The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services unveiled its new master plan on aging last week. This ten-year plan is designed to help guide the state's priorities for seniors and adults with disabilities.
KBIA’s Rebecca Smith recently sat down with Mindy Alstead, the head of senior programs from DHSS, to discuss the new plan and what it could mean for Missourians.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Rebecca Smith: What is it about this moment in time that makes 10 years in the future planning really important when it comes to aging in this state?
Mindy Ulstad: Missouri, like the rest of the nation, is aging. By 2030 to 2034, older adults will outnumber children for the first time in our history.
So, the older adult population is our fastest growing population in the state right now, and we knew there were not enough programs and services for the individuals we're trying to serve now, and if we didn't start preparing — we were going to be in trouble.
Rebecca Smith: So, we'll get into the individual focuses —
Mindy Ulstad: Sure
Rebecca Smith: Well, we won’t into the individual priorities, there's a few too many 100 pages for that today, but I'm wondering, just from a holistic view of this, was there anything in talking to Missourians that surprised you?
Mindy Ulstad: You know, I think the thing that really caught me off guard is, I feel like we do a lot of education and outreach, but what we heard over and over and over is people don't know what's available.
So, it really was an eye opener for me, and also for some of the other departments that have been involved, in what we really need to do to educate people, you know, even before they need the services to know what's available so they can start that planning.
Rebecca Smith: Obviously, we're not going to go through all 115 pages in great detail today.
Mindy Ulstad: Yeah.
Rebecca Smith: But for somebody who's hearing this, who wants to know what the state is going to be focusing on — what are those main areas of focus.
Mindy Ulstad: Yeah, so we really, like I said, dove into those seven core areas.
And so, when thinking about them, it's important to think about, you know, what people do in their daily lives, right?
So, what we know is that people are working longer, and people are looking for opportunities of things to do to keep them occupied and connected to the community when they are ready to retire. So, we had a whole subcommittee and a recommendation set, set around daily life and employment.
Family caregivers — it's so important that we focus on their needs and supporting them. We know we do not have that workforce structure and will not, and so, supporting family caregivers— and that's at all levels, whether that is, you know, a grandparent taking care of a grandchild, which we're seeing more and more of in this state, a parent taking care of an adult with disabilities, whether it's a individual taking care of an older adult or somebody taking care of somebody at any age with Alzheimer's and related dementia — we want to make sure we're supporting all of those caregivers.
The next area was housing and aging in place. We know that people want to be at home as long as they can. They're more comfortable at home. They have a better life quality at home, so making sure that the homes that people have are either accessible already or we can get them access to make sure that they are accessible.
The next category was long term services and supports. And this really is the whole cadre of supports for keeping people in the community for as long as possible, right?
And then safety and security was the next one.
The next one was transportation and mobility.
And then the last subcommittee or topic area was whole person health, and we really pushed them to think outside of the typical physical health that people would go to their doctors for, for like a Medicare wellness visit, or, you know, a welcome to Medicare visit.
And really thinking about, you know, hearing, vision, dental, those things that aren't typically covered in insurance, right? But we know that if you're not taking care of those things, you're not truly taking care of your health.
Rebecca Smith: Well, Mindy. I really appreciate your time today.
Mindy Ulstad: Yeah.
Rebecca Smith: Thanks for sitting down with me.
Mindy Ulstad: Absolutely.
Story will be updated
