year an agency was established, the types of services an agency provided, referral sources, specialty programs, and staffing characteristics. Data collected on home health patients and hospice discharges, available in medical records, included age, sex, race and ethnicity, services received, length of time since admission, diagnoses, medications taken, advance directives, and many other items.

The National Home Health Aide Survey (NHHAS), the first national probability survey of home health aides, was designed to provide national estimates of home health aides employed by agencies that provide home health and/or hospice care. The NHHAS survey instrument included sections on recruitment, training, job history, family life, management and supervision, client relations, organizational commitment and job satisfaction, workplace environment, work-related injuries, and demographics.

In long-term care, frontline supervisors play a central role in direct care workers' (DCW) job quality and turnover and are critical to the implementation of management changes. To better understand supervisors' perceptions of management practices, the quality of supervision, and the effect on DCW turnover and job quality, the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation in the United States Department of Health and Human Services contracted with Pennsylvania State University to conduct this survey of supervisors participating in the Better Jobs, Better Care (BJBC) demonstration. Funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and The Atlantic Philanthropies, the BJBC demonstration -- which took place in Iowa, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Vermont -- tested innovative policy and practice models designed to improve the quality of DCW jobs in an effort to improve recruitment and retention of these workers and strengthen capacity to meet future demand for long-term care.

Frontline supervisors were interviewed from the four types of facilities and agencies that participated in the demonstration: skilled nursing facilities, assisted living facilities, home care agencies, and adult day service providers. The survey explored the supervisors' job responsibilities, formal training, job satisfaction, and thoughts about quitting. It investigated the culture of the organizations in which the supervisors worked, probed for problems with the supervisors' jobs, assessed how rewarding the supervisors felt their jobs were, inquired as to whether the supervisors felt respected by their clients, DCWs, and managers, gauged the supervisors' assessments of the overall competency level of the DCWs in their organizations, and explored the supervisors' beliefs about managerial support for the BJBC project, how well the BJBC programs were executed, and whether the overall impact of the project was positive.

In addition, the respondents were queried about management practices (e.g., rotation of assignments to different services or units, mechanisms to handle employee concerns, and approaches used to handle poor performance or negative behaviors among employees). They were also asked about DCW training, mentoring, and career ladder programs, DCW participation in patient/resident/client care plans, and communication among DCWs and between DCWs and their supervisors. Respondents were also asked what was the most important thing that their employer could do both to improve the jobs of DCWs and to improve their own ability to do their jobs as supervisors of DCWs. Additional information collected by the survey includes the supervisors' age, sex, race, Hispanic origin, educational attainment, nursing degree or license (LPN, RN, Diploma RN, BSN, MSN, or Advanced Practice Nurse), wages, and health insurance coverage.

This collection comprises three data files: (1) Supervisor Identification Instrument Data, (2) Supervisor Survey Data, and (3) Clinical Managers Who Are Also Supervisors Data. The first file contains information collected by the Supervisor Identification Instrument that was submitted to the clinical manager at each BJBC provider organization. This instrument instructed clinical managers to name all of the supervisors in their organization and to indicate which supervisory responsibilities each one performed. The second data file contains the responses to the Supervisor Survey questionnaire.The third data file contains the responses of clinical managers who also functioned as supervisors in their organization. These clinical managers responded to the same questions in the Supervisor Survey questionnaire, except for ten questions that were worded somewhat differently.