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Isolation and a lack of exercise can greatly affect the health of older Alaskans.

Group activities build connections and improve overall health.

Some Anchorage elders are finding that at the Y. I feel like when getting here, being around people talking, sharing it, just it works.

The body, the mind and the spirit.

Well learn more about programs and services aimed at helping Alaskans age in place.

Right now on Alaska INSIGHT.

Good evening.

Alaska has the fastest growing aging population per capita in the United States.

And as Alaskans age, the question of whether to stay in your home or community can become a difficult one for many to answer.

Tonight, we're going to discuss the challenges of aging in place, as well as the services and programs available for Alaskans looking to spend their golden years in their communities and lifelong homes.

But before we get to that discussion, we'll start off with some of the top stories of the week from Alaska Public Media's collaborative statewide news network.

Members of the House Majority and Minority Caucuses say they intend to introduce new legislation aimed at blocking a prospective pay raise for members of the state legislature after previous legislation was vetoed by the governor.

Without action, lawmakers would see their salaries rise by 67% to $84,000 per year starting on July 1st.

Lawmakers raised concerns about transparency in the process of the pay raises.

This concern comes after the commission, which decided the raises, saw a complete overhaul of members after two resigned and the remaining three were fired by the governor shortly after recommending raises to the executive branch but not the legislature.

A day after their appointment, the new commissioners voted to cancel a 20 day public comment period and voted to amend the salary recommendations that had already been rejected by the legislature to include the raise for lawmakers.

Yearly homicides more than doubled from 2011 to 2019 in Alaska before dropping in 2020.

The statistics are in a recent report from the State Department of Health.

The report found 532 Alaskans were killed from 2011 to 2020, most with guns.

Alaska Native people were killed at four times the rate of white Alaskans and men were the most frequent victims, accounting for two thirds of the homicides in the state.

Of female victims, nearly 40% were killed by intimate partners.

Nearly half of the homicides took place in Anchorage 2020, the first year the pandemic was an exception to the other years of the study.

While homicides spiked in the rest of the U.S. that year, they decreased by more than a third in Alaska.

The Anchorage assembly has filed a lawsuit against Mayor Dave Bronson, seeking to force the disclosure of records related to the former Health Department head Joe Dorris, who fabricated many of his qualifications after trying for months to get the administration to share its investigation into how grace was hired.

The assembly authorized the lawsuit in February.

Bronson has maintained that his administration cannot legally disclose the documents or discuss the matter because of city codes and the state constitu tions.

Right to privacy.

In its appeal to the Anchorage Superior Court, the Assembly argues the records sought aren't the kind that would be protected by the privacy clause and therefore aren't confidential.

In response to the filing, the mayor's spokesperson, Corey Ellen Young, said by email, The administration is reviewing the appeal and will follow the legal process as required.

You can find the full versions of these stories and many more on our Web site, Alaska Public dot org, or by downloading the Alaska Public Media app on your phone.

Now on to our discussion for this evening.

Aging in place.

For some, that phrase means staying in the home you've lived in your entire life.

For others, it's about staying in the community you know and love.

Regardless of how you define it.

Experts say it's important to maintain social connections.

Alaska Public Media's Elyssa Loughlin has this story.

Three times a week, almost 50 people attend water aerobics at the Anchorage YMCA for instructor Jacque Young-Tucker has been teaching this class at the Y for 30 years.

She says her class isn't just about water aerobics.

It's about community.

The Y is for yakking and we do a lot of that in the pool and in the golf area.

And so there's a place for that everywhere.

After the hourlong class, many swimmers gather in the Maureen Loopstra Lounge to catch up.

Maureen Loopstra has been a member of the Y since the first day it opened.

At 100, she still makes it a priority to come to class.

I think the fact that we've been together for so long makes us really special and we feel like a family for sure.

But I would just have to say I work with energetic B band, truly inspiring Alaskan people.

The benefits of building community aren't just anecdotal.

Research shows that groups like this are especially beneficial for older people.

Brittney Howell is director of the University of Alaska Anchorage Healthy Aging Lab.

Her research finds a correlation between regular socialization and physical health in older Alaskans.

Social relationships have been found to decrease the risk of heart disease and dementia.

And so it's really important that we think of social health as being an integral part of physical health and mental health.

Howell's research also found that as Alaskans age, they can run into accessibility issues, lack of access to public transit or safe walking trails can make it hard to get outside, which can lead to a host of other health problems.

Research suggests that it can be as as deleterious to your health.

Loneliness and isolation and depression can be as bad for your health as smoking.

Cigarets So it's definitely something that we want to try to improve as a community.

Patricia White, or Pat, has been attending classes at the YMCA for almost six years.

She says even her husband notices improvements in her mood when she attends class.

My husband would tell you that I'm more energetic when I come to the class.

