OLDER ADULT PEER TO PEER PROGRAM

The Baltimore County, Maryland, Purchasing Division is seeking proposals for the Older Adult Peer to Peer Program. This program aims to decrease the potential effects and stigma of a mental health diagnosis and maintain stability for Baltimore County aging citizens. The program provides community education, outreach, and volunteer support for people ages 55 and over with late-onset mental health diagnoses. The selected vendor will be required to provide these services countywide in Baltimore County. Key aspects of the program include: • Voice and Choice: Individual older adult, caregiver, and/or family perspectives are intentionally elicited and prioritized during all phases of the process. • Team-based: The team consists of individuals agreed upon by the older adult/family and committed to the older adult/family through informal, formal, and community support and service relationships. • Natural supports: The team actively seeks out and encourages the full participation of team members drawn from older adults’/families' networks of interpersonal and community relationships. • Collaboration and Mutuality: Team members work cooperatively and share responsibility for developing, implementing, monitoring, and evaluating older adult/family progress while in services by blending perspectives, mandates, and resources to meet each older adult’s/family's goals. • Culturally competent, comprehensive, and individualized: The process demonstrates respect for and builds on the values, preferences, beliefs, culture, and identity of the older adult, and their community.