Current through Vol. 42, No. 1, September 16, 2024
(a)
Policy. The Area Agency shall designate, where feasible, a focal
point for comprehensive service delivery in each community in the planning and
service area, giving special consideration to designating multipurpose senior
centers as such focal points. These focal points shall be established to
encourage the maximum collocation and coordination of services for older
persons. The Area Agency must undertake all necessary efforts to assure that
services financed under the Older Americans Act, as amended, in, or on behalf
of, each community will be either based at, linked to or coordinated with the
designated focal point.
(b)
Authority. The authority for OAC 340:105-10-42 is Section
306(a)(3) of the Older Americans Act, as amended, and 45 CFR Part
1321.53(c).
(c)
Procedures. The Area Agency will designate and implement community
focal points by carrying out the following activities:
(1) The Area Agency, with the approval of the
State Agency, will define "community" for the purposes of this Section. Factors
to be considered in the definition must include:
(A) The delivery pattern of services funded
under the Older Americans Act and funded from other sources;
(B) The geographic boundaries of communities
and neighborhoods;
(C) The location
of multipurpose senior centers, nutrition sites, and other facilities suitable
for designation; and
(D) The
geographic areas with greatest economic and social need.
(2) The Area Agency, in consultation with
local elected officials, will designate one or more focal points (facilities)
in each defined community, giving special consideration to multipurpose senior
centers. The following factors must be considered for such designation:
(A) The facility's ability, current or
potential, to accommodate the collocation of various services in the
community;
(B) The facility's
geographic accessibility to older persons in the community; and
(C) The facility's physical accessibility for
disabled persons according to Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA)
standards.
(3) The Area
Agency will implement the collocation and coordination of services at each
focal point via the following activities:
(A)
The Area Agency will work with each identified focal point to develop a work
plan for achieving full capacity for collocation of services;
(B) The Area Agency will develop a work plan
for assuring that all services funded under the Older Americans Act, as
amended, in, or on behalf of each community, are either based at, linked to, or
coordinated with that community's focal point(s);
(C) The Area Agency will work with each
community's leadership to negotiate written agreements with other
agencies/organizations serving the elderly which will outline each
agency/organization's intent to either base its service(s) in, link its
service(s) to, or coordinate its service(s) with the community's identified
focal point(s); and
(D) The Area
Agency will work with each community's leadership to establish operating
schedules for focal point services which are convenient for the older persons
in the community.
(d)
Cross references. See OAC
340:105-10-31(a)(8).
Added at 11 Ok Reg
673, eff 11-29-93 (emergency); Added at 11 Ok Reg 2771, eff
6-13-94
