Older Americans Act of 1965
federal initiative aiming to provide services to older adults
The Older Americans Act of 1965 (Pub. L. 89–73, 79 Stat. 218) was the first federal level initiative aimed at providing comprehensive services for older adults in the United States. It created the National Aging Network comprising the Administration on Aging on the federal level, State Units on Aging at the state level, and Area Agencies on Aging at the local level. The network provides funding—based primarily on the percentage of an area's population 60 and older—for nutrition and supportive home and community-based services, disease prevention/health promotion services, elder rights programs, the National Family Caregiver Support Program, and the Native American Caregiver Support Program.
The Act was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson on July 14, 1965.
In 2016, Congress reauthorized the Act in its entirety, effective through FY 2019. In March 2020, the Act was reauthorized through 2024.
Overview
The OAA was passed as a part of Lyndon Johnson's Great Society reforms. It followed closely behind the Civil Rights Act and the Economic Opportunity Act which included many similarly structured programs, based around a centralized network of funding for a decentralized (community level) service delivery system.
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This entry incorporates text from “Older Americans Act of 1965” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.