Stateme?t of Ma?date 2015?2016 - seniors NOVA SC TIA Department of Seniors Statement of Mandate 2015-2016 Table of Contents 1) Message from the Minister and Deputy Minister 2) Department Mission and Vision 3) Strategic Outcomes 4) Government Priorities 5) Budget Context 6) Performance Measurement 1) Message from the Minister and Deputy Minister The Department of Seniors is pleased to present its Statement of Mandate for 2015-16. The work described in this year?s Statement of Mandate brings together the key outcomes of both the government?s goals for the province and the ongoing ful?llment of the goals of the Strategy for Positive Aging. Figures released by Statistics Canada show that Nova Scotia has the oldest population per capita and our population of seniors will continue to grow for the next 20 years. These demographic changes highlight the importance of consulting with seniors and senior-serving organizations and advancing seniors issues at local, provincial and federal levels. The Department of Seniors is pleased with its new partnership with the 211 telephone referral service. This service promotes positive aging by ensuring older Nova Scotians have quick and easy 24 hour access to programs and services that they need to live well in their later years and contribute to their communities. We will continue to encourage our municipal partners across the province to adOpt Age Friendly policies, services and structures related to seniors? physical and social environment. In 2015-16, we plan to of?cially launch the Age Friendly website and will be deveIOping Age-Friendly tools to provide municipalities with the resources they need. The Department will achieve government?s strategic priorities by making investments in our communities so that seniors, people with disabilities and those in need get the services and care they require. Project funding provided to municipalities and not-for-pro?t organizations leverage community support and volunteer efforts which multiply the impact of the grants far beyond their face value. This year, we will initiate an evaluation planning process to maximize our investments in the future. In 2015-16, the Department will continue to play a role to support the development of Nova Scotia?s strategy to care for people with dementia and their families. We will also continue working closely alongside other government departments and other jurisdictions to raise and address issues facing seniors, such as fraud and abuse prevention. The Department of Seniors resolves to continuously learn, change and evolve as we prepare to meet the challenges associated with an aging demographic. At to engage with seniors and other stakeholders through thought consultation to ensure the work is responsive to the diverse ne Le A. Glavine PeterV ghan Minister Depu 2) Department Mission and Vision Mission The Nova Scotia Department of Seniors is responsible for providing leadership on issues related to aging to support the independence and well-being of older adults by: 0 facilitating and promoting a coordinated approach within government on all matters related to seniors in the Province; 0 engaging stakeholders and creating partnership across sectors to work together to meet the needs of seniors; providing research analysis and policy advice on seniors? issues; and focusing our work on asset-based community development Vision Nova Scotia is an inclusive society of caring communities that supports the well-being of seniors and values their contributions (Strategy for Positive Aging in Nova Scotia, 2005, pg.25). 3) Strategic Outcomes The following strategic measures are employed by the Department to assess performance: A. Stakeholder engagement (with seniors, senior-serving organizations, non-govemmental organizations, all levels of government, academia, private sector, etc.) A.1 . Seniors, seniors? organizations and senior-serving agencies have opportunities to provide advice on public policy issues. A.2.Increased collaboration with government departments and non-government organizations in the exploration and development of policy, programs and services that address the needs of seniors. A.3.Increased pro?le among provincial government peers about the Department?s role and function, and how we can bene?t their planning efforts that relate to older Nova Scotians. B. Age-Friendly Communities B. 1 . Increased AFC planning, implementation, and evaluation activities 4) Government Priorities Nova Scotia?s population is aging rapidly with approximately 1,000 Nova Scotians turning 65 years of age each month. Nova Scotia has the highest proportion of seniors in the country at 18.3%. The Government of Nova Scotia recognizes the demographic pressure this places on the province and has identi?ed the following key priority: Demographics: Goal: Increase net interprovincial in-migration and international immigration levels; enhance wellness health initiatives; enhance workforce participation of youth, older workers and marginalized communities; and enhance communities and social well- being. This demographic goal is aligned with the strategic directions identi?ed in the Department of Seniors guiding document the Strategy for Positive Aging in Nova Scotia. The Strategy for Positive Aging is a comprehensive guide which can be used by government, community and business to plan for an aging population. It is also aligned with the Age Friendly Communities work of the Department originally introduced by the World Health Organization (WHO). The goal of Age Friendly Communities is to incorporate age friendly practices into policies, services, planning, and ensure the meaningful involvement of older adults in building healthy vibrant communities for all ages. In 2015/16, the Department will support the provincial demographic goal of enhancing wellness and health initiatives and enhancing communities and social well-being by focusing its efforts on three strategic priorities: Strategic Goals: 1. ?To increase the age-friendliness of. communities and promote active, healthy living.? Broad, collaborative and creative approaches are required to address the challenges and embrace the opportunities associated