Daily Sitka Sentinel

Aging Population Poses Challenge, Chamber Told

By ABIGAIL BLISS

Sentinel Staff Writer

The number of seniors in Sitka, particularly older seniors, is rising, Erin Walker-Tolles, executive director of Catholic Community Service, said at the Chamber luncheon Wednesday.

Erin Walker-Tolles (Sentinel Photo)

Citing state Department of Labor statistics, Walker-Tolles said that from 2015 to 2030, the number of Sitkans over age 60 will increase by 31 percent, a phenomenon she dubbed the “Silver Tsunami.”

“It’s already started to come, but it’s going to crash hard, guys,” she said.

She took care to differentiate between seniors in their 60s, who are often working and active, and the more elderly. The latter group, she said, is the one that is growing the fastest in Sitka, a trend that may strain services and the economy on the local level.

“You’re seeing a dramatic increase in the number of seniors, and a decrease in the number of working people contributing to the economy to support those seniors,” she pointed out.

As the number of seniors increases, so will the percentage of the population providing care; by 2035, Walker-Tolles said, 29.7 percent of the population in Sitka will be caring for a senior, which is twice as many caregivers as there were in 2015.

How should Sitka respond to the “Silver Tsunami?”

“It’s really up to you guys,” Walker-Tolles said.

She said meeting the challenge would require “energy,” “effort,” and “thoughtfulness” from everyone in Sitka, especially in this “economic climate.”

Walker-Tolles noted that Brave Heart Volunteers, Home Health, and the Pioneers Home provide essential services, but there are still gaps in the community’s continuum of care, she said.

She encouraged her audience to ask seniors directly what they want, and to help dispel myths about resources they plan to rely on. The Pioneers Home, for example, has fewer than 70 beds, down from its previous total of 122, and all of them are taken; it would be imprudent to take that resource as a given, she said.

So, too, there may be a shortage in staffers for other senior services moving forward, Walker-Tolles said. She wondered how Sitkans might convince qualified caregivers to remain in or relocate to Sitka, with its high cost of living.

“Can that person afford to be a personal care assistant and live in Sitka?” she asked.

Catholic Community Service can play a part in Sitka’s strategy to meet the challenge posed by the increasing percentage of elderly in the Sitka population, she said.

The Juneau-based, faith-based nonprofit aims to strengthen and support “the most vulnerable families and individuals in Southeast Alaska with dignity, care, and compassion,” Walker-Tolles said. It serves more than 4,000 people each year through programs ranging from children and family services to hospice care.

Like other Alaskan nonprofits, which are a major part of the state’s social service infrastructure, CCS fills in the gap of services that are often provided by county governments in the lower 48, she said.

“Down south, communities have their own social service programs. You go to the County of Los Angeles, and they’ve got their own social services division,” she explained. “In Alaska, we don’t have that kind of infrastructure, and nonprofits have really risen up to partner with communities and try to fill that void.”

Catholic Community Service’s S.A.F.E. Child Advocacy Center in Juneau, for example, offers a “safe space” where children who may be the victims of abuse or neglect can be interviewed about their family situation. The center witnessed a 59 percent increase in referrals last year, Walker-Tolles said.

“We don’t really know why,” she said. “We suspect it might be related to the opioid crisis.”

While the child advocacy center, like the headquarters, is located in Juneau, CCS considers itself to be a regional nonprofit. Half of the child advocacy center cases come from Southeast communities other than Juneau, Tolles-Walker said.

“Sitka’s important,” she said. “All of Southeast is important to us.”

In Sitka, CCS runs the Swan Lake Senior Center, as well as the Care-A-Van, for example, by partnering with the City and Borough of Sitka, the state, Sitka Tribe of Alaska, and the Center for Community. The organization’s services in Sitka fill what Tolles-Walker believes to be the most pressing needs for seniors – “nutrition and access to healthcare and socialization” – and provide support to caregivers, too.

Last year, the nonprofit supplied 5,115 communal meals for seniors and 7,333 meals to home-bound seniors, a fact Walker-Tolles said indicates that Sitka’s senior population is on the older side. 

“What we see in Sitka is that you have old seniors,” she said. “There’s a larger proportion of older seniors. Frail. Homebound.”

As helpful as CCS’ services might be, Walker-Tolles cautioned Sitkans against relying on nonprofits. She said there was a “funding gap” requiring many Alaskan nonprofits to scale back their operations.

“We use a combination of grants, contracts, fee for service – that’s Medicaid, Medicare, private insurance, and, of course, donations,” she said. “Like most nonprofits, and honestly a lot of municipalities, too, we’re seeing that the cost of doing business goes up, regulation and administrative requirements go up, and funding stays flat or goes down. We’re seeing a gap.... There’s no more fat to trim off the bone. It’s all just services, and I know a lot of us are looking at cutting services.”

She urged Sitkans to keep this funding uncertainty in mind as they develop methods to cope with shifting demographics.

“Nonprofits are in trouble now,” she said. “What’s that going to look like in ten years?”

During the question and answer portion of the luncheon, Walker-Tolles said that the “Silver Tsunami” trend is common across the United States. Alaska is the most quickly aging state, however, and Southeast Alaska is the most quickly aging part of it.

Assembly member Richard Wein spoke up in response to Walker-Tolles’ repeated rhetorical inquiries about who would be responsible for Sitka’s aging population.

“I grew up in a three-generation household,” he said. “When you think about who is responsible, you’re dealing with a true societal question on, actually, the disintegration of family structure... I think that’s, in essence, where the problem lies, and I think that is a great shame.”

He said, too, that “baby boomers” have significant financial resources they might use to pay for their own needs as they age.

“There is a great deal of money out there, and what I find unusual is that here in Sitka, if you listen to talk at the Assembly, it’s as though it’s almost like a panic,” he said. “You know, like, ‘The Russians are coming!’ ‘The seniors are coming!’... I promise you, if everything works out, I will die before I require these services....  My advice to the seniors is spend it.”