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Aging Preparedness Solutions™

Our Mission

Aging Preparedness Solutions™ is a cross-systems planning and implementation consultancy that advances Systemic Aging Preparedness™, helping public agencies, service systems, and communities prepare for aging with lifelong intellectual and developmental disabilities.

In plain terms: Aging Preparedness Solutions™ (APS) helps older adults with lifelong intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD), and the families who care for them, plan for what comes next, and helps the systems that serve them build the tools to support that planning.

On this site:

  • Why This Matters — what older adults with I/DD and families are facing right now, and what kind of help this work aims to connect you with
  • The Framework — the cross-systems policy proposal behind this work: federal recognition of aging with a lifelong intellectual disability as its own life stage, and the Individual and Family Aging Plan (IFAP) that would anchor it
  • How It Scales — how this could grow, state by state
  • Our Services — how APS expects it will work with governments, systems, agencies, funders, and systems partners
  • Resources — policy briefs, pilot proposals, statutory drafts, a glossary, and related documents
  • Contact — how to reach APS

A note on this site's design: This website uses simple words, short sentences, and larger text throughout, to make it easier to read for people with intellectual disabilities, people with low vision, and everyone else. We built this in from the start, rather than adding it on later. If you need this content in a different format, contact APS using the information in the Contact section.

Why This Matters

If you are aging with a lifelong intellectual or developmental disability, or you are caring for someone who is, you may already know this feeling: planning for what comes next often falls entirely on you.

Here is the kind of help a real planning process, built around older adults with I/DD and their families, aims to connect you with:

  • Staying safely in your own home as you age, including help paying for home safety changes
  • Regular breaks for caregivers (respite care), so caregiving does not fall on one person alone
  • Futures Planning: working through long-term care, legal, and financial decisions ahead of time, not after something has already gone wrong
  • Help understanding and using Medicare, Medi-Cal, and other benefits and health programs
  • Screening for dementia and other age-related health changes, with a clear next step if something is found
  • A support group with other families in a similar situation, to share what has actually worked for them
  • Planning for end-of-life decisions, including burial and memorial wishes, so your family already has a plan when the time comes
  • Deciding, ahead of time, who takes over care and decisions if something happens to the primary caregiver

This is not currently a list of services APS delivers directly. Right now, it is what a planning process built specifically for aging with I/DD is designed to connect families with, through the agencies and case managers who already serve you. APS is exploring whether to offer some of these directly in the future, as a dedicated menu of Aging Services, and has not ruled that out. Most people never get asked about most of this until something has already gone wrong. More people are aging than ever before, but planning support for this stage of life has not kept up.

These are some things we anticipate you might need. But we would rather hear it directly from you.

Surveys coming soon. We want to hear directly from older adults with lifelong disabilities and from family caregivers. Check back here for links when they are ready.

More adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD) are living to old age than ever before.

  • In the early 1900s, a person with I/DD often lived to only 19 years old.
  • Today, a person with I/DD often lives to almost 70 years old.

By 2034, there will be more older adults than children in the United States for the first time in history. People with I/DD are aging along with everyone else.

1.2 million or more — Adults with I/DD age 60 and older by 2030

More than 3 out of 4 of these adults live with family caregivers. Many of these caregivers are themselves in their 70s or 80s.

90 percent — Lifetime risk of dementia for people with Down syndrome

Dementia often starts before age 65, while the person is still in working-age service systems, not aging services.

If this sounds familiar, you are not the one who is supposed to have this figured out alone. Services already exist. What is missing is a plan that connects them: something that gives someone clear responsibility for planning ahead, connects I/DD services, aging services, Medicaid, and housing around one shared tool, and treats aging with a lifelong disability as its own expected life stage, not an afterthought.

The Planning Gap, Not a Service Gap

This is the gap APS exists to help close: building the planning system families like yours need, so more of this work can happen ahead of time, instead of after something has already gone wrong.

The Framework

Cross-systems aging preparedness for adults with lifelong intellectual disability.

This page lays out APS's central policy goal, federal recognition of aging with a lifelong intellectual disability as its own life stage, and the Individual and Family Aging Plan (IFAP) that would anchor it. None of this exists yet. It is a proposal.

APS's main project is a federal policy proposal, "Aging Preparedness as a Federal Life-Stage Framework for Adults Aging with Lifelong Intellectual Disability." It asks the federal government to name "Aging with a Lifelong Intellectual Disability" as its own life stage, modeled on IDEA (the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) Part C, the federal law that created early planning support for babies and toddlers with disabilities.

