Senior providers work toward serving future ‘gray tsunami’

WASILLA — They’re calling it “the gray tsunami” and its affects on the Mat-Su Borough could be devastating for seniors and those who love them.

“I’ve tracked the demographics for years and I’m still finding the projections for senior population growth here staggering,” Elizabeth Ripley, Mat-Su Heath Foundation executive director, said Monday after releasing a $75,000, 93-page study on senior services. The report was conducted over the last several months by the Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority, the Denali Commission, Mat-Su Health Foundation, Rasmuson Foundation and United Way of Mat-Su.

“It’s us we’re talking about. It’s not someone else,” she said. “And it’s kind of astounding.”

Ripley presented the “Mat-Su Regional Plan for Delivery of Senior Services” to the Alaska Commission on Aging while the commission was in the Valley for a few days recently. It contains a thorough snapshot of the needs, challenges, services, and current facilities for the Valley’s aging population.

The most mind-numbing statistic in the report: The population of Mat-Su residents age 65 to 74 are projected to increase by 159 percent, and those 75 to 84 will be up by 247 percent by the year 2030. That’s five times the growth rate of the senior population in the rest of the nation.

Making matters even more dire, the study found that current services for borough seniors is facing a lack of coordination among various entities because of a “territoriality” attitude with providers, causing services to be unnecessarily duplicated and others to slip through the cracks.

Other challenges include the vast geography of the Valley and the state’s “fractured, fragmented and inefficient delivery of services,” the study found.

And the funding of senior services is only going to get worse unless the borough fights for a more equitable distribution of monies within the state.

Ripley explained that Mat-Su is lumped in the same funding region as Valdez and Kenai, and that even though the Valley’s senior population is greater and is increasing at a faster rate than those cities, Kenai gets a bigger piece of the pie because that’s where the Aging and Disability Resource Center is located.

“Kenai is able to use Mat-Su’s numbers, but doesn’t give us the money to support those numbers,” Ripley said recently. “It’s not fair and we need to fix that.”

With continued cuts to Medicare and Medicaid at the national level, all states are going to have to figure out how to make fewer dollars go even farther, she said.

“Everyone’s going to have to work together to solve this,” she said. “We want to provide every mechanism possible to keep seniors in their own homes and functioning well.”

The study also found that there currently isn’t a dedicated, high-level organization available to lead, guide or champion a regional plan for service delivery. So the study group recommends a two-fold approach.

First, the overall responsibility of the plan should be vested in a single individual or organization that can own and lead the process, coordinate community providers, gain stakeholder participation, foster collaboration with the state and serve as a central voice for the process.

Second, a senior service task force should be formed that encompasses participants from various organizations and providers in Mat-Su.

“This task force should be mutually distinct from the current Coalition of Mat-Su Senior Centers and should establish an appropriate scope to accomplish the recommended plan strategies, determine an appropriate meeting calendar and elect officers,” the report states.

This plan is expected to evolve over the next two or three years and involve four main steps:

• Learn more about specific Mat-Su senior needs and desires.

• Develop provider consensus about service areas and accomplish regulatory change.

• Develop an Aging Disability and Resource Center to serve the Valley.

• Plan for expanded service offerings and new service development.

Ripley said the entire process will be spread over the next 20 years as the various entities prepare for the rising tide of seniors and how best to serve them.

But if how quickly the study was completed since the bid was awarded to the McDowell Group last September is any indication of the speed with which the problems will be solved, she said she is confident positive change isn’t too far down the road.

“We just need to make sure our local lawmakers understand the needs,” Ripley said. “We’re at a major crossroads and need to be more proactive in taking care of our seniors. That’s you and me.”

For a copy of the Mat-Su Regional Plan for Delivery of Senior Services, visit matsuhealthfoundation.org and scroll down to the report links.

Contact K.T. McKee at kate.mckee@frontiersman.com or 352-2252.