Assisting the Elderly of Rural America Through Regions

The graying of America is accelerating in rural areas. A 1999 US Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service (ERS) report, Changes in the Older Population and Implications for Rural America, finds outmigration of young adults and inmigration of elderly retirees to be at the heart of this dynamic difference. While the sunbelt states are home to the largest number of elderly, the ERS report found the heaviest concentration of nonmetro elderly in the eastern US, the Midwest and coastal areas of California, Washington and Oregon.

The aging of rural America presents many challenges to community and economic development organizations. According to the ERS report, delivery of health care and nutritional services, availability of “elder-friendly” housing and long-term care facilities, access to social services, and provision of transportation services are far more difficult in rural areas due to distance and remoteness.

Regional Organizations Serve the Elderly

According to the 2000 NADO Research Foundation survey, 35 percent of respondents manage and provide services to senior citizens. Twenty-six percent belong to the National Association for Area Agencies on Aging and are designated as area agencies on aging (AAAs).

The Southwest Tennessee Development District (SWTDD), an Economic Development Administration funded economic development district has been a state-designated AAA since 1971. Evelyn Robertson, Executive Director of SWTDD, says the AAA program has a beneficial impact on the region’s more than 32,000 seniors (about 15 percent of the region’s population) located throughout eight counties. “In 2000, almost 8,400 elderly citizens received services at 11 senior centers and participated in home-delivered and congregate meal programs; received transportation to doctors’ appointments, social, educational and recreational events; or received legal advice or long-term care ombudsman services,” according to Robertson.

“Rural America is proportionately older than urban America, with elderly people (aged 65 or older) making up 18 percent of the rural population in 1997 compared to only 15 percent of the population in urban areas.” — Rural Policy Research Institute, 1999

In addition to providing homemaker and elder care management, transportation, nutrition, health promotion and disease prevention, hearing aid, public guardianship, and legal and advocacy services, SWTDD has established collaborative partnerships to help senior citizens achieve the highest possible independence. A new partnership with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Tennessee Emergency Management Agency, and the Red Cross will develop a disaster plan to identify and assist elders in case of an emergency. The Volunteer Respite Care Program, which places volunteers in homes of homebound elderly, is a collaborative effort of several agencies in SWTDD’s region. Other programs have helped provide fans and smoke detectors to senior citizens; SWTDD also sponsors an annual Senior Games and Ms. Southwest Tennessee Age of Elegance Pageant.

In 2001, SWTDD will initiate a home- and community-based services program aimed at keeping people in their homes rather than nursing homes by providing support services such as meals and visiting nurses. The program is being funded with state and federal grants. The state of Tennessee has been approved for a Medicaid waiver to cover program costs.

By Laurie Thompson, NADO Research Foundation Director of Programs

For more information about SWTDD’s AAA Program, contact Evelyn Robertson at (901) 668-6402 or swtdd@aeneas.net, or visit their website at www.swtdd.org.

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