San Luis Obispo County’s local efforts to identify and meet gaping needs for its senior citizen population received a roughly $200,000 boost from the state.
The county won its share of funding from the California Department of Aging’s $3 million Local Aging and Disability Action Planning Grant Program. The state department awarded the money to local governments and nonprofits in 15 communities across California.
With the Board of Supervisors’ unanimous vote on Aug. 22 to authorize that grant money, the county Department of Social Services is now searching for a contracted provider that can collect data from monolingual and bilingual senior citizens across the county to figure out what the local shortcomings are. That data will aid in developing the countywide aging and disability action plan with the help of an advisory committee yet to be created.
Adult Services Policy Council (ASPC) volunteer Linda Beck told New Times that the list of needs is lengthy, and she pointed out some of the SLO County-specific problems.
“A remarkable number of older adults are finding difficulty in getting housed, and even those who own their homes are finding it difficult to finance them,” she said.
Then there’s a lack of receiving care in the form of assistance with shopping, showering, cooking, and doing the laundry among other daily chores. While the Department of Social Services operates an in-home support services program to address that need, Beck said that there aren’t enough people to provide that care even if they’re authorized to do so.
Transportation via public transit in a car-dependent county is another problem for older residents.
“The hard part is coordinating getting from North County to SLO for medical appointments,” Beck said. “It can take hours.”
She added that finding a primary care physician at an affordable rate with a reasonable wait time is difficult for SLO County seniors, too, along with accessing the internet, which could make it hard to access the state Department of Aging’s survey about older adults’ needs. Its website mentions completing the survey online, with technical support provided via email. However, it also advises calling (916) 970-9948 for other questions related to the survey.
Conducting the data collection study in SLO County with the grant funding will quantify and document SLO County’s senior resident needs.
Linda Belch, the deputy director of county Adult and Children’s Services, anticipates an increase in the number of senior residents in SLO County. According to latest data from SLO Health Counts, the age group has been steadily growing over the past decade. In 2012, people older than the age of 65 made up 16.2 percent of county population. As of 2022, they comprised 22.3 percent.
“We know SLO County is a great place to retire in, so we know our aging population is going to grow,” she said.
Belch, Beck, and Adult Protective Services Program Manager Robert Diaz told New Times that the state grant is arriving at a time when local groups were already working toward addressing the needs of the older residents. The ASPC, for one, is a provider group that gathers monthly to meet human and health service needs. Representatives from the Department of Social Services, Community Action Partnership of SLO County, Dignity Health, Wilshire Community Services, and other health agencies meet to plan how to provide seniors with access to a continuum of care.
Social Services coordinates closely with hospital administration to help provide case management of sorts when older patients are released from care.
“We work with local hospital services so that there’s a warm handoff and [the seniors] are connected as they move through the system,” Belch said.
She added that her department worked for the last six months to apply for the grant. They must spend it by 2025. Social Services is poised to conduct community outreach to increase awareness about the data collection plans.
For ASPC’s Beck, receiving the grant represents the “stars aligning” because the council had been hoping to create a strategic plan to help the older population.
“[The grant] is a terrific opportunity coming exactly at the right time in the county,” Beck said. “There are enormous resources for older adults and it’s the best kept secret in the county.” Δ
This article appears in Aug 24 – Sep 3, 2023.