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A look at the numbers and the Governor’s State of the State address
According to the 2000 US Census, there were 134,953 people living in Berkshire County. This represented a decline of 3.2% or 4,399 people from the 1990 Census. Although Berkshire County’s overall population decreased from 1990 to 2000, there was at least one age group which grew significantly. From 1990 to 2000, the number of Berkshire County residents age 75 or older grew by 16.5%, from 10,543 in 1990 to 12,630 in 2000, (an increase of 2,087 people 75 or older). Elders (those 60 or older) comprise 22.4% of the county’s total population. Our county’s percentage of elders is significantly higher than the statewide average of 17.3%, and is second only to Barnstable County on Cape Cod. In 2000, there were 30,266 Berkshire County residents who were 60 or older.
Each year, Elder Services serves more than 10,000 of these Berkshire elders and their caregivers. We do this in a variety of ways. In 2003, our Home Care program served an average of 1,016 elders a month. This program allows elders to continue to live as independently as possible in their own homes by providing assistance with such essential services as bathing, dressing, grooming, toileting, laundry, house cleaning, and meal preparation. Unfortunately, we are serving fewer people in this program than we were two years ago when a reduction in state funding necessitated the implementation of a statewide managed intake protocol. In January 2002, the month before the protocol began, we served 1,072 elders in the Home Care program. By December 2002, managed intake had reduced that monthly number to 1,039; by December 2003, it had been reduced to 1,012 elders a month. This past year, our kitchen in Lanesboro prepared over 245,000 meals, and our Meals on Wheels program, which continues to receive inadequate funding, delivered approximately 187,000 of these meals to homebound elders. The remainder of these meals were served at meal sites throughout the county, many of them in collaboration with local Councils on Aging at various senior centers or other locations.
Almost 70% of the more than 1,500 elders we serve each month through our Home Care and Meals on Wheels programs are age 75 or older. As the number of individuals age 75 and older continues to grow, so will their need for these types of community based services. The Governor may have been thinking of these people when he said in his State of the State Address on January 15, that “We must also continue to honor and respect those of the Greatest Generation as they get older. One of the great travesties in our state is the number of seniors that are in nursing homes who could, with a little help, still be in their own homes and still be productive. We need to give seniors the help they need to stay in their own homes for as long as possible - we owe the greatest generation at least that much.”
We at Elder Services applaud the Governor’s State of the State comments about elders, and hope that his proposed budget, which is due at the end of January, will provide the funding to support his commitment to give elders the help they need to stay in their own homes. Adequate funding for community based services... we owe the greatest generation at least that much. At press time, we await the Governor’s proposed budget.