fabile

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.

Dezoge Table 1: Combined Percentage of Regional offices and National Resource

Centers Indicating They provide various levels of Technical
Assistance to State Units

a percentages may not total 100 because of rounding..

ACCO

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 unnet needs. Concerning technical assistance to target minority elderly persons, 24 percent of the state unit officials reported having great or very great unnet needs. Another 22 percent of the state unit officials reported having moderate unnet needs in this area.

State unit officials also reported having unnet needs for technical assistance on demographic information. Twenty

percent of the state unit officials reported having great or

Horticials 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.)

Table 2:

Percentage of State Units on Aging Indicating Various Levels of
Unmet Needs for Technical Assistance From Regional Offices and
National Resource Centers