AARP Florida

Just as New Year’s football bowl games are ending, we in Florida kick off a critical period in the state for older Floridians, with the 60-day 2024 Florida legislative session beginning January 9.

Today, AARP Florida released its 2024 legislative priorities, highlighting the importance of maintaining a well-trained direct care workforce, enhancing the quality and oversight of Florida’s long-term care system, expansion of home and community-based services and increasing consumer protections as top priorities for the AARP advocacy team and volunteer advocates.

Jeff Johnson is the State Director of AARP Florida. Johnson joined the AARP team in 2000 with a background in public relations, marketing and sales, working with the Tampa Bay (then) Devil Rays. Since 2010, he has served as the State Director of AARP Florida, leading a team of staff and volunteers across the state to fight for and equip Floridians 50+ to choose how they live as they age. A proud lifelong Floridian, he was raised in Jacksonville, and graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Wake Forest University. Johnson is a board member of the St. Petersburg College’s Institute for Strategic Policy Solutions, the President-elect of Florida Council on Aging, and is immediate past chair of the board of the Florida Civic Advance. He is active on social media and can be found on Twitter at @JeffPJohnsonFL.

AARP Florida is here to provide you with information on Long-Term Care in our state.

AARP Florida is warning people about election-related fraud targeting older voters, including requests for donations to fictitious political action committees and soliciting sensitive information during fake voter registration efforts.

On December 12, members of the Florida Senate Health Policy Committee introduced and passed SB 7016 (Health Care),

William “Bill” Ternent retired and moved to Ormond Beach in 1997 after a long career as a college professor and administrator. He started volunteering for AARP the following year and is still going strong.

When Emily Mather’s husband, Michael, returned home from his eleventh military deployment with a severe brain injury, she knew that everything was about to change. At the time, they were married for only three years: Michael was a forward observer in the U.S. Army after serving nearly nine years – and 10 deployments –with the United States Air Force. Emily was a 28-year-old mother earning an associate degree in human services.

For the first time since AARP began publishing the Scorecard in 2011, more than half of Medicaid long-term care dollars nationwide for older adults and people with physical disabilities went to home- and community-based services instead of nursing homes and other institutions.

Every day, 2.7 million Floridians help parents, spouses and other loved ones with medical care, meals, bathing, chores and much more. These individuals are family caregivers, and they support their loved ones for love, not pay.