Aging & Disability Resource Consortium

The Aging & Disability Resource Consortium (ADRC) is a partnership between a county’s elder service organizations, known as Aging Service Access Points (ASAPs) and an areas’ Independent Living Center serving people with disabilities. The ADRC enhances collaborations between elder and disability service providers, ensuring there’s no wrong door when an elder or person with a disability contacts one of our agencies for assistance and services. An ADRC is designed to assist individuals in need of long-term services and supports in making informed choices.

In Suffolk County, the ADRC is comprised of four ASAPs, Boston Senior Home Care, Central Boston Elder Services, Chelsea-Revere-Winthrop Elder Services, and Ethos — the areas AAA, the Boston Commission on Affairsof the Elderly — and the Boston Center for Independent Living (BCIL). In Metro Boston, the ADRC is comprised of BCIL and the ASAPs Minuteman Senior Services, Mystic Valley Elder Services, Somerville/Cambridge Elder Services and Springwell.

One critical new program the ADRC offers is Options Counseling, which provides seniors over 60 and people with disabilities of any age with the information they need on long-term services and supports in order to live independently in their community, regardless of disability or income. Options Counselors are trained to work with you, family members and/or significant others, to connect you to vital resources and services that fit your current situation and preferences and allow you to stay in your home.

Option Counselors advise people who are soon to be discharged from a hospital or rehab facility, have been admitted a long-term care facility following a hospital stay, are facing admission to or residing in a nursing facility, or when a family caregiver needs help to continue providing care in the community. An Options Counselor can help you develop your own personal long-term care plan and connect you to options and supports that help you remain in the community.

Options Counseling is a FREE service. The program is funded by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Executive Office of Elder Affairs and the Massachusetts Rehabilitation Commission and offered through ADRCs across the state.