Jason Maciejewski (00:00):
Welcome to Inside The Senior Alliance, a podcast exploring resources and issues in the field of aging. I’m Jason Maciejewski, CEO at The Senior Alliance. We’re the Area Agency on Aging serving Western Wayne County and the Downriver area. And I’m really excited to have join me today State Representative Stephanie Young, who serves the 16th State House District. And Representative, thank you for taking the time to join us today for Inside The Senior Alliance.
Stephanie Young (00:25):
It’s my pleasure. Thank you all for the invitation.
Jason Maciejewski (00:28):
We’re really excited to have you here and you’ve been really active on older adult issues as a member of the Michigan House of Representatives. But wanted to start with what you see as the biggest challenges facing older adults on a day-to-day basis in our community.
Stephanie Young (00:42):
Well, you know, there are a number of challenges when we talk about some of the biggest ones, barriers to access as it relates to healthcare, the mental health supports, and of course home-based programs. All of these things, unfortunately, are going to see some negative impacts because of legislation coming out of the federal government. We know that we have these healthcare cuts. The Big Beautiful Bill guys, you know about the Big Beautiful Bill. I’m not the only one that knows about the Big Beautiful Bill. It includes significant federal spending cuts for healthcare programs, potentially affecting services to millions of seniors through Medicare and Medicaid. And then we all know about the increased cost of medication, drug costs. These are some of the biggest challenges that older adults are facing currently and are going to continue to face. And then lastly, when I look at our nursing home and reducing the services when we’re not investing properly, I’ll just share with you really quick because I just got off a call with some folks and we were going over nursing home transparency and we were looking at nursing homes that are in my district.
Stephanie Young (01:52):
And one does pretty good, but another one, the overall CMS rating is a one star out of five. And then the health inspection rating is two stars out of five. And they’ve had 26 complaints and 26 complaints that are resulted in all of these citations. And I’m going, how are we as family members who our loved ones are that we may need to place in some of these facilities ever supposed to find good care when these are the ratings? So when I’m looking at, and I’m thinking about some of the biggest challenges facing older adults, they’re facing the older adult themselves and they’re also facing those who care for them.
Jason Maciejewski (02:35):
So there are some significant challenges that older adults are facing. And you mentioned the nursing home aspect. We want to thank you for your support. Last fiscal year for the Long-Term Care Ombudsman program. Putting funding into that budget, which now enables us to have three full-time, Long-Term Care Ombudsman in our area, whereas before we only had one. And even those three, they cover 9,000 beds in a variety of facility settings in Western Wayne and Downriver. Now we have three people to do that work. It’s still a lot 3,000 for every ombudsman, but we really thank you for the support in putting that into the budget last year. Certainly been a big help for a lot of folks. And the impacts that are coming from Washington are going to be significant. They really haven’t fully arrived yet.
Jason Maciejewski (03:23):
It’s going to be a process for those Medicaid impacts to I think reach people over the next couple of years. But they’re certainly coming and they’re really going to have an impact on folks, one of the groups that is going to see some impact as well. From things that are going on in Washington is our veterans. You’ve been a really strong advocate for veterans. What do you see as the most pressing issues that the veteran community faces as they age? A lot of the soldiers and service members who were in Iraq and the Gulf War back in the early nineties are now older adults. And, so, you know, how can we better support them?
Stephanie Young (03:57):
Well, similar to just any senior, we’re still dealing with healthcare. And now I’m so grateful that we finally have a society that has taken into account that mental health is just as important as our overall physical health. You can’t separate our head from the rest of our body. Right. And for so many years, that seemed like it was a thing. I work closely with the National Alliance on Mental Illness and they deal with these, you know, that’s their work. And their saying is removing the stigma, we’ve got to remove the stigma and talk about it. And so when it comes to our veterans still making certain that they get the mental health supports of this term, I sit on families and veterans. Last term I was the chair of families, children, and seniors. And veterans wasn’t a component, but this term it is families and veterans.
Stephanie Young (04:53):
And we’ve had a number of different committee meetings where veterans have come and they’ve shared with us the need for better healthcare and better mental healthcare, even as you age. So those are things that are they face those unique challenges. I will also add that when we’re looking at our veterans in rural areas, that’s important too, because they aren’t able to get to the places to get the help. Sometimes transportation is a huge barrier. And so being supportive of state policies to make differences, expanding partnerships with our local VA offices and increasing awareness for available benefits and funding, it’s really important for us to fund some of the specialized programs that our senior veterans need. So those are things that are top of mind for me when we talk about our veterans that have done such good work, are caring, you know, standing up for our country and we’ve got to do the work to take care of them as they age, which I have to add this, and we can move on, but I’m grateful for the veterans who are aging because the suicide rate among younger veterans is way too high.
