of technical assistance to target (1) those elderly in the greatest social and economic need and (2) minority elderly. However, they generally do not provide the same level of technical assistance to state units to help them obtain demographic information about the elderly populations in their respective geographic areas. (See table 1.) This is important, because without this information it is difficult if not impossible for these agencies to determine what fraction of the eligible population has been reached, or whether targeting is improving or declining vis-a-vis that population. Table 1: Type of technical assistance Combined Percentage of Regional Offices and National Resource Targeting those 0% 10% 24% with greatest social or 45-625 91 - 5 Unmet Needs for Technical Assistance To determine whether the technical assistance that is provided actually meets the perceived needs of state units on aging, we asked officials from the state units to indicate the extent of their unmet needs for technical assistance in the area of targeting. Although most officials from regional offices and resource centers reported that they provide a great or very great amount of technical assistance to help target those elderly individuals in the greatest social and economic need, 18 percent of the state unit officials reported having great or very great unmet needs in this area. 4 Another 33 percent of the state unit officials reported having moderate unmet needs. Concerning technical assistance to target minority elderly persons, 24 percent of the state unit officials reported having great or very great unmet needs. Another 22 percent of the state unit officials reported having moderate unmet needs in this area. State unit officials also reported having unmet needs for technical assistance on demographic information. Twenty percent of the state unit officials reported having great or 4officials from a total of 49 state units and 17 area agencies indicated the extent of their unmet needs to us. very great unmet needs for such technical assistance. Another 16 percent of the state unit officials reported having moderate unmet needs of this sort. In summary, we found that a sizable proportion of officials at state units on aging reported having at least moderate unmet needs for technical assistance to (1) target those elderly persons with the greatest social and economic needs, (2) target minority elderly persons, and (3) acquire demographic information on the elderly populations in their respective geographic areas. (See table 2.) |