The LeadingAge LTSS Center @UMass Boston conducts research to help our nation address the challenges and seize the opportunities associated with a growing older population.
Quality of Communication with Direct Care Professionals in Residential Care Settings
February 2023
This research brief explores how family caregivers perceive their communication with direct care professionals and how those perceptions influence residents’ mental health.
Job Satisfaction and Intent to Remain on the Job among Direct Care Professionals in Nursing Homes
February 2023
This research brief analyzes the factors associated with job satisfaction and intent to remain on the job among direct care professionals in nursing homes and recommends actions nursing home leaders can take to support direct care professionals during stressful work times.
Neighborhood Deprivation and Nursing Home Staffing: Lessons for Policy and Practice
January 2023
This policy brief explores how levels of deprivation in a variety of neighborhoods have affected staffing levels in nursing homes located in those neighborhoods.
Job Design for Home-Based Care: Perspectives of Employers and Personal Care Aides
August 2022
This research report documents how home care agencies across different business models design the jobs and work environments of nonmedical personal care aides.
Enhancing Frontline Nurse Management in Long-Term Services and Supports
March 2022
Frontline nurse managers have a complex and multi-faceted role in the field of long-term services and supports (LTSS) and are in a unique position to influence how care is provided in LTSS settings. This research brief summarizes the state of frontline nurse management in aging services, identifies the challenges facing frontline nurse managers, and recommends actions to ensure their success.
Person-Centered Care: Why Taking Individuals’ Care Preferences into Account Matters
March 2022
This report from the Leading Age LTSS Center @UMass Boston and the Center for Consumer Engagement in Health Innovation at Community Catalyst provides the first-ever look at how person-centered care models are working (or not) for older adults.
Evaluation of the LeadingAge Summer Enrichment Program
March 2022
This report summarizes key findings from an evaluation of the LeadingAge Summer Enrichment Program, a 10-week program that invites a diverse group of undergraduate or graduate students to become interns at participating LeadingAge member organizations.
This report from the Leading Age LTSS Center @UMass Boston and the Center for Consumer Engagement in Health Innovation at Community Catalyst presents a strategic roadmap for better support of family caregivers. The report summarizes insights from a year’s worth of strategy sessions and interviews with representatives of more than 100 organizations.
The Impact of Climate Change: Why Older Adults are Vulnerable
February 2022
This research report highlights the disproportionately negative, short- and long-term impacts of climate change on older adults and recommends actions that various stakeholders can take to address those impacts.
Provision of Skilled Nursing Care by Assisted Living Residences: Stakeholder Views on the COVID-19 Experience
January 2022
A new report from the LeadingAge LTSS Center @UMass Boston and Collective Insight explores how assisted living residents, family caregivers, and nurses in Massachusetts viewed a pandemic-inspired executive order allowing residents to receive needed care from assisted living nurses.
Lessons for Enhancing Service Coordination in HUD-Assisted Senior Housing Communities
January 2022
This research brief offers a wide range of lessons to help affordable senior housing communities offer “enhanced service coordination,” which involves identifying resident needs, connecting residents with responsive services, and helping to ensure residents obtain and maintain needed supports.
COVID-19: Stress, Challenges, and Job Resignation in Aging Services
December 2021
This updated research brief documents the COVID-related challenges, levels of stress, preparedness, and perceptions of employer communications about COVID among employees in assisted living and independent living communities, nursing homes, home and community-based services agencies, and health care services.
Creating a Diverse, Equitable, and Inclusive Workplace Culture: An Overview
October 2021
This report offers a brief overview of key findings from research on diversity, equity, and inclusion conducted by the LeadingAge LTSS Center @UMass Boston during 2021.
Creating a Diverse, Equitable, and Inclusive Workplace Culture: A Review of the Literature
October 2021
This report explores published research focusing on principles and strategies that can be used to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion in the field of long-term services and supports.
Creating a Diverse, Equitable, and Inclusive Workplace: Perspectives of LeadingAge Members
October 2021
This report describes the processes that leaders at nine LeadingAge member organizations are using to plan and implement diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) activities and incorporate DEI into the fabric of their organizations.
Creating a Diverse, Equitable, and Inclusive Workplace: Perspectives of Leaders of Color
October 2021
This research brief shares insights from 13 leaders of color about their career journeys, their experience with issues related to diversity, equity, and inclusion, and their recommendations for change.
This Promising Practices report details how three states—Connecticut, New Jersey, and Massachusetts—are taking proactive steps to deliver home and community-based services to residents of subsidized housing. The report was written by researchers at the LeadingAge LTSS Center @UMass Boston and the AARP Public Policy Institute.
This white paper proposes six strategies for professionalizing the direct care workforce so caregivers feel valued because they are valued. The strategies outlined in the paper are designed to improve recruitment of new caregivers, reduce turnover among current caregivers, and ensure that a stable, high-quality workforce will be available to care for older adults with LTSS needs.
Policy Options for Integrating Health and Housing for Low-Income Older Adults
July 2021
This report, released by Community Catalyst in partnership with the LeadingAge LTSS Center @UMass Boston, outlines policy options to improve the integration of health care services with affordable housing for older adults with low incomes.
Enhanced SNAP Benefits Must Be Permanent to Stave Off Hunger in Older Adults
July 2021
Two issue briefs from the National Council on Aging and the Leading Age LTSS Center @UMass Boston underscore the long-lasting and pernicious effects of pandemic-related food insecurity among older adults, highlight the positive impact of SNAP in combatting food insecurity, and make recommendations for continued program effectiveness.
An Exploration of State-Sponsored Home Care Aide Training Approaches
June 2021
This research brief documents promising practices being implemented by seven states that used their regulatory authority to adopt and promote home care aide training curricula that is comprehensive, consistent, and has some level of rigor. The brief includes recommendations for developing standardized, competency-based training for the home care aide workforce.
What Family Caregivers Need: Findings from Listening Sessions
May 2021
This report by three researchers at the LeadingAge LTSS Center @UMass Boston summarizes the findings of focus groups designed to help family caregivers express their needs and challenges and identify the services, supports, or policy initiatives that can best address those needs.
In Their Own Words, Caregiver Priorities and Recommendations: Results from a Request for Information
February 2021
This report offers the perspectives of family caregivers and the organizations that work with and serve them, based on 1,613 responses to a Request for Information from the U.S. Administration for Community Living.
Using Medicaid Funds to Promote Person-Centered Care in Nursing Homes: A Toolkit for Policymakers
January 2021
This toolkit outlines steps that policymakers at the state level can take to promote person-centered care in nursing homes.
The Case for Funding: What is Happening to Pennsylvania’s Nursing Homes
January 2021
This report presents updated information on key demand and supply factors affecting the performance of nursing homes in Pennsylvania.
A Housing and Health Collaboration: Mount Rubidoux Manor and Inland Empire Health Plan
January 2021
This case study details how an affordable senior housing community and a nonprofit Medicaid health plan worked together to make the services of a health navigator available to housing residents with health concerns.
Tracking Progress on Person-Centered Care for Older Adults: How Are We Doing?
January 2021
This report and infographic from the Center for Consumer Engagement in Health Innovation and the LTSS Center tracks the extent to which older adults experience person-centered care in the health care system.