Federal Life-Stage Recognition

Federal policy already treats early life as its own stage: the IFSP (Individualized Family Service Plan) for infants, IEPs (Individualized Education Programs) for school years, adult care plans for working-age I/DD services. Later life is the only major life stage still missing a federal framework. Recognizing "Aging with a Lifelong Intellectual Disability" as its own federal life stage is APS's central ask, and the Northstar the rest of this framework is built to serve. "Spine" here means the full line of planning tools a person uses across their whole life, the way a spine connects and holds up the whole body. The proposed IFAP would complete that spine.

The Individual and Family Aging Plan (IFAP)

The proposal would be anchored by a new national planning tool: the Individual and Family Aging Plan (IFAP). Families and case managers are already stretched by existing plans and paperwork. The proposed IFAP would not be a new form. It would be a new planning function, activated within the planning relationship that already exists.

  • How it would work: At a regular planning meeting, the coordinator would offer an opt-in. If the family accepted, the existing plan would activate new prompts, covering caregiver succession, housing, dementia risk, and legal planning, and would become the IFAP. Same meeting, same team, no starting over.
  • Function required, mechanism flexible: If aging with lifelong disability were recognized as its own life stage, the planning conversation itself would become non-negotiable, the same logic behind IDEA Part C. How each state would document and deliver it would stay flexible.
  • What it would cover: Caregiver health and succession, housing readiness, dementia screening, legal planning, financial and benefit continuity, advance directives, and end-of-life coordination, the questions most existing plans don't ask.

The Conduit Gap

Even where aging and disability systems have strong relationships, no state has yet built a formal, permanent bridge between them. Goodwill isn't enough. Durable coordination would need defined roles, shared indicators, and infrastructure that outlasts any one person.

Five Original Contributions

We researched the aging and disability policy field closely and did not find another proposal built around these same ideas. As far as that search can show, these five contributions would be original to this framework:

  • Systemic Aging Preparedness — naming the field, and systems fatigue as the challenge it addresses
  • Function/mechanism distinction — the planning conversation would be required; how states deliver it would stay flexible
  • Agency Across the Aging Continuum — support that would adapt as ability changes, without taking over
  • Home modifications as an equity gap — extending aging-in-place funding to provider-owned homes
  • Core Indicators — a first proposed cross-state measurement system for this work

Read the Federal Policy Brief → for the full technical and evidentiary case.

How It Scales

The Aging Preparedness framework does not require every state to look the same. It requires them to carry out the same core functions. Four very different states show the same pattern: real, individual progress, but no state has yet built the full, permanent bridge this framework proposes.

State snapshots:

  • New York — A Commissioner-level Taskforce on Aging, formally linked to the state's Master Plan for Aging.
  • California — The most developed ground-level infrastructure: dedicated Aging Transition units, a statewide Aging Services Unit, and aging-specific planning questions built into every Regional Center's process.
  • Connecticut — The most durable cross-system forum, meeting every two weeks across six agencies and advocacy groups.
  • Wisconsin — Integrated managed care since 2000, already serving both populations through one structure.

The bridge is missing.

From BADN to a National Platform

The Bridging Aging and Disability Networks (BADN) initiative built real cross-system relationships across 17 states, proof that aging and disability networks can work well together when given the structure to do it. What it did not build was a shared planning instrument, defined roles, or infrastructure that survives staff turnover. This proposes how that could evolve, in three phases:

  1. Build the architecture — IFAP guidance, Core Indicators, workforce models
  1. Test with states — implementation, aging-focused case management, shared outcome data
  1. Build a federal framework — guidance from the Administration for Community Living (ACL), renewal of the Older Americans Act, national standards

This is a proposed path forward, not a finished plan or an official BADN position.

Working With Existing Policy

APS aligns its work with the federal and state frameworks already in place. At the federal level, that includes the Administration for Community Living (ACL), the Older Americans Act, Medicaid Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS), and IDEA Part C. At the state level, it includes State Units on Aging, ADRC systems, and Managed Long-Term Services and Supports programs.

Our Services

The next several pages speak more directly to agencies, funders, and systems partners: the organizations that engage APS to do this work.

APS is an early-stage practice. Each engagement is scoped individually, sized to match what a client actually needs and where APS's own experience is strongest today.

Working With Government and Government Agencies

APS expects its paid work with federal, state, and county government agencies to span five scopes of work:

  • Federal policy framework — the Systemic Aging Preparedness framework, the IFAP, and the legal path toward federal recognition
  • Managed care engagement — helping MCOs (Managed Care Organizations), and the state agencies that contract them, build I/DD-specific expertise into care management
  • State demonstration pilots — testing specialized Older Adult case management units and the IFAP process in a small number of Regional Centers
  • Local and regional pilot projects — the same work at the county level, building partnerships with Family Resource Centers, Area Agencies on Aging, and ADRCs
  • Multisector Plan for Aging (MPA) architecture — building cross-systems goals into an MPA from the start

As states shift I/DD populations into managed care, that expertise often does not transfer on its own. State Medicaid agencies frequently negotiate MCO contracts without the state's own I/DD agency at the table, and MCO care managers are typically trained for general Medicaid populations, not the relationship-based, lifelong planning that I/DD case management actually requires. This is a documented gap, not a hypothetical one.

