ABSTRACT
The term “special populations” refers generally to the minority elderly in this country; research has shown that, compared with all other elderly, they are particularly frail and vulnerable people. They are apt to be less healthy and their life expectancy is less than that of other elderly. As a rule, they are also less well-connected to community services. One would expect, therefore, that service agencies (such as Area Agencies on Aging) would make extra efforts to locate and serve these minority elderly, and that as a result, AAAs and other agencies would be serving them disproportionately. In fact, research on programs funded by AAAs indicates that up to 28% of these agencies served less than a proportionate share of minority elderly. That is, the proportion of minority elderly being served was less than their proportion in the total elderly population in the service areas of more than a quarter of the AAAs surveyed.
