>> good morning. welcome to mosaic. i am rabbi eric weiss. i am honored to be your host. our dear mayor, ed lee, has died. we would like to extend our condolences to his family, dear ones, people in the city and county of san francisco. as we continue, we would like to talk with the executive director of the department of aging and adult services and charity of dignity fund overnight advisory committee with city and county of san francisco. welcome. >> thank you. >> thank you.

>> our country and every municipality is looking at issues of aging and the ways in which the values of the country, state, local, exercise those into services and understandings of the way people age and the kinds of services they need. i am wondering if you can give a short history of what department of aging and adult services here is in san francisco. >> certainly. san francisco has a long history of providing services for older adults and adults with disabilities. we are a leader in that. the department has been around for a long time but came together with services in 2000. our biggest program is in home supportive services which provides home care for 22,000 people in san francisco. we do other things as well. >> so the department in and of itself is 17 years old. >> yes. the department itself. the city was providing the

services well before that. >> yes. so what is new on the horizon? >> there are a lot of things on the horizon that are new. one of the things that's new and i think ramona and i can both speak to this, the dignity fund. maybe i can turn it over to her and she can talk about how it started. >> a group of service providers or those with a history of providing services came together. after chronic under funding of services, not the ability to meet demand, we thought perhaps a legislative kind of direction would be the way to go to increase funding. so over an extended period of time we planned and got the proposition, dignity fund, on the ballot november last year. that ensured there would be some funding increases for services for those that are aging and adults with disabilities. so it's a huge sense of

accomplishment. it worked its way toward getting to the 44 million current needs then of under funding, people waiting for services, people needing services but no capacity to meet those. so it is an incremental increase in the department's capacity to do that. >> so this is really a legislative and economic decision by the people of san francisco to really value the aging experience. >> yes. >> and to support it in different ways. >> it was a fabulous win. we are very grateful that the population of san francisco understood that 25% of its population currently is over age 65 and adults with disabilities. by 2030, it will be 30%. if we are not meeting the current needs, how can we be ready to meet increasing demands without more money? >> i think an unintended

consequence of the dignity fund legislation was really more attention to these issues. i think it certainly has helped our department rise above where it was in terms of visibility. so it's been great in terms of that. so what ramona said is correct, it wasn't as much as advocates were hoping for in the beginning, but it's really put the department more in the spotlight more than it was before. >> can you give a couple examples of what is a need and what is a service? and what are some of maybe the vision gaps that the dignity fund hopes to fill? >> do you want go with the priorities that were just determined? >> sure. well, i think there are a number of priorities that were determined. one of the things, the biggest funding, or biggest proportion

of funding for dignity fund right now is nutrition. if you think about home delivered meals, congregate meals, that's what a lot of it goes for. there are other things that are actually under funded and that need funding. i think one of them is, i don't know, ramona. >> prevention. there are the services needed by vets. there are some social services funneled into vets' care. >> there are also things we haven't been able to fund as much like home care for those who don't qualify for state entitlement program and home supportive services. also, under employment of older adults and adults with disabilities. people need employment. that means they need to be ready for employment, for their preemployment programs that

could be funded. there also are actual employment subsidies that could be used for the dignity fund. then another big thing that's come up is housing subsidies. these are things that we fund on a small scale. certainly, the need is there and we are looking to maybe use dignity fund dollars to fund more of the services. >> thank you so much. we are off to a great start. we will take a quick break and come back in just a moment here on mosaic.

good morning. welcome back to mosaic. i am rabbi eric weiss. we are in the middle of a wonderful conversation with the aging and adult services and chair of the dignity fund oversight and advisory committee. welcome back. >> thank you. >> we were talking about the different priorities around providing services to san francisco's aging population principlely through the dignity fund even though the department of aging and adult services has always provided services. this is a build up and expansion. you were talking about issues around nutrition and food, preventing homelessness, you didn't use the word isolation but it seems that's part of

what under girds and also ways in which elderly people and people who are disabled are under employed, don't work enough or don't work at a high enough level of their skill capacity. lots ever ways in which -- of ways in which they're unemployed. in this system how do you go about identifying needs, identifying populations, demographics of the population, how on a basic level do you actually find out what the need really is? >> one of the things that the department has had to do is what we call the area agency on aging, really look at demographics of the city and then try to plan based on those demographics. what dignity fund legislation has done is really to say that san francisco needs to do a very robust needs assessment to find out what people want, what people need to really look at

