Older adults across Maine have spoken with a clear voice: They want to age in place in their homes and communities. In fact, in a recent AARP poll, 2,000 Maine voters age 50 and older listed aging in place as a top concern, and 79 percent said they wanted state leaders to focus on helping seniors age with dignity in their homes and communities. Unfortunately, Maine has several serious systemic challenges that must be immediately addressed to make this goal a reality for many older Mainers.

Currently, many older Mainers live rurally, outside of service centers, and many are living on fixed incomes that are not adequate to meet the rising costs of food, heat, and health care. Most live in homes they own and many are challenged to pay property taxes and make home repairs.

Older adults all over Maine are struggling to access the home care services they need, not because they can’t pay for them, but because the home care system is failing.

A PLAN TO ADDRESS SHORTCOMINGS

For many older Mainers, this formula isn’t working. Their houses are falling down around them and they can’t get the services they need, but they do not want to give up their independence. They don’t want to leave their friends and communities and move out of state to live with family.

However, in most of Maine, there are no affordable housing options. Even where there are options, most have long waiting lists. For far too many, the options are to go without or to give up their independence.

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That’s why, for more than a year, the Maine Council on Aging has been partnering with House Speaker Mark Eves to create a plan to address these challenges. As the oldest and most rural state, our focus has been on making Maine the national leader in developing and implementing innovative solutions that help older adults age in place.

The Maine Council on Aging supports Speaker Eves’ “Keep ME Home” initiative because it moves our state in the right direction. It addresses the immediate needs of many older Mainers and also offers the opportunity to transform how people age in Maine. Eves proposes to create affordable housing for seniors in each of Maine’s 16 counties through a $65 million housing bond; boost pay for in-home care workers who have not had a raise in more than a decade; and expand property tax credits for low-income seniors.

We support Speaker Eves in his efforts to build affordable senior housing all over Maine that is located near transportation and health care services and accessible to other community services.

These kinds of local housing opportunities give older Mainers real choice. This is also where Maine has a real opportunity to become an innovative leader. We have the opportunity to create and build new models of housing that advance new health care delivery models, incorporate new technologies and integrate and expand community services.

For older Mainers who have the resources to physically maintain their homes, many are facing another challenge – a shortage of home care workers to assist them in meeting their daily needs at home.

Our workforce is aging. As workers retire, we have an inadequate supply of workers to fill jobs. This means the job market is more competitive and that employers are paying more for workers.

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STRONGER HOME CARE WORKFORCE

This formula is devastating to home care providers who are hamstrung in their ability to compete for workers because of artificially low MaineCare reimbursement rates. Home care provider rates haven’t been increased for more than a decade and providers are now finding they can no longer retain workers who can find better salaries and benefits with other employers.

This means people who can pay for services cannot find them and many home care agencies are on the brink of financial collapse.

This situation is not sustainable. We have a growing population in need of home based services and a shrinking workforce which is unable to provide this care. Speaker Eves’ proposal to boost provider rates will help build a stronger home care workforce ready to meet the needs of older Mainers. This step is needed to move Maine’s innovative health care transformation efforts forward.

Over the next few months, the Council will be asking legislative leaders from both sides of the aisle to champion other legislative initiatives to help older Mainers age in place. The Maine Aging Initiative has been, and will continue to be, a bipartisan effort because leaders from both parties know older Mainers need help now and that we all have to work together to make Maine the way aging should be.

— Special to the Telegram


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