Input sought for area plan on aging
A series of meetings will be held in coming weeks to get community input about the needs of older adults in Flathead County.
The input will be used in development of an area plan on aging that will guide aging services over the next four years.
Meeting dates and places include:
Jan. 22 — 12:30 p.m. at Whitefish Community Center, 121 Second St. E. in Whitefish
Jan. 23 — 1 p.m. at the Agency on Aging office, 160 Kelly Road in Kalispell
Jan. 26 — 1 p.m. at the North Valley Senior Center, 205 Nucleus Ave., Columbia Falls
Feb. 3 — 1 p.m. at the Lakeside Chapel, 283 Adams St. in Lakeside
Feb. 4 — 12:30 p.m., Bigfork Senior Center, 639 Commerce St. in Bigfork.
The Agency on Aging supports people age 60 and older through programs and services to help them lead independent lives.
Every four years, Agencies on Aging throughout the United States put together strategic plans that address service delivery and outreach. The plans are intended to be driven “from the community up,” said Lisa Sheppard, director of the Area IX Agency on Aging that serves Flathead County.
The agency recently conducted surveys of both nutrition and independent living service recipients and found that nearly 98 percent of respondents highly rated their overall experience with the Agency on Aging.
Once the local agency’s area plan is completed, it’s passed on to the Montana Department of Health and Human Services, which is charged with overseeing funding and program implementation. The state agency then sends the area plan to the federal agency that oversees aging services, as required by the Older Americans Act.
Sheppard said the Area IX Agency on Aging is one of two such agencies in Montana that are not yet a designated Aging and Disability Resource Center.
“All over country, AOAs have been evolving” toward that expanded designation, she said. “The premise is people with disabilities and aging have similar functional needs ... sometime in the next four years we should have made the transition” to an Aging and Disability Resource Center.
Another benefit in the works for Flathead County’s Agency on Aging is a federal grant application to help the local agency become a benefits enrollment center. It would allow the agency to better assist older adults get access to services that will help them stay in their homes longer.
“We already to this as part of Medicare counseling,” Sheppard said. “If we get the grant could do more.”
The agency will know in February whether the grant will be awarded.
The development of the area plan is done in tandem with the state Department of Public Health and Human Services’ requirement to redesignate every four years the planning and services areas it utilizes for services to the aging population.
The process requires the state to allow county commissioners and tribal councils to say how they want aging services handled in their area.
In Flathead County, the commissioners must respond by Jan. 31. They have four options to consider. They can retain the Area IX Agency on Aging as it currently exists; request to be placed in another planning and service area; retain the planning and service area but consider a new agency or organization to serve the Area IX Agency on Aging; or have the county designated as a planning and service area and select an agency or organization to be considered as the area agency for the planning and service area.
If the commissioners choose to change the way local aging services are provided, they must include a rationale for the change.
Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by email at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.