Agency reaches out to help more seniors

Dave Pankey has only been with the Idaho Commission on Aging for about a year and a half, but he's seen quite the significant change to the organization's operations in that time.

Starting in July 2013, the commission restructured the way it spends federal and state money, allowing it to reach more seniors in Idaho and provide them with more services.

"Now, we are really implementing the vision and mission as it should be. And one of the things is, don't spend all your resources on a few people, but try to touch as many people as you can," Pankey said. "Because there's a lot of need."

In the 2014 fiscal year, 2,087 seniors in north central Idaho - which includes Latah, Nez Perce, Lewis, Idaho and Clearwater counties - received services from the program. That's an increase of 150 people from the previous year.

Those services range from helping seniors with laundry and taking out garbage, to respite care for caregivers, to home-delivered meals. The Idaho Commission on Aging distributes federal funding to regional agencies that make the services available. The North Central Idaho Area Agency on Aging is housed within Community Action Partnership in Lewiston.

Pankey said he's also seen a change in his own knowledge during his term, and particularly his understanding of the commission's vision to help seniors and those with disabilities live independent, meaningful and dignified lives.

"If they want to stay in their house, we have services that will help them stay in their home," Pankey said. "It's a really neat thing to be a part of."

Jenny Zorens, director of the North Central Idaho Area Agency on Aging, said the extended reach of the commission's dollar originated with new Administrator Sam Haws. Haws recognized the commission was serving the same people year after year, Zorens said, and there were sometimes long waiting lists that seniors across the state encountered in requests for services.

"We had to look for other service sources that might be able to sustain some people in the community even better, and to free up our allocation of service hours so we would have the ability to bring new people that were needing services on board," Zorens said.

One of the bigger shifts came in the assessment process. Previously, case managers would travel to seniors' homes - sometimes as far away as Riggins - to help determine what services they needed and qualified for.

Now, assessments are done by phone. The whole process moves more quickly, giving service providers more time to attend to more people. But that progress comes hand-in-hand with money challenges that may be ahead because of a growing population of aging individuals.

"The people that we're helping is a population that's growing exponentially because of the Baby Boomer era," Pankey said.

Zorens said her team may have to seek out funding outside of traditional grants to help meet its needs.

"There isn't a real increase in revenue in any social service program," she said.

For the 2014 fiscal year, the Idaho Commission on Aging had a total budget of about $11.5 million. Of that, a little more than $898,000 came to north central Idaho.

"We tend - percentage-wise - to have older, more frail people, but far fewer," Zorens said.

Pankey said one of his main goals is to raise awareness about the services available to seniors through the commission's efforts.

"There's a big difference between just handing people money and actually getting (to be) part of an organization that helps people," he said.

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Embree may be contacted at cembree@lmtribune.com or (208) 848-2278.