Stephanie Young (06:10):
And so it’s a blessing when we are even able to have a conversation about older veterans, but we’ve go to do our part to take care of them.
Jason Maciejewski (06:17):
Yeah. We certainly need to raise awareness about the programs and services that are available, not only the regular services professionals, but also those behavioral health services are really important to make sure we get the word out about those. And thank you for your work on that. I want to shift to guardianship. You’ve introduced a bill, House Bill 4697 that addresses guardianship assistance. What are your goals with this particular piece of legislation?
Stephanie Young (06:41):
So this guardianship assistance is designed to help like kinship care. So it’s about minors that we want to be able to allow adults who are caring for minor relatives who aren’t able to live with their parents anymore. It amends the guardianship assistance payments, allowing family members to receive financial support for caring for that child. And that family member can be a senior. Right now it’s like there are so many hoops that can kinship when we’re talking about kinship care that family members have to go through to take care of a niece or a nephew. And many of them will just welcome people into their homes, but they could use the additional support from the state to provide for the new winter coat, the winter boots, those types of things because they’re taking care of these young people out of the goodness of their hearts, and then they need some assistance. So that’s what this is. It is not around adult guardianship, it’s about minor guardianship, but we know that many of our seniors are those ones who need that additional financial support. And that’s really important to me when I look at this legislation.
Jason Maciejewski (07:54):
Yeah. Thank you for your work on that issue. Another issue that’s really important in our community is housing affordability. Something else that spans the age range is that access to housing in particular for older adults. What do you see happening in the community and housing?
Stephanie Young (08:10):
Yeah. Housing is tricky for everyone. Rising costs present a major challenge for many of our seniors, especially those who are like, what we call house rich, but cash poor. And so one of the challenges is to make certain that we protect our seniors, those that are in their own homes from predatory mortgage schemes where they end up losing their homes. That’s always top of mind for me. We’ve heard those horror stories before where they’re like, I just thought I was taking out a loan and, and now I’m being sent out on the streets. We’ve got to be certain that our seniors are educated and that somebody’s there looking out for them to be certain that the home that they’ve invested in all these years, they don’t lose. Additionally to that. Looking at some like senior co-housing opportunities and accessible home modifications that will allow our seniors to be able to stay in the communities that they know and that they love. We have community-based supports are also essential and local programs that provide shared housing. And let’s not ever forget our volunteers. We have volunteers who work with seniors who are aging in place. And so the state we need to continue to support those nonprofits that are doing this type of work in community. We know that seniors have better outcomes when they’re able to stay in their home that they’ve known so long. And then we want to be able to provide them that support to do just that.
Jason Maciejewski (09:39):
Another key issue for older adults is transportation and maintaining independence as we age. Transportation is a big part of that independence. There isn’t a lot of funding available to meet the door type demand that we see here at the Area Agency on Aging. Do you have any thoughts on how we should be addressing mobility needs of older adults?
Stephanie Young (09:58):
Yeah. You know, it would be easy if we had all the money in the world and we could solve so many problems. Not every problem, but we could solve some of the problems. But I’m a firm believer and we invest in those things that matter to us. And having to get creative around funding to be able to expand paratransit. In addition to that, then we have those who operate volunteer driver programs similar to like Meals on Wheels. Meals on Wheels run off of volunteers who go and deliver meals. People sign up for shifts. Some people have been Meals on Wheels volunteers for a decade, making certain that seniors who can’t get out or seniors who, you know, have limited mobility, don’t have that transportation to go to a congregate setting sometime, right, are still able to get those meals. And so finding ways to invest in some of these volunteer programs could be helpful. Additionally, we can consider policies to provide incentives to make mobility options more affordable and more widely available. We are forever in the legislature looking at tax incentives, but we at the same time, and I’m no legislator, we got to balance those incentives with being able to raise revenue in some areas. So that’s just a few things that are top of mind when I think about transportation for our seniors.
Jason Maciejewski (11:21):
Yeah. Transportation is certainly a struggle when it comes to financing the kind of rides that older adults need. So we thank you for your work on that. Overall Michigan’s population is rapidly aging in The Senior Alliances service area. About 24% of residents that live in Western Wayne and Downriver are older adults, which is age 60 and over. What do you think policymakers should be focusing on to address this societal shift in demographics that’s happening?
