ARRA - Communities Putting Prevention to Work: Chronic Disease Self-Management Program

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act), signed into law February 17, 2009, is designed to stimulate economic recovery in various ways: to preserve and create jobs; to promote economic recovery; to assist those most impacted by the recession, to stabilize state, territorial and local government budgets to minimize and avoid reductions in essential services and counterproductive state, territorial, and local tax increases; to strengthen the Nation's healthcare infrastructure; and to reduce healthcare costs through prevention activities. The Recovery Act includes $650 million for evidence-based clinical and community-based prevention and wellness strategies that deliver specific, measurable health outcomes. The legislation provides an important opportunity for communities, States, territories, cities, rural areas, and tribes to advance public health across the lifespan and to eliminate health disparities. Of the $650 million appropriated for this initiative (Communities Putting Prevention to Work), $32.5 million will support States and territories in promoting wellness by deploying evidence-based chronic disease self-management programs targeted at older adults with chronic conditions. AoA, in collaboration with CDC, is providing Recovery Act funding under this announcement to support state efforts to deploy evidence-based chronic disease self-management (CDSMP) programs that empower older people with chronic diseases to maintain and improve their health status. The community-based collaborative networks setup through these efforts will provide the foundation for an infrastructure and statewide distribution system that States can use for delivering CDSMP and other evidence-based prevention programs to older adults. These statewide distribution systems will include a quality assurance component to ensure the evidence-based prevention programs are being delivered with fidelity and achieving results comparable to those produced in the original research. The ultimate goal is to have States and communities embed these structures into their statewide systems that provide community-based services and supports to older adults to help them maintain their health and independence in the community.