Human services for the elderly and the role of university-community collaboration: Perceptions of human service agency workers

According to the U.S. Bureau of the Census, in 1998 the 65-74 years age gro up (18.4 million) was eight times larger than in 1900, the 75-84 years age group (12 million) was 16 times larger, and the 85 and older years age grou p (4 million) was 33 times larger. It is anticipated that if this trend con tinues, by 2030, there will be about 70 million older American persons, mor e than twice their number in 1998. To meet the needs of the older populatio n, governments, foundations, nonprofit organizations, and other groups will have to continue to work on how to increase availability, accessibility, a nd adequacy of community-based services. One approach will be to encourage community collaboration and partnerships. Funding agencies have encouraged university-community collaboration in recent years. However, none of the st udies reviewed for this paper addressed the need for the type of university -community collaboration that our study deals with (i.e., university-commun ity agency collaboration). In particular, our study investigates human serv ice agency workers' perceptions of the availability, accessibility, and ade quacy of services to the elderly in Northwest Ohio, and how collaboration w ith a university can improve service delivery to consumers. The findings of the study provide a general indication of trends, experiences, and problem s common to these agencies. The findings also suggest that agency workers d o not necessarily have a negative perception of university-community agency collaboration, rather many do not understand how such collaborations will improve services to consumers. Recommendations regarding how to enhance uni versity-community collaborations are made.