the demographics of the city and make sure we are being equitable with respect to providing services across the city. what we are doing this year is that robust needs assessment. we have hired a contractor to work with us. we are doing a variety of things. we have done a number of community forums. we ever done one in each supervising district. we just did a robust survey of older adults and adults with disabilities, caregivers, and providers in the city. that just ended. we have done a phone survey. now we are embarking on a series of focus groups to really get at what the needs are. i am excited as the director of the department to find out what people want and need and to see whether what we currently do meshes well with that or whether we need to make changes. >> i know you are in the middle

of all this. maybe it is too soon to tell. do you have any early indications of things that you suspected have been affirmed or surprises? things that you are discovering along the way? >> i don't think we have an accurate description yet of what's trending. we have some hints. certainly some information, knowing where to go and what service might be appropriate as come up as an ongoing theme. that's a long standing theme. you can go up and down california and hear the same theme. i think there is help in the home. people just are not understanding what their needs may be and then where to go to meet those needs. hopefully, we will get more detail than that in this robust process. >> it is a hint that it may or may not be true that people need to become moraine

advertise pa tori -- more anticipatory about their aging and understand what they might need in the future that they don't need now? >> that is part of it. i think some of it has to do with us not wanting to think about aging. i think there is a lot of ageism in society. i see it every day. but i think that's because i pay attention to it. i think we need to figure out ways to get beyond that so we can be moraine advertise pa tori -- more anticipatory thinking of how we will take care of ourselves in old age or take care of each other. >> san francisco is good in that it takes the needs for the lgbt community, women's rights, ageism, on and on, and how to actually get into the trenches of an issue and to provide

services, apply money, have a robust nonprofit community, etc. so in this particular way, can you talk a little bit about the kind of ageism that you see and the kind of ways in we had you think the city and county is on the forefront in terms of looking at what it means? even dignity fund says a lot about a value system in place that otherwise could have been chosen. dignity is a word that's jam packed with values and vision and life affirming understanding of what happens as we age into the world. >> sure. that's a meaty question. >> a big question, i know. i can start. i feel very fortunate to work in san francisco. when i travel across the country and i am on one

national board that looks at aging services, i realize how san francisco does exactly what you say. i mean, we are really at the forefront of these issues and thinking ahead often. i actually also think that ageism is so embedded in society that people just don't want to talk about it. one of the things we are doing as a department is to really look at what it means to reframe that conversation. there has been a lot of work done. there is an organization called frameworks that's really looked at reframing aging. we are looking to adopt that model in san francisco and think about how we talk about aging, being much more deliberate in using language, thinking about older adults, talking about older adults and aging instead of thinking about people being frail, thinking about people aging in the best way they can.

it doesn't mean looking at aging and saying it is all glowing. it doesn't mean people don't get sick or we won't acknowledge that but we will not ask people to not use language in a way that we can really talk about strengths and focus on that. >> we need to take a quick break. we will come right back to continue the conversation. please join us in just a moment here on mosaic.

>> good morning. welcome back to mosaic. we are in the middle of a wonderful conversation about the dignity fund and department of aging and adult services with the executive director of department of aging and adult service and the chair of the dignity fund oversight and advisory committee. welcome back. >> thanks. >> thank you. >> before break we were having

wonderful conversation about how san francisco value system really articulates in the trenches. you were going to continue that conversation. >> we mentioned and described efforts being taken to look at ageism and how to address it, how to reframe it. it is also a demographics demonstrated that i talked about earlier. this is a social justice issue. given the contributions that aging persons and persons with disabilities make in the community, it is important that their needs be attended to and addressed. i did want to point that out. all of us are aging. it isn't as if we reach a magic number and all of a sudden become old. we need to be preparing. we need to be looking at it as family members for ourselves and for those of us that we