Stephanie Young (11:47):
Yeah. And I tell you, you know, I don’t know, I haven’t mentioned this yet during this call, but I turned 60 in January, so I’m all in it, right? This is what I’m living myself. Both my parents are already deceased because they were older when they had me. And so we are living longer, right? And because we’re living longer than we know we’re going to need more care. So we have to continue to focus on affordable and accessible healthcare. We have to continue to focus on housing supports that we’ve already talked about and transportation and the long-term care. And we got to do all of these things at the same time, recognizing that these systems are interconnected. There’s no way to, you know, remove one without the other. You need transportation. You go to have a place to stay, and you need transportation to get to and from the doctor to and from the grocery store.
Stephanie Young (12:40):
All of these things are interconnected, but the one thing that we can really try our best to hone in on is perhaps some preventive healthcare. If there’s a way to prevent folks from needing as much healthcare, then we can do that. And those conversations start before we become seniors. I believe that we have conversations about senior care even before we become seniors right? Because that will be on the preventative side around healthcare. Then potentially have a few additional dollars to pour into transportation and things like that. So equally important is inclusion of older adults in their own decision making and the policies, having strong voices, being strong advocates for self. That matters so much when you are in the legislature as a lawmaker. It’s one thing for you guys to come and advocate. There’s another thing when I go into my coffee hours and hear directly from my senior constituents, it makes such a huge difference. And so they’ve got to continue to stay engaged. We need the voices of lived experience at the table for lawmakers to make right decisions.
Jason Maciejewski (13:53):
Healthcare is a big part of aging clearly and having that preventative mindset and thinking about longevity before people reach the age of 60, like you mentioned is really important. It’s a lot of the work that we do is trying to interact with healthcare and help people age. They want to age in a person centered way and make the choice that will enable them to live life the way they want to live it in the environment that they want to be. So I appreciate your thoughts on that. I want to close with an advocacy topic for you. We are always encouraging older adults and caregivers and people living with a disability to be advocates and to reach out to their legislators in Lansing and in Washington and even in Detroit with the county commission. What advice do you have for older adults and their advocates who want to make sure that their voices are being heard? What are effective ways for people to do that?
Stephanie Young (14:47):
Well, one thing, it starts with knowing about organizations like The Senior Alliance, right? Because there are people, there are older adults that don’t even know these agencies exist. So I try my best to be certain that my constituents know about the different resources that are available to them. In Detroit you guys know about St. Pat’s Center, right? You’ve heard of St. Pat’s Center?
Jason Maciejewski (15:15):
I’ve heard of it, yes.
Stephanie Young (15:15):
Yeah. But it’s an amazing congregate place where seniors can come, older adults can come and share stories, share advice on how to resolve a different issue, share things about their kids. Staying connected with people is the biggest thing. When I think about an advocate, when you are able to talk to other people who have similar lived experiences, and then you’re able to sit and you start to brainstorm, and now you’ve come up with policy. Many times when I’m talking to a senior, they don’t even know they’re like giving me policy ideas, right? They’re just sharing stories and just talking. And so the importance of the human connection aids in advocacy because what I’m thinking is a problem somebody else is thinking is a problem and somebody else is thinking, so now I’m not afraid to speak up because I’m not alone. And then when I learn about these different agencies, now we know where to take these ideas that we’ve all been talking about over a cup of coffee or a cup of tea, and our voices are stronger. When two voices and people talk, the voices grow. And the more that are sharing a concern, then the more people are bound to listen. So those are kind of my thoughts around that.
Jason Maciejewski (16:32):
Connection, communication, and community are so important. Thanks for highlighting those. It’s an important part of advocacy. State Representative Stephanie Young, thank you for joining us today on Inside The Senior Alliance.
Stephanie Young (16:44):
Thank you all. This has been fun. Hopefully I said something that has been inspiring and that will cause older adults to know how much they matter to us here in the State of Michigan and how we are here for them.
Jason Maciejewski (16:56):
If you have questions about services or programs The Senior Alliance offers, you can call us at (734) 722-2830 or email us at info@thesenioralliance.org. Information about our agency or the programs and services we offer can be found on our website at www.thesenioralliance.org. And finally, on Facebook, we can be located by searching for The Senior Alliance. I’m Jason Maciejewski. Thank you for listening to this episode of Inside The Senior Alliance.
Speaker 3 (17:24):
Inside The Senior Alliance is a production of The Senior Alliance and Blazing Kiss Media.
