Advancing California’s No Wrong Door Approaches for Aging and Disability Services

The California Department of Aging (CDA), California’s federally designated State Unit on Aging (SUA), operates under the California Health and Human Services Agency and administers programs serving older adults, people with disabilities, and caregivers. The department oversees Area Agencies on Aging, contracts with Multipurpose Senior Services Program agencies and Caregiver Resource Centers, certifies Adult Day Health Care Centers, and administers a Long-Term Care Ombudsman program with oversight of licensed facilities statewide. CDA collaborates with multiple state departments to advance its mission of supporting wellness, longevity, and quality of life for Californians through comprehensive service delivery and strategic partnerships.

• Conducted comprehensive research, policy analysis, and benchmarking of other states’ NWD models to identify promising practices.
• Established a cross-agency State Leadership Council to provide strategic guidance on designing California’s NWD approaches.
• Developed a plan that prioritized the design of foundational NWD components such as the service model, statewide consumer website, and branding and communications.
• Identified opportunities for strengthening Information and Assistance (I&A) services throughout the AAA network.
• Created the framework for the statewide consumer website to unify access to the aging and disability services available in California.
• Made statewide branding and communication recommendations to strengthen awareness and consistency across local networks.

CDA engaged Collaborative Consulting to design and advance its NWD approaches, clarify what is achievable, and define the steps needed to make progress toward a coordinated statewide approach. The project aimed to:

• Understand how other states have created and sustained NWD systems and consider what could be adapted for California.
• Design foundational elements of an NWD system, including the service model, an online resource hub, and a communications strategy.
• Equip CDA leadership with a case that illustrates the value of NWD approaches to collaborators, potential funders, policy makers, and other stakeholders.

To transform how Californians access aging and disability services, we started with a plan anchored in what’s possible today. Collaborative Consulting assisted CDA in researching and designing priority approaches to lay the foundation for an integrated and accessible NWD system.

We began with research and discovery — analyzing federal guidance, reviewing promising practices from other states, and mapping California’s landscape across the aging and disability network. This revealed both the complexity of statewide integration and the strength of the systems already in place, including the state’s Aging and Disability Resource Connection (ADRC) network and services provided by AAAs, which connect Californians with local information and assistance. We also surfaced a central insight that lasting change would depend on strengthening what CDA could control today while preparing for more system-oriented reforms over time.

Informed by these findings, we formed three workgroups comprised of CDA leadership to design the following NWD components:

• Service Model: We explored a tiered statewide model for information and assistance, defining how individuals should experience person-centered access to services—whether through basic information and referral, enhanced options counseling and follow-up, or short-term coordination for more complex needs. We conducted targeted research and data analysis to understand the local capacity for delivering information and assistance (I&A) services, then drafted capability-building recommendations and proposed regulations to strengthen I&A services and advance a statewide NWD service model.
• Statewide Consumer Website We supported CDA in designing an ideal centralized website of aging and disability resources and drafting the RFP to procure a vendor to develop it. This site will replace a patchwork of local listings with a single, searchable hub, helping individuals, caregivers, and professionals quickly access accurate, up-to-date information, with a launch targeted for 2026.
• Branding and Communication: We developed recommendations for a unified statewide identity and outreach strategy to help the public better understand where to turn for support. The plan included common language, visual guidelines, and messaging principles that local partners can adopt to help maintain a cohesive statewide presence.

We facilitated bi-weekly sessions with each workgroup to advance the design of the foundational NWD approaches, giving CDA greater clarity on how to implement them in ways that reflect shared responsibility across multiple agencies. At the conclusion of the project, our efforts culminated in a transitional plan that provided CDA with a roadmap for continuing to refine and implement the approaches we designed together.