You always tell me, well, go, go to.

Why do you exercise?

Because we know when I come home, the more a happier person.

After I go in, I feel better.

Class members say they hold each other accountable, too.

There's a phone list of class regulars, and if someone doesn't show up, they make sure to check in on them.

All of our motto is Move it, move it or lose it.

And it's important to get up and move.

But isolation is even scarier than that.

And so I feel like when getting here, being around people talking, sharing it just it works.

The body, the mind and the spirit.

A simple solution that makes it easier for Alaskans to stay in their communities as they age.

In Anchorage, I'm Elyssa Loughlin.

Joining me tonight to discuss programs and other supports for aging Alaskans are Teresa Holt and Jacquie Braden.

Teresa is the state director of AARP, Alaska, and Jacquie is a community development program manager at Rural Cap.

Welcome, both of you.

Thank you.

Thanks for being here having us.

So let's start with sort of an overview of how Alaskans are faring now three years after the start of the pandemic and a big spike in inflation.

Teresa, what are you hearing from older Alaskans about their current situation?

Do people feel like things are stabilizing to some degree and a bit more normal, or has the inflation spike just made more people vulnerable to housing and food insecurity?

Well, I think it has done both.

People are were thinking it was over.

The COVID is over.

We can get back to our normal life.

But now we're just seeing some of those economic repercussions with the federal funding being spent.

And so I think, you know, and inflation increasing, people are having a harder time paying for their prescription drugs and paying for food and paying for rent.

And and Jacquie your thoughts here.

What are you hearing from rural community partners about the level of need now as opposed to a few years ago.

The need is fairly consistent.

You know, we always experience a need for more programs and services for rural communities.

But Alaska was hit particularly hard by COVID, lingered for a lot longer.

And then there were, of course, the ongoing access to health care issues out there and then some of the kind of compounding that to add to rural communities are things like Typhoon Merbok which lost electricity, but also has led to some food insecurity as people lost their freezers for the winter.

So we are hoping to see, you know, continued investment in food security initiatives through the bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act.

To think about what does community resilience look like long term for all community members and especially those of vulnerable, vulnerable populations and elders?

Mm hmm.

Well, thank you for getting us started there.

Teresa, you said in an earlier interview that the biggest challenge is accessible housing for older, less housing, and such a challenge in the state.

Where do you see the biggest constraints in Alaska in this regard, or is it a fairly universal problem everywhere across the state?

Well, I think it's everywhere.

You know, Anchorage would probably have the most accessible housing.

And yet I tried to find a house for my mom that was a ranch that was completely one level.

There was either a step to get in the front door.

There was like a sunken living room.

There was no upstairs step to go up to the bedrooms, you know.

So it's very, very, very difficult.

And I think, you know, that would be a great thing for the real estate market.

And the builders to start thinking about and get together is, you know, as we build stuff, we know that seniors, if we want them to stay, they need to have an accessible place to live.

Mm hmm.

And, Teresa, do you hear requests or desires for multiplex type housing or do people sort of would they prefer to have their own place, maybe smaller bathrooms?

Well, everyone, if anybody you ask, they say, I want to stay in my own home.

Right.

But one of the things that we've worked on recently with the municipality was to get an accessory dwelling unit ordinance updated.

People know that as like a mother in law apartment or a tiny home in your backyard, those type of things.

And those can be really helpful, especially, you know, my house split entry, just like many of the homes in Anchorage.

I could build a one level small home on the back of my property or attached.

I could live there, my family could move in, I could rent that, or I could if I'm still able, I could stay in my house and rent that to somebody who's helping provide care.

So either way, you use it.

It's really helpful for seniors.

Yeah, absolutely.

Jacki Roof help assists with home modifications to help people stay in place.

Tell us about how this works.

What are some of the modifications that most commonly get made?

Yeah.

So we love our seniors modification program and it works in concert with our other programs like Weatherization, Mobile Home Repair.

It provides additional support for seniors who are below the income threshold.

And I asked our team, what do they usually do?

They say ramps are big, walk in, showers are big things.

We do railings grab bars, but they're really tailored to that seniors, individual needs.

And so our folks go out, they have that conversation and they look at improvements that can be made and what really is going to make the most difference in terms of keeping that older in their home longer term.

For both of you, it might be easy for family members to say, hey, move out of that big house and move into a smaller place.

But what do you hear from people who have lived in one place for decades about the anxiety that comes with moving?

I've been in my house for 20 some years now, like it's hard to imagine moving.

Well, I can tell you, my mom moved three years ago, so she's 90 now.

So she was 87.

She'd lived in her house for over 55 years.

And it was a huge process.

I being doing what I do, I kept saying, we need to get you move.

We need to get you to a, you know, a one floor house because she was also in a split entry.

And she, you know, she just didn't want to do it.

