Utah agencies gear up to serve aging baby boomers

OGDEN — Utah is gearing up to serve tomorrow’s seniors. At the 2008 Multi-Ethnic Senior Summit held in Ogden May 22, officials of the Utah Office of Ethnic Affairs and Utah’s Department of Human Services (DHS) spoke of services being provided by people who look like those being served and speaking their languages.

The summit was sponsored by the Utah Office of Ethnic Affairs and the Division of Aging and Adult Services, a branch of the state’s Department of Human Services.

Holy Cross Sisters Miriam Joanne Frankenfield and Jacinta Milan attended the summit representing Holy Cross Ministries.

"Today Utah has 300,000 people over the age of 65," said Alan Ormsby, director of the division of aging of the DHS. "In 12 years we will have more than 500,000 people over the age of 65."

The seniors in Utah are not only increasing in number, Ormsby said, they’re increasing in diversity, and the summit was the first of many dialogues that will be held with diverse communities.

Marie Christman, deputy director of the DHS, speaking on behalf of Lisa-Michele Church, executive director of the DHS, said one of the goals of DHS is to better serve the ethnic populations. She said Manuel Romero, community relations program manager will be working within each DHS agency to assist in the focus on ethnic needs and meeting those needs.

"One thing we have discovered is that different ethnic groups age differently," Christman said. "They have different customs and traditions. We will be holding more community meetings and forums to help us better shape our vision and leadership for the future."

Jesse Soriano, director of the State Office of Ethnic Affairs, said his office will not focus only on the health problems of the aging community. "Our aging populations are our communities, they are diverse. We will look at the issues of ethnic communities that are similar and those that are different. We will be working with all state agencies to assist them as they work with the ethnic communities."

Soriano said the demographics of Utah’s aging community are rapidly changing. Where most of the aging population were once white and Hispanic, today Utah’s aging population includes African-Americans, Burmese, Asians, Pacific Islanders, and people from the former Soviet Union, Iran and Iraq. They’re refugees and immigrants.

"We are not experts on aging," Soriano said. "That’s why we have asked you to this summit. You are the experts and the advocates. Our goal for today was to bring together leadership from the multi-ethnic communities for a summit – for dialogue."

Carol Hunter of AARP said her organization is also placing an emphasis on outreach to ethnic minorities.

"Our organization has 39 million members," Hunter said. "We’re seeing a growing number of people of color. But minorities also include people who have disabilities, and those who are gay, lesbian, bi-sexual, and transgendered."

As baby boomers age, said Hunter, we must be ready to address all of these issues. AARP is currently studying how baby boomers are experiencing and handling the stress of caring for both their parents and their children.

"All people from every group are not alike," Hunter said. "We need to learn cultural humility… and we cannot be patronizing."

Jesse Garcia of Ogden illustrated how he has found support in a "Circle of Friends," people from different agencies who meet regularly to address the issues of aging as they come up with their clients.

"One of the questions we all seem to have is, why are people of color not using the resources of the department of aging?"

Other participants in the summit had questions: How do you get the elderly to respond (when their needs are being addressed)? How do you begin an outreach to people of color?

Garcia recommended the personal, one-on-one touch, with an emphasis, not on what is different about the people of one community, but about that community’s uniqueness.

"The Weber Council on Aging is studying how to make access to medical care easier for those who are ethnically diverse, and we’re still asking, why people don’t access the resources we have to offer?"

Two lists were made. The first was a list of reasons ethnically diverse people might not access available resources. The second list was of possible solutions to getting the word out to diverse communities.

Ormsby spoke of service agencies developing staffs that mirror the community they serve, hiring people from ethnically diverse communities, encouraging them to use their native languages, and adequately training them to meet the needs of others.

Other participants spoke of making better use of newspapers and other publications to reach out to members of diverse populations, continuing education, cultural competency training, and making sure agency staff members are going where the people are.

Ormsby said it’s pretty clear these agencies and service providers don’t need to reinvent the wheel, "but we can tell the axle is broken. We all have to work harder and find new ways to provide aging services to our multi-ethnic communities."

Planning for tomorrow will not be easy for either the State Office of Ethnic Affairs or the Utah Department of Human Services’ Aging Services. But something positive was started May 22. They invited people to sit down and talk about the issues. Hopefully, they’ll all keep talking.