Demand for aging services mounts; Senate recommends no increase

By Thomas Goldsmith
The (Raleigh) News & Observer

Posted: Wednesday, Jun. 20, 2012

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Grants that help older people stay home

The state’s Home and Community Care Block Grant program dates from 1992 and is designed to coordinate programs such as Meals on Wheels and adult day care, with provisions to let each county choose the help its older people need to stay out of institutions. The program uses both state and federal dollars, $56 million overall. A new Department of Health and Human Services survey provided the following statistics about the program and clients who get help from it:

• Nearly 6,500 older people – 350 in Wake County alone – are waiting for services by in-home aides, which could include assistance with bathing, eating and other daily activities;

• More than 3,500 are on lists to receive meals;

More than 1 in 5 companies or agencies that provide meals have stopped serving during holidays;

• Nearly half of providers have put limits on the amount of help a client can get from an in-home aide.

As Senate and House leaders negotiate a final budget package, more than 15,000 older North Carolinians remain on waiting lists for help such as Meals on Wheels, adult day care and in-home assistance, state human services officials said.

The number will rise to 17,000 without an increase in the $31.7 million state allocation for Home and Community Care Block Grants, according to a new survey of social services providers across the state.

The Senate has proposed no increase and the House, $500,000. Gov. Bev Perdue’s budget included an additional $2 million.

Efforts to reach Sen. Richard Stevens, a Cary Republican and key budget negotiator, were unsuccessful Tuesday.

“They are services designed to allow older adults to remain as independent as possible as long as possible,” said Joan Pellettier, executive director for the Triangle J Area Agency on Aging, which oversees the grants in a seven-county area.

“These are older individuals with significant intensive needs, many of whom would be eligible for assisted living or nursing-home care,” Pellettier said. “We believe that these services reduce cost and the use of more expensive long-term care.”

Talks on the state budget for 2012-2013 are likely in their last days. This week, the state Department of Health and Human Services released statistics on the need for block grant services. The survey projected 2,000 more people will join waiting lists if budget talks produce no additional funding.

AARP officials have said need for the services actually far exceeds the waiting lists – which have increased 14 percent in the past two years – because many agencies that provide the help have stopped keeping wait lists. They don’t want to build up hope among potential clients who may never get the help, AARP lobbyist Mary Bethel told a Senate budget hearing Thursday.

“As North Carolina continues to gray, more and more of our elderly neighbors need help with basic housekeeping and food,” DHHS Secretary Al Delia said in a statement. “Many who receive these services are homebound and alone, and often the service provider who visits is the only real human contact they receive in a day.”

For about half the people served by Meals on Wheels, the nutrition they receive makes up about half their daily intake, even though it’s only designed to represent a third of their daily need, the state survey showed.

About 58 percent of recipients are 75 or older and more than seven in 10 are women.

“These are critical services and in many cases, they keep them out of institutions, which is where older people do not want to wind up,” said David Cottengim, president of Resources for Seniors, which oversees the grants in Wake County.