And when did that?

And then she had a fall and she had to go for a month to live in assisted living.

And then she was like, Oh, yeah, let's think about that.

We looked around, she found a housing complex that was owned by the folks who lived there.

She chose to live that has an elevator, has covered parking, has beautiful gardens, all of which were important to her.

But it still took us six months to go through everything that's in her house, to move, to make the arrangements, to buy the condo, all those kind of things.

So it is it is a monumental task and letting go of all those things that you've been saving, like I kept telling her, no one wants those encyclopedias.

You know, they were really important back then.

But, you know, and she said, I can give them to somebody.

I can give the library.

In the library is like now we can take those.

So I think it's a really big transition to think about and it's hard to make that first step.

Mm hmm.

Yeah, I think that's really compounded for some of our elders.

We serve in rural communities where there may not be a housing facility in their community that meets their needs or in their region or close to it.

And they are often looking at, especially for higher levels of care coming into Anchorage or the valley, where there may not be anybody who speaks the language they're most comfortable speaking.

So it can be a conversation not only about do you leave your home, but do you leave your community to receive the care that you need.

And how what's known about how that affects the health of someone when they have to leave that community support system and go somewhere, as you say, where they might not know somewhat know anyone or not have access to the foods that they like to eat or their language.

Anecdotally, I can say I've talked to elders.

It's very challenging.

There are some wonderful programs that Southcentral Foundation and at the native hospital here that really look to fill that space.

But I don't know that we've done any comprehensive, really comprehensive look at what does that mean for someone to move out of their community into Anchorage or a big city?

Yeah, how it affects their health.

I think I could shed a little light on that said, before I came to AARP, I was the long term care ombudsman.

And so we visited folks that lived either in assisted living homes or nursing homes.

And we know there has been studies that the life expectancy for folks moving out of a huge cultural shift, away from family, away from things they know, food they know does reduce life.

And so I love the the programs that hosts like potlucks bring food as as the ombudsman, we were able to connect people with visitors from their culture.

And that was super helpful for folks who were, I say, displaced into Anchorage Fairbanks, you know.

An elder I spoke with in Anchorage recently said her condo fees have doubled since the beginning of the pandemic.

Now she's burning through her life work savings at a rate that's really scaring her.

Have you heard about these types of increases from other seniors where they're facing a sudden spike related to inflation or other things?

Well, so the mission of AARP is to help people have choices as they age.

And there's really four things that we really encourage.

And this is for all ages, is one is you need to look at your financial security and don't rely only on Social Security.

You've got to do some savings.

The more money you have later in life, the more options you have.

The second is to really look at your physical and mental health and pay attention to that and work, you know, eat well, exercise, sleep good, and then have social contact, just as Brittney was saying in the earlier clip.

Sure.

Either having a few close friends and doing a mentor program where you go work with kids, volunteering at the senior center or whatever it is, have some social activities.

And then lastly, having somethin You know, people live to 80 or 90 now and so you get a whole third of your life after retirement, you know, choose a passion, find something that you always wanted to do, start a business, be a consultant.

All of those kind of things really help people to live longer and so the more you work on those things, the more choices you have.

Makes absolute sense.

Keep your mind active and learning new things will keep you operating well into the future.

Currently to access assisted living or nursing care, you have to either have some kind of expense insurance that I imagine is fairly expensive or you have to burn through all of your assets until you're essentially destitute.

And then Medicaid can take over.

But Medicaid often doesn't pay the full amount for assisted living, and families can't leave anything.

People can't leave assets to their families under this setting.

It just seems so dire and bleak.

Is there anything on the horizon legislatively to help in this regard?

I would like to say on that note, and I'm not an expert on this, but Alaska Legal Services is there are special exemptions for Alaska Native elders and those allotments.

So if you are an Alaska Native elder, contact Alaska Legal Services before you burn through all your funding or your sell your house to pay for services.

Then those Medicaid exemptions and some really phenomenal information they have about avoiding some of those for some populations.

But in terms of our aging, I think we do need to see it.

I don't know what the individual policies are, a systemic shift in how we view elders in our culture and our community as needed.

You know, needing extra support, needing extra assistance and being included in a way that I don't think they have been.

When you think about how do you build a community where you can live until 90 and feel respected and valued and incorporated and have your specific needs addressed as an individual, but also as somebody who has different abilities physically, but so much wisdom and knowledge compared to someone else.

Absolutely.

And anything legislatively that you see or want right now.

I don't know that there's a lot going on legislatively, but I think shifting the paradigm, thinking about how we're going to age differently.

So co-housing, if you have a big home for folks living together, planning communities, you know, one of the initiatives that we're working on right now is age friendly communities.

So looking at that whole community as a whole, trying to figure out what are some of the issues that we need to work on around housing, transportation, access to medical care, food security, all of those kind of things play into that.