care about. my career was in aging services. and suddenly i am there. the pre-planning, conceptualizing ahead of time about what it's going to take to meet my needs as they change. >> i think one of the things that marks all social justice movements in we can use the word is somebody sees something on the street, in their family, in their circle of friends and they start to talk about what they see. somebody else says oh i see that too. there is a way in which the conversation moves to a different level of gee whiz what can we do about this and what needs to be changed. what's a next step? then from there, lots of different things happen maybe in a neighborhood, in a family, in a circle of friends, in a larger community. so i am wondering if you can speak a little bit to the

development within the concept of the dignity fund itself. conceptions, how did something become a ballot measure? we know signatures happen and somebody writes something before they vote. >> the dignity fund coalition formed and it was predominantly service providers. it was people on the front line that knew and were frustrated by who could not be served, who is being left out. so coming together and identifying west more who said who did you choose to fight for? so we chose to fight for those that have been left behind, current program criteria leaves them out. there is not enough service to meet deplans or needs. that's the vision. it wasn't an a-ha that was so personal or observed. it was experienced. it was an experiential learning

by a select group of folks that have just frankly grown tired of the under funding and inability to address needs. >> when we talk about under served needs, it basically means there are some government programs that provide services and those are based on criteria that might have to do with something about your demographic or your income level. >> income level. >> or your capacity to go about what daily needs are about, getting dressed, feeding yourself, getting about the city. those kinds of criteria of civic engagement, if i can use that word, are part of what's at work. are you saying in some ways that the criteria aren't expansive enough to meet the real need that exists out there? >> one of the things we do know -- for some programs we have a wait list. we know there are people who desire the services and can't access them. i think one of the other things

that we know, we are not done with the needs assessment, particularly for middle income people in san francisco, middle income older adults and adults with disabilities, often they don't have the income to pay for the services that they need. so we see there is a gap there. sometimes people can qualify for state funded programs, medical funded programs. people who are middle income can't necessarily access the programs. that's one example. >> in some ways the dignity fund is paying attention to particular demographics of the city and county of san francisco. we need to take another quick break believe it or not. we will be back in a moment. please join us back here in a moment on mosaic.

good morning. welcome back to mosaic. i am rabbi eric weiss. we are in the middle of a wonderful conversation with the director of department of aging and adult services and the chair of the dignity fund ore sight and advisory committee. welcome back. >> thank you. >> shireen, what else is new at the department of aging and

adult services? >> i would be remiss if i didn't mention that mayor ed lee was really a proponent of older adults and adults with disabilities. it's just a sad week for us. >> yes. >> one of the things he did is wrote to the world health organization to say that san francisco was interested and it's designated as age friendly city. what that's allowed us to do is work as a city to ensure that all of our planning that we do has an age and disability lens to it. we've had a task force that's been working on this. we have been looking at various domains including things like transportation, environment buildings, social services so that as we move forward, we can think about our strengths and how we can being accessible for people with disabilities and older adults and also that we can ensure that our planning

processes include the disability and age friendly lens. it is exciting. i hope that san francisco will see the results of this in the ensuing years. >> people always talk about legacy of leadership and compare different things about personality of somebody and work they do in an office but wherever the reflections go, what a marvelous legacy that ed lee did that for the aging population in the city and county of san francisco. >> yes. >> is there anything else that's new that's happening in the department that would be important for people to know about? >> i think what i really want people to know is they can access the services of the department. ramona mentioned that often people don't know where to go for services. we have one phone number where people can access all the services of the department. it's really just to ask questions if they have an older adult or a person with a disability in their life who needs services or they don't

know where to go. the number is (415)355-6700. we call it the daas benefits and resource hub. people can call and ask any question about an older adult or adult with disability and our staff are there to answer the questions. >> we have just a little bit of time left. i know when people talk about a social justice issue and people talk about meeting need that people need the services and there are also the people who want to give the services. i know some of our viewers will be people who are going to think i would like to actually do this kind of work. we have just a moment but if somebody is out there and wants to actually throw their hat into the ring to work, to volunteer, then do they go through city and county of san francisco human resources department? do they call daas? how do they do that? >> those people can call daas.

local senior centers and other services in the community need help too. people can go to the local senior center or a local service in the community. if they don't know where those are, they're welcome to call the same phone number. >> wonderful. believe it or not, we are out of time. but thank you so much for the wonderful conversation. we hope that this time together has given you a new perspective on aging in the city and county of san francisco. thank you so much for being with us.

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