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Statistics tell dramatic aging story in Mahoning Valley
YOUNGSTOWN
The number of people 65 and older in Mahoning County declined 6.6 percent over the past 10 years, but in Trumbull County the number went up 3.3 percent.
The statistics are part of a study released today by Miami of Ohio University’s Scripps Gerontology Center that show a change that is part of a broader dramatic aging story taking place across all Ohio’s 88 counties, according to study researchers.
A baby boomer is a person born between 1946 and 1964, a generation that represents nearly 20 percent of the American public.
The issue is serving an increasing older population who need various long-term care services, and finding the money to do so in light of dwindling state and federal funding, researchers said.
The Area Agency on Aging District 11 provides senior services in Mahoning, Trumbull, Columbiana and Ashtabula counties.
The rising costs are offset in Trumbull and Ashtabula counties, however, by senior-services levies that annually generate a little more than $2 million and about $1.6 million, respectively, said Anthony Cario, District 11 chief operating officer.
Cario said he had not seen the study, but said that, in general, the impact of a growing older population is also growing the need for services in the face of funding cuts.
For instance, Cario said funding from the federal Older Americans Act was reduced $180,000 for 2012, and a 46 percent cut in state dollars for the year. He said federal dollars are determined by a formula based on population and when the overall population drops so does the funding level.
Because of the senior-services levies in Trumbull and Ashtabula counties, waits for home-based services, such as cleaning, snow shoveling and home-delivered meals, are short or nonexistent. An indication of the value constituents place on the levies is that renewals traditionally are passed in excess of 70 percent of the voters, Cario said.
In Mahoning and Columbiana, however, the waits are much longer, Cario said, with the exception of Medicaid eligible consumers who receive services through the Passport program.
Passport provides some of the services that help keep consumers safely in home instead of going to nursing facilities. Up to $36,000 is allowed for caring for a consumer at home compared to nursing-facility care, which is $60,000 a year.
The Scripps Gerontology Center, established in 1972, is a research institution dedicated to generating and disseminating multidisciplinary aging related knowledge. It develops and publishes research reports on a variety of aging- related topics.
Ohio’s Delaware and Washington counties provide extreme examples of the aging population.
The number of residents 65 and older in Delaware County increased 83 percent between 2000 and 2010, during which Ohio’s total population age 65 and older grew by 7.6 percent.
Washington County, however, got smaller and older.
The number of residents 65 and older increased 15 percent, but its overall population shrank during the decade.
This research is part of a series of forthcoming releases from the gerontology center as it seeks to shed light on age-related issues and to provide information telling the story of Ohio’s aging counties.
The study was commissioned by the Ohio Department of Aging’s Advisory Council on Aging.
The department of aging values the demographic research done by the gerontology center, said Bonnie KIantor-Burman, ODA director.
“It is a dramatic visual to help people embrace the idea that we must make bold, sweeping changes now to prepare to serve our growing and changing population,” she said.
The gerontology center reported that in 2009 more than $166 million in property tax funds were raised to help older Ohioans live in their own homes. This was the highest revenue generated by any of the 15 states using tax levies for seniors.