And so the more age friendly we make our communities, which is, by the way, good for everyone if you're eight or you're 80, is better for for everyone and it keeps family members here.

Those are the things housing, access to medical care expenses and family members are the reasons people stay are able to stay in their home community.

Your I think you're both working on a project related to digital equity.

So tell us tell us about this.

What's the aim of this?

Go ahead.

Oh.

So digital equity, we keep reading in the paper.

There's all this money for broadband, for broadband, for broadband.

And on top of that is an initiative, a state level initiative that's required, but also wonderful to ensure that those benefits received by all this broadband funding, new connectivity, are meeting the needs of all Alaskans, including those who have historically not had their voices heard or not been represented.

And it elders, our seniors are on that list of people who experience a higher level of in access to computers, affordable Internet food, and who are really threatened by that digital divide as we move, you know, between poor and rich, between rural and urban, there are these big differences in access to the Internet, and it's becoming so crucial for people's lives.

So we're both working on with the state of Alaska and their assets and foundation on the state's digital equity plan.

So we're doing these listening sessions and Teresa is really focusing on engaging elders and what the Internet means to them.

And when you talk about affordability, that to me is the big piece.

When companies tout, Oh, we're bringing 5G everywhere across the state and people will have access to Internet, they may have access, but they may not be able to afford it.

Is there any plan in place to help elders especially subsidize possibly their Internet connection?

So there's the Affordable Connectivity Program, which allows people to get get service for that they can afford.

So I have a friend who's on it right now, and so she gets $70 off her bill, which if you live in an urban area and your bill is, you know, 70, 80, 100, that's affordable.

But I'll I'll take you talk about rural because it's a whole different story there.

Our expectation is that as we have increased access and increased infrastructure in rural Alaska, costs for Internet will go down.

We've heard some agreements from some of our broadband providers that they're hoping to have.

You know, Anchorage rates for Anchorage speeds across Alaska as the fiber projects go in.

And so that way, combined with affordable connectivity, that does decrease those costs for for households who qualify for that program.

And when COVID hit, we had we had this beautiful elder mentor program at Rural Cap where elders are going into schools, working with youth.

It's very wonderful.

And, you know, I was working on that program during COVID and it was like, what do you do when you have an elder who's used to going to school every day, loves working with youth, and all of a sudden they're sitting at home and with the costs or with help from the state of Alaska, we're able to to do iPads.

And with the help of GCI, we're able to give them Internet on their iPads, which is really fun.

And so ahead of access and access and affordability.

But part of digital equity is also digital literacy.

And how do you access services and how do you keep yourself safe online things like cybersecurity?

Because we know that our elders are the targets for a lot of people.

And so even just by having weekly hour long meetings where we got online and talked about our gardens or talked about what we were doing or how that connection was really valuable for elders who chose to engage in that part of the program.

So it was, I think, in, in but there were some hesitancy from some of them.

But as they got into it, we have like Ethel who made like 200 videos for her online video, Just Love it.

Amazing.

Fantastic.

So I think there is a hesitancy in adoption that can really be addressed through some targeted digital literacy programs.

That make.

Sense.

And that's one of our goals really with this project is part of AARP.

We just got a new partner called Senior Planet and they offer curriculum specifically for seniors, both how to use Internet, how to stay safe on Internet.

You know, what is streaming?

How do you do it?

What is Spotify?

You know, what is Google Maps?

How do you use it?

All of those kind of things.

They offer classes, but they also offer some in in person sites.

And so that's one of the goals for us is to get an in-person site here so we can do in-person training.

Before we run out of time.

I wanted to ask about in the nineties there was the Alaska longevity bonus Program that was aimed at helping elders stay here and kind of stabilize our population.

People became eligible at 65.

It was $250 a month for seniors who applied before 1989 1994.

It's dropped down since then.

Do you have any sense of where that benefits program is today?

Well, it really has become a benefits program for folks who are moderately low and low income, and it's based on your income now.

So it's not.

So as the budget cuts happened, everything got cut.

And we were, I think it was four years ago, able to bring back some of the for low middle income folks, bring back that benefit.

All right.

Thank you so much, both of you, for being here.

The time went by way too fast.

Alaskans like to tout the state's reputation as a place where people take care of each other.

But Alaskans are also fiercely independent, finding a balance for older Alaskans so they can live out their life, making their own decisions as long as possible, but can also access quality care, good food, enriching activities and stable housing will ensure we maintain our reputation and take good care of everyone, young and old.

That's it for this edition of Alaska Insight.

Visit our website, alaskapublic.org for breaking news and reports from our partner stations across the state.

While you're there, sign up for our Free Daily Digest so you won't miss any of Alaska's top stories of the day.

Thanks for joining us this evening.

I'm Lori Townsend.

Good night.