Working With Service Provider Agencies

APS expects its paid work with nonprofit and provider agencies to span two scopes of work:

  • Strategic planning — across an agency's full range of services, with a specific niche in planning for older adults with I/DD to age in place
  • Grant writing and funding strategy — funder research, proposals, and federal and Medicaid application support

APS's strategic planning uses a framework built specifically for mission-driven organizations, not adapted from for-profit strategy. Every engagement starts with the same five questions: What is the mission? Who is the customer? What do they value? What counts as a meaningful result? What is the plan?

Fees vary by scope of work, matched to the size and complexity of each engagement. Contact APS for a quote specific to your project.

How Engagements Begin

Every project starts with understanding the situation, not a proposal. A short first conversation, a review of the current landscape, then a scoped project sized to fit what's actually needed.

Contact APS to talk through which of these fits your situation, and where APS's current experience lines up with your need.

Resources

Documentation

This is where you can go deeper: the full policy case, the state pilot designs, and the definitions behind the terms used across this site.

Resources & Documentation

For readers who want more detail than the rest of this site covers, APS keeps the following documents and references available.

Federal Policy Brief

"Aging Preparedness as a Federal Life-Stage Framework for Adults Aging with Lifelong Intellectual Disability" — the foundational white paper proposing a new federal life stage.

Read the Federal Policy Brief →

California I/DD Aging Preparedness Pilot Proposal

A five-year Regional Center pilot program, designed as a federal prototype. It would generate the tools, standards, and evidence base that national recognition will require.

Explore the Pilot Framework →

LA County ADRC / Regional Center Mini-pilot Proposal

A cross-system structure for I/DD aging preparedness in Los Angeles. This was presented to the LA County ADRC Extended Partners Meeting in May 2026.

LA County ADRC / Regional Center Mini-pilot Proposal →

California DDS Aging Preparedness Pilot Act — Draft Statute and Regulations

DDS is the California Department of Developmental Services, the state agency that oversees services for people with I/DD. Draft legal language and rules for the California DDS Aging Preparedness Pilot Act. This is the proposed legal structure for putting a state pilot program into law.

California DDS Aging Preparedness Pilot Act — Draft Statute and Regulations →

Glossary

Definitions of the acronyms and key terms used across this website, including IFAP, the Conduit Gap, and the Three-Node Architecture.

Read the Glossary →

These documents are available upon request. They are shared under appropriate confidentiality agreements.

Contact

Bob Erio

Founder & Principal Consultant

Aging Preparedness Solutions™

  • Phone: (310) 944-2845
  • Contact Form: available on the website

Our Team

Bob Erio

Founder and Principal Consultant

Bob Erio has worked in developmental disability services, aging systems, housing, and family support for more than 35 years. He currently serves as Chief Operating Officer of Community Integration Services, Inc., overseeing programs for older adults and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Before that, Bob spent 17 years as a Regional Manager at Lanterman Regional Center, including five years managing the Aging Transition unit, planning for the aging of adults with lifelong I/DD and their family caregivers before this field had a name. That hands-on experience is the direct foundation for the Aging Preparedness framework.

Sherry Beamer

Lead Consultant

Sherry Beamer, MSW (Master of Social Work), brings over 40 years of experience in disability services, spanning direct service, program and executive leadership, policy innovation, and systems change across California, Chicago, and Washington D.C. She has directed supported living, employment, and community engagement services at organizations including SEEC and Easterseals Southern California, and has led nineteen years of consulting work across ten California Regional Centers. She holds an MSW in Administration from the University of Illinois Chicago's Jane Addams School of Social Work. Sherry brings hard-won, direct experience with small businesses that failed for lack of adequate market analysis, and helps APS learn from mistakes she has already seen play out elsewhere.

Andrea Voras

Consultant and Gerontological Advisor

Andrea Voras, MA, is a gerontologist (a specialist in aging and older adults) with 25 years of experience in care for older adults, including dementia care. She holds an MA in Gerontology from USC's Leonard Davis School of Gerontology and a second MA in Organizational Management from the University of Phoenix. She spent over seven years as a Field Care Manager at SCAN Health Plan, coordinating long-term care services for people who qualify for both Medi-Cal and Medicare. Andrea is the owner of Social Bridges 4 Life LLC, providing Coordinated Family Support and dementia care management for older adults and people with memory or thinking difficulties. She brings the aging and dementia-care expertise that complements Bob's I/DD system background.