How communities on the Oregon Coast can help support healthy aging

By 2050, roughly one in four Oregonians will be age 65 or older. In rural Lincoln County, older adults already make up about a third of the population, representing one of the fastest-aging communities in the state.

“Think Out Loud” recently traveled to Newport to talk about healthy aging — the social connections and habits that can help people thrive as they get older, as well as the programs and policies communities should consider as their populations age.

Jan Molnar Fitzgerald is the executive director of North End Senior Solutions, which includes an adult day service. Helen Beaman is the older adult behavioral health specialist for Lincoln and Tillamook counties. Randi Moore is the director of Senior, Disability, and Community Services Programs for the Oregon Cascades West Council of Governments. And Debby Rhein volunteers for some of the council’s programs, including as a Senior Companion and Foster Grandparent.

They joined us in front of a live audience at the Newport 60+ Activity Center to talk about the civic and social infrastructure that can lead to healthy aging on the Oregon Coast.

Note: The following transcript was transcribed digitally and validated for accuracy, readability and formatting by an OPB volunteer.

Dave Miller: This is Think Out Loud on OPB. I’m Dave Miller, coming to you from the 60+ Activity Center in Newport. By 2050, roughly one in four Oregonians will be 65 or older. In Lincoln County, where we are today, older adults already make up about a third of the population and represent one of the fastest aging communities in the state.

We’ve come here to talk about healthy aging, the social connections and habits that can help people thrive as they get older, and the policies or programs that communities should consider as their populations age. We start today with Jan Molnar Fitzgerald and Helen Beaman. Jan is the executive director of North End Senior Solutions. Helen is the older adult behavioral health specialist for Lincoln and Tillamook counties. It’s great to have both of you on the show.

Jan Molnar Fitzgerald: Thank you.

Miller: Jan, when did you become a caregiver?

Molnar Fitzgerald: Ah, I became a caregiver when my husband had a stroke in 2005.

Miller: How much experience did you have at that point with helping somebody who had specific needs?

Molnar Fitzgerald: I was a carpenter and I’ve never had children, so I did not know how to change diapers even, so none.

Miller: What was your starting point?

Molnar Fitzgerald: But I knew, by prognosis, he was able to walk and stuff, but I knew that it was just gonna get worse. So I immediately signed up for a CNA class so I could learn whatever I could, and worked at a nursing home for a year before he really needed me constantly.

Miller: You switched your career. You became a certified nursing assistant?

Molnar Fitzgerald: And we tell all caregivers that it’s a sudden change, a sudden change in careers. So at 56, I got my CNA license. My husband was older than me.

Miller: Wow.

Molnar Fitzgerald: So that gave me a little bit of basis to lead others.

Miller: Why did you do that as opposed to seeing if you could find someone to hire to help out?

Molnar Fitzgerald: I never gave that a thought. I mean, I would learