For older adults, America’s fastest growing population, a crisis is looming. According to a group of Alliance for Children and Families members, which are featured in a soon-to-be released supplement in the Alliance’s Families in Society—The Journal of Contemporary Social Services, poverty among older adults is increasing at a staggering rate.
The supplement, “Aging in Poverty: A Call to Action,” is a joint project of Families in Society and the Alliance’s New Age of Aging initiative. It details the crisis related to older adults who live just above the federal poverty level and therefore are ineligible for many current programs that target the very poor. Recognizing this harsh dilemma, the supplement seeks to incite national dia-logue among human service organizations and policymakers.
The confluence of multiple factors, not the least of which is the current economic recession, has resulted in a marked increase in the number of older adults living in poverty. Increased health care costs, longer life expectancies, soured retirement accounts, and decreased property values are hitting the nation’s older adult population extremely hard.
Many professionals are convinced the downtrodden situation of today only will worsen in the coming years. It will require many nonprofit human service organizations to broaden their focus beyond their historic roots in child and youth services, says Charles P. Tommasulo, executive director of Alliance member Family Service Agency of Mid-Michigan, Flint.
“We cannot abandon child welfare, but the demographics relating to the growth of our aging populations are sounding a warning alarm,” Tommasulo says. “We need to speak out on behalf of seniors too proud to ask for help. We should expect and plan to increase services for seniors as time passes, as their resources are depleted, as their health fades, as they become more vulnerable physically and emotionally.”
No state has seen as large a wave of retirees flocking to its shores as Florida.
Contrary to popular belief, most of them are far from wealthy, says Jenni Frumer, associate executive director of Alliance member Alpert Jewish Family & Children’s Service, West Palm Beach, Fla. Many are still living in the modest homes and condos they bought in the 1970s and 80s. They paid off their mortgages years ago, but now many of them rely on Social Security as their only source of income, and it is not uncommon for as much as 50 percent of those checks go toward condo fees, property taxes, and insurance premiums, all of which increase every year.
Cutting Costs Despite Risks
Other professionals featured in “Aging in Poverty: A Call to Action” say they regularly see the financial impact of aging.
Gina Botshtein, vice president of older adult services at Alliance member Jewish Family Services, Milwaukee, recalls one woman who was essentially crippled by the $4,000 in her savings account. “The good news is that she still has some savings. The bad news is that she has to spend down in order to become eligible for Medicaid, before she can get the care she so desperately needs.”
Staff at Alliance member Child & Family Services of Newport, Middletown, R.I., frequently hear similar stories from people calling to inquire about service eligibility. Usually, callers think that Medicare is going to cover home-based care services. When they find out they’re not eligible for subsidized care, they often choose not to purchase the services they need, or they cut services back to a minimum to keep costs low.
For example, even though delivered meals may cost just $3, many older adults reduce the number of deliveries they receive to only two days a week to keep their expenses down—despite the risk of malnutrition.
Financial Stress is Heavy Burden
“We’ve had many calls from people who have never asked for help before,” says Don Goughler, CEO of Alliance member Family Services of Western Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh. He believes depression—triggered by heavy financial stress—also is on the rise. His agency is now asking nursing staff to assess older adults for clinical depression.
Depression often goes undetected and inadequately treated, especially among low-income and minority populations, say Mary Kanerva, director of aging and adult services at Alliance member Catholic Family Center, Rochester, N.Y., and Yeates Conwell, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Rochester Medical Center.
Kanerva and Conwell contend that the ultimate cost of depression is high, since it can lead to an array of health problems, greater service utilization and costs, and increased risk of dying from chronic disease or suicide. They say many older adults avoid seeking care because of the stigma they attach to being treated for a mental illness.
A Call to Action
“We are at the point where greater awareness and action are urgently needed,” says Carla Washington, director of the Alliance’s New Age of Aging, a five-year initiative designed to help prepare human service organizations to meet the needs of older adults.
FAMILIES IN SOCIETY WEB ACCESS IS FREE FOR MEMBERSPublished quarterly by the Alliance, Families in Society is a double-blind, peer-reviewed journal. It is the oldest continuously published professional social work publication of its kind in the United States. |
As a benefit of membership, Alliance members receive one subscription to the print version of Washington adds, “A key objective of the New Age of Aging initiative is to communicate the urgent need to address issues impacting older adults. Collaborating with Families in Society is a way for the Alliance to reach key change agents who are among the estimated 21,000 readers of the journal.”
For “Aging in Poverty: A Call to Action,” the journal is departing from its usual academic, third-person editorial approach in favor of a highly personal perspective.
“As we developed the supplement, it was clear that the most effective way to articulate the critical issues and arguments relating to older adults who live in poverty was to use the voices of those working on the front lines,” says Kirstin Anderson, managing editor of Families in Society at the Alliance. “The narratives of Alliance members’ staff allow readers to look beyond the statistics and experience the very real physical, mental, and emotional impact on a growing population group that is often overlooked.”
She adds, “We hope this supplement will spark dialogues about our society’s need to marshal resources for addressing the many challenges facing older adults living in poverty, as well as those who will soon fall victim to circumstance.”
“Aging in Poverty: A Call to Action” is scheduled to release this fall and will be available through the Alliance website.
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