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OPINION
The
Ann Arbor News
Laurel R. Champion Ed Petykiewicz Victor Schaffner
Publisher Editor Editorial Page Editor
Seniors need to know where to obtain relief
Blueprint for Aging can be useful resource
Ann Arbor News
August 2, 2005
© 2005, The Ann Arbor News. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission.
Washtenaw County has no shortage of groups and programs designed to assist its growing elderly population. But the sheer number of them and the breadth of issues they seek to address make navigating and making use of them a challenge.
Consider just one issue, nutrition. Many county seniors rely on group- and home-delivered meals. But with funding often tight or tenuous, a drop in revenue or loss of other resources could dramatically undermine the ability of workers and volunteers to get meals to those who depend on them. The Blueprint for Aging, a coalition of more than 40 public, private and nonprofit organizations and community members was formed in 2001 to help older residents through that and scores more issues, and to act as an advocate for them. Issues like employment support and housing. Like hearing, vision and dental. And like prescription drug assistance and insurance.
On nutrition alone, the group has looked at developing community awareness of the need for meal programs that sustain older adults. It also has examined mobilizing volunteers, obtaining additional financial commitments and creating additional food distribution systems.
Seniors or adults looking to get their arms around the enormity of all that’s available to the elderly in the county, or that’s out there but is being challenged or threatened, can peruse the Blueprint for Aging’s newly created Web site, www.blueprintforaging.org Not only does it provide them with information on myriad issues, but it includes ways they can get involved.
In the coming years, more Washtenaw seniors will be in need of the services the Web site highlights. According to the U.S. Census, from 1990 to 2000, the over-60 population in Washtenaw County increased three times as fast as the over-60 population statewide. A Southeast Michigan Council of Governments’ study predicts that between 2000 and 2030, people over 65 in the county will triple.
To their advantage, a greater percentage of seniors in Washtenaw County may well be able to avail themselves of Internet technology than those living in less wired or affluent areas. But others here are not. It’s therefore important that the information designed to assist them, like what’s now available at www.blueprintforaging.org, gets to them, if not on the Web, than by more conventional means.
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