Survey hopes to discern issues important to seniors, disabled

I hop in my car. I drive to the supermarket. I go out for long walks.

Those are things I just do, with barely a thought. They are also my answers to some questions Snohomish County hopes people, especially older adults and those with disabilities, will answer.

“How do you get the food you eat?”

“How do you get where you need to go?”

“Are you able to get around in your neighborhood without a car?”

For me, all those things are easy. But looking over questions on a survey being conducted by the county’s Long Term Care and Aging Division, I’m forced to consider the years and decades to come.

I won’t always be 61. I won’t always have a job that supports my needs. And I may not always be as healthy and able as I am now. I rarely think about any of that.

Some decision-makers in our community are thinking about all those things.

As the massive Baby Boom generation reaches retirement age and beyond — it’s been called a “silver tsunami” — the county and agencies expect their needs to grow.

The anonymous survey, online at www.surveymonkey.com/s/SnoCoAging, will help target important issues. It will be conducted until May, said Danielle Maiden, a county human services specialist. A community survey on aging is done every four years.

Results will be published in the county’s 2016-2019 Area Plan on Aging report, to be finished later this year.

Anyone can weigh in, but especially needed are answers from people ages 65 and older, people with disabilities, and those involved in their care. The survey will be available Friday at a public forum on healthy aging scheduled for 10 a.m.-noon at the Mountlake Terrace Community Senior Center.

This year, the Millennial Generation, those born between 1981 and 1997, is on track to overtake boomers as the largest living generation, according to the Pew Research Center and Census Bureau projections. Deaths are shrinking the size of my generation, born in the 1946-1964 postwar years, but the Baby Boom will long be a demographic force.

Statistics from Senior Services of Snohomish County show that in 2000, 9.1 percent of the county’s population was older than 65. In 2020, the county’s over-65 population is projected to be 14.4 percent of the total, and by 2030 it’s expected to be 19.7 percent.

Senior Services is helping a growing number of clients, and the needs are great. The agency’s average Meals on Wheels client is 73, with a monthly income of $1,400.

“We know the population is going to hit us,” said Mike Cooper, executive director of the Mountlake Terrace Community Senior Center. “Right now, about 60 percent of our participants are over 70.”

Senior centers face a challenge of serving the elderly while creating programs that appeal to younger people, those in their 60s, many of them still working. The survey includes questions about senior center participation and what types of activities, from exercise to computer classes, would attract someone to a center.

The questionnaire asks about all sorts of issues — wellness, household size, neighborhood safety, volunteering and socializing. More than one question points to the stark reality of hunger. There is this: “During the past year, how often did you or other adults in your household cut the size of your meals or skip a meal because there wasn’t enough money for food?”

At the center in Mountlake Terrace, Cooper doesn’t see statistics. He sees faces.

“We offer two lunches a week through Senior Services, and a third lunch we do ourselves. We’re going to add a fourth day soon,” he said. “So many people come in and pay $3 for lunch, and they take half the food home with them. It’s probably their evening meal.”

Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460; jmuhlstein@heraldnet.com.

Senior survey

Snohomish County’s Long Term Care and Aging Division is asking people, especially older adults and those with disabilities, to complete a survey that will help determine needs for services. Responses will be anonymous. Take the survey online at: www.surveymonkey.com/s/SnoCoAging

To take the survey off-line, call 425-388-6433.

The Mountlake Terrace Community Senior Center will host a public forum on healthy aging from 10 a.m.-noon Friday. The survey will be available. The center is at 23000 Lakeview Drive, Mountlake Terrace.