State Gets Award To Help Elderly

The federal Administration on Aging has awarded a two-year $250,000 grant to a non-profit community development group to study health issues of Idaho’s elderly.

Idaho will be one of five states taking part in the pilot project. The grant goes to the Boise-based Mountain States Group and is organized in north-central Idaho by the Area II Agency on Aging.

The study will analyze the delivery of elderly health care and discuss options for local health providers.

The participants will form the Council on Home and Communitybased Care. Council members will deliver their recommendations to the Idaho Office on Aging and local arms at the end of this year.

Kathy Gardner, project director at the Mountain States Group’s Idaho Rural Health Center, said the study was prompted by census data that people older than 75 comprise the fastest growing segment of Idaho’s population.

“The demographics on aging are pretty much alarming and on the national level that has raised a lot of concern,” she said.