State will soon show its wrinkles

By Jason King
Assistant Communications Director

• N.C. Study Commission on Aging on the Web: www.ncleg.net/gascripts/DocumentSites/browseDocSite.asp?nID=38
• N.C. Adult Protective Services: www.dhhs.state.nc.us/aging/adultsvcs/afs_aps.htm

Age is catching up with North Carolina.

Sen. Vernon Malone, co-chair of the N.C. Study Commission on Aging, told steering committee members “we’ve got to be able to find the revenue to deal with the issue.” (Photo by Jason King)

While population projections may have county officials scratching their heads and wondering how to alleviate the coming crush on already taxed school facilities, the quiet storm on the horizon involves an age group that has no need for public education facilities. By 2030, a full three-fourths of the state’s 100 counties are expected to be inhabited by more people age 60 and older than 17 and younger.

How to begin to deal with this shift in age demographic was the subject of the NCACC Human Services Steering Committee’s Jan. 25 meeting in Raleigh. The meeting came on the heels of the release of a report to the General Assembly’s Study Commission on Aging that detailed the needs highlighted in a five-year statewide aging study.

Sen. Vernon Malone, a former Wake County commissioner who co-chairs the legislative commission, told steering committee members that state and local leaders must “figure out ways to allow people to grow old gracefully” without taking away their dignity and independence.

Indeed, the report’s recommendations found that a comprehensive study of state and local government capabilities to respond to the senior population boom would help the effort to catapult the state among the nation’s most “senior-friendly.”

“We are in the calm before the storm, but we need to set our sails to get moving in the right direction,” said Dennis Streets, director of the Division of Aging and Adult Services.

As part of the report, the division is working with Area Agencies on Aging (AAA) to study six counties – Brunswick, Buncombe, Gaston, Henderson, Moore and New Hanover – on current and anticipated older adult populations, impacts of the growth of that aging demographic and the services they will need, and program funding sources and needs. The division will present to the General Assembly by April 1 its final report on the six counties, which currently have – or by 2030 are expected to have – the largest number of individuals age 60 and older when compared to individuals age 17 and younger.

The division’s statewide report recommends legislative funding for the statewide study, Project CACE, Communities and Aging Carolinians – on Edge, which would in part assess consumer needs, assets and expectations, and state and local preparedness, as well as support state and local planning. The project comes with a recurring price tag of almost $3.8 million and $600,000 in non-recurring costs.

The local planning piece of the project would include the creation of Local Aging Leadership Planning Teams, which would be comprised of citizens who use the “livable and senior-friendly community framework” in their county. The teams would integrate or connect with existing local planning agencies and would report significant work and issues to county officials.

The report also recommends that a results-based aging data warehouse be implemented in the future.

New approach to Adult Protective Services needs support

Adult Services Section Chief Suzanne Merrill said projections on the aging population have put a premium on the need to update the state’s Adult Protective Services (APS) law, which has not been revisited and refined in more than 30 years.

A task force on APS needs released recommendations in late 2005 that called for the creation of a clearinghouse model for access to services with a three-pronged approach focusing on intervention, outreach and the provision of information. The clearinghouse model would allow county departments of social services to intervene before an adult’s health deteriorates to life-threatening levels, and would extend the ability of county departments to provide information and services.

Legislation introduced during the 2007 session called for a nine-county pilot program for the APS clearinghouse model, but neither the House nor Senate versions of the bill were even heard in committee.

Funding is needed for the programs to help pay for essential services at the county social services levels, as well as enhance data collection and implement public awareness about the mistreatment of vulnerable and older adults.

“We’re going to need an infusion of dollars to ensure protection,” Merrill said.