with an aging population. A signi?cant thrust of the Department?s work is focused on the development of Age Friendly Communities (AFC) across Nova Scotia. AFC helps support community efforts to enhance policies, services, and settings relating to the social and physical environment to be accessible to, and inclusive of, persons of all ages and ability levels. The Department works with municipalities and enables them to make changes in a range of areas creating affordable housing and transportation options, infrastructure, healthcare, etc.). This work also includes a focus on the workplace that values and supports older workers as well as recognizing the importance of the older consumer for business. An outcome of this approach is to support Nova Scotians to live and age well in their communities. The Age Friendly Communities Program increases municipalities and communities? capacity to conduct Age Friendly planning, implementation and evaluation. Age Friendly Communities bene?ts older adults, as well as Nova Scotians of all ages, through improved health, increased independence, greater social and physical interactions and overall well-being. In 2015-16, the Department will advance the Age Friendly Communities Program by: a) Providing support to municipalities and communities so that they are better able to understand and implement Age Friendly Communities: 0 Of?cially launching the Age-Friendly web-site and developing Age ?Friendly tools 0 Creating a recognition program 0 Creating an evaluation framework b) Providing funding to support two main streams: 1) AFC Strategic Planning and Development: Funding is available to municipalities to help communities conduct assessments and implement a coordinated approach to development of plans, policies, programs and resources that help communities become more age ?iendly. Communities identify priorities, establish concrete plans of action and commit to reporting publicly on the action plan outcomes. 2) AFC Projects: Funding is available for projects that support a community?s identi?ed priorities projects that create or adapt structures and services to be accessible to, and inclusive of, seniors and people of all ages with varying needs and capacities in order to promote age-friendly environments and healthy active aging. The Department will also support community projects through the The Positive Aging Fund. This program supports non-pro?t community organizations? efforts to develop programs and services that advance the health, well-being and community participation of seniors. Community organizations can receive grants of up to $10,000, covering up to 100% of their project costs. 2. ?To enable seniors to live in safe and supportive living environments, free from danger, fear and exploitation.? The Department is working to help ensure that older Nova Scotians live in safety and security through its support of Seniors Safety programs and initiatives that enhance education and awareness of senior abuse. The Senior Safety Grant program, a joint initiative with the Department of Justice, supports non-pro?t organizations to develop or enhance Seniors? Safety Programs. The program supports community collaboration and increases their capacity to address seniors? safety and security in a holistic way. This grant helps to advance communities by supporting Nova Scotians as they age through community-based programs. The grant also advances Nova Scotia?s Elder Abuse Strategy: Towards Awareness and Prevention by providing resources and supports that respond to senior abuse. Activities include: 0 Monitoring the transition of the Department of Seniors Safety information line to the 211 phone service. It is anticipated that the 211 service will provide seniors with increased capacity to handle safety and security issues. 0 Providing funding through the Seniors Safety Grant Program to enhance existing Seniors? Safety Programs and expand programs to areas of Nova Scotia where programs do not currently exist. These programs address safety concerns of seniors by promoting education and awareness of senior abuse, crime prevention and safety and health issues. Grant money is made available to eligible programs annually to a maximum of $20,000. 0 The Department supports and participates in World Elder Abuse Awareness Day (WEAAD) on June 15th of each year. To commemorate this day, the Nova Scotia government declares a Proclamation and the Department offers small contributions to non- pro?t community groups who would like to host WEAAD sessions. Each year the Department supports 10-15 groups who access these contributions in order to offer innovative and interesting sessions to raise awareness of the issue in their communities. 0 The Department is a collaborating partner and funder of the Healing Approaches to Senior Abuse: The Fundy Network (PMSA Network) project. The HASA Network is a collaboration between seniors, government, Seniors? Safety Programs, Restorative Justice Agencies, police, academics, and the legal profession in a region of the province from West Hants through the Valley and around the Tri-County region. The goal of the Network is to develop a restorative based approach to seniors? safety and response to senior abuse cases. The Network has been engaged in a variety of educational opportunities to build capacity of the members to work in a restorative way and develop a shared understanding of what the program will look like. oThe Department is heavily involved in the submission of a proposal, in partnership with the Canadian Network for the Prevention of Elder Abuse to New Horizons for Seniors under their Pan-Canadian Elder Abuse funding initiative. The focus of the proposed project is to increase knowledge exchange across Canada among service providers and seniors organizations. The objective is to share best practices in awareness, prevention and intervention of senior abuse to improve responses across the country. The project will entail multiple local gatherings and sharing cafes as well as online sharing cafes. will also create an on-line knowledge exchange hub that will connect people and provide people with access to information. 3. ?To improve innovation and collaboration to ensure the diverse needs of seniors are met.? The Department advances this goal through its membership on the Federal/Provincial/Territorial Ministers Responsible for Seniors. At this table, the Department represents Nova Scotia and collaborates on joint initiatives and participates in ongoing discussions with federanrovincial/tenitorial jurisdictions on seniors? issues. The Department is an active participant on several sub-committees of the Committee of Of?cials including: a) The Care Giver Readiness working group which will explore ways to increase caregiver readiness for current and future Canadian caregivers. The purpose of this work will be to reduce the stress and burnout of caregivers and provide caregivers with tools and resources to increase their planning capacity. b) The Social Isolation/Social Innovation working group which will provide seniors, senior organizations, small businesses and with the most recent information on social isolation and social innovation to help prepare proposals for ?mding applications addressing this issue. The objective is to increase the number of projects addressing social isolation. 5. Budget Context Department of Seniors Estimated Budget Expenditures 2014- 2014-2015 2015- 2015 Estimate Forecast 2016 Estimate 3 Thousands 3 Thousands 5' Thousands Net Program Expenses $1,862 $1,729.l $1,496 Program Expenses Gross $1,077.8 $1,212.5 $868.3 Current Salaries and Bene?ts $784.2 566.6 $627.7 Funded Staff (FTEs) 9.00 6.90 7.00 6. Performance Measures The following performance measures have been identi?ed because they are integral to advancing the work of the Department as well as government?s priorities. The Department of Seniors engages in active consultation processes with seniors, provides policy advice to government and community stakeholders. When citizens are consulted and can easily access information relevant to their needs, and government and community stakeholders benefit from policy advice pertaining to seniors issues a supportive age?friendly environment is created in which citizens can realize positive health outcomes as they age. The following strategic measures are employed by the Department to assess performance: A) Stakeholder engagement (with seniors, senior? serving organizations, non?governmental organizations, all levels of government, academia, private sector, etc.); B) Age?Friendly Communities. The Department has engaged a consultant to initiate the development of an evaluation framework for its work. The grant funding structure and process is subject to change pending the ?ndings from the evaluation process. In addition, the performance measures below may be subject to change following the completion of this work. A. Stakeholder Engagement (with seniors, senior-serving organizations, non-governmental organizations, all levels of government, academia, private sector, etc.) Outcome Measure Data Target 2015-16 Strategies to Achieve Target Operational Measures: A.1. Seniors, seniors? organizations and senior?serving agencies have opportunities to provide advice on public policy issues. Satisfaction level of seniors? organizations with information provided by the department on the policies, programs. and services available to seniors and the mechanisms in place for bringing issues of concern to the attention of the An evaluation form will be used to assess the Group of [X's (advisory committee to the department comprised of seniors? organizations from across the province) satisfaction (low. med. high) with the opportunity to Result for 2011- 2012: 50% high satisfaction, and 50% medium satisfaction. Target for 2013- 2014: 75% High Satisfaction Target for 2014- 2015: 70% high satisfaction Result: Continue to consult on a regular basis with the Group ofiX, seniors, and senior serving organizations on key issues that impact the lives of seniors. Nova Scotia provide advice on Target met government. public policy issues. Target for 2015- 2016: 70% satisfaction Operational Measures: A2. Information Increased Number and type of collected from staff Result for 2010- Maintain a high level of collaboration with initiatives the 201 l: 25 key involvement with the government Departmentis staff initiatives Federal/ProvineiallTerritorial departments and provides working groups non-govemment consultation and Result for 201 l- which engage in extensive organizations in the policy advice on 2012: 40 key work throughout the year on exploration and initiatives. various initiatives identi?ed development of as a priority by the policy. programs Result for 2013- Ministers Responsible for and services that 2014: 26 key Seniors. address the needs of initiatives seniors. A.3. Increased profile among provincial govemment peers about the Department?s role and function, and how we can bene?t their planning efforts that relate to older Nova Scotians. Target 2014-2015: 40 initiatives. Target 2015-16: 30 initiatives Maintain a strong presence on outside stakeholder committees that engage in the development of initiatives that impact seniors. Maintain a high level of involvement on interdepartmental committees in order to provide advice on the development of policies, programs and services that impact seniors. 10 B. Age-Friendlv Communities communities Target 2014-2015: 13 local govemments? Target 2015-2016: increase of 2-4 local govemments Outcome Measure Data Target Strategies to 2015-16 Achieve Target Strategicr?Outcome Based Measures: Increased AFC Number of local Base Year 2010- Result 2013-2014: Promote initiative in planning, government? 2011: 6 local 13 local communities across the implementation. and engaged in becoming governments governments province through in? evaluation activities person visits and presentations at various public speaking opportunities Develop supporting tools and resources Revise the Department?s website Local government: de?ned as towns, cities, regional and rural municipalities as well as First Nations band/tribal councils New communities are not likely to be introduced this year as the focus of the Department has been on deveIOping tools and resources (and website) to support existing and new communities. 11