Seniors, advocates tackle Panhandle’s growing need

A program to redefine care in the last quarter of life burst onto the scene Thursday with more energy than organizers expected.

Community Partnerships for Older Adults invited seniors, social workers and caregivers to gather at Coeur d’Alene’s Greenbriar Inn to start analyzing what’s available to seniors and what seniors would like to change. The program is one of 11 nationwide that the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is supporting to generate ideas on how seniors should live.

Idaho’s senior population grew 28.4 percent between 1990 and 2000 while the senior population nationwide grew 14.8 percent. The senior population in North Idaho grew 43 percent during the same period.

“We can’t sit back and let this happen without doing something,” Pearl Bouchard, director of Aging and Adult Services in Coeur d’Alene, told the 40 people gathered at the Greenbriar.

Many seniors receive services from any number of programs, but many don’t, she said. “There’s a potential unmet need of 5,000-plus out there, and that’s our target population.”

Robert Salsbury, the program’s coordinator, and a team of social workers and caregivers chose a few dozen people to participate in various groups that will study the senior living situation in the Panhandle during the next few months. One of the group’s participants shared news of the foundation grant to North Idaho with AARP staff in Boise.

AARP sent word on to its national office, which sent out 10,000 letters this week to Panhandle seniors about the Community Partnerships project. The letter encouraged recipients to fill out a survey Bouchard’s Aging office is distributing. Bouchard said she hoped to collect 400 surveys by the end of the month. She’s already received 550 completed surveys.

The AARP letter also encouraged people to join the study groups. Salsbury stressed that information from seniors rather than professionals will drive the project. He also had hoped to keep study groups to a manageable size – about 10 to 12 people. But that might not happen.

“My phone’s been ringing off the hook since yesterday with people who want to be on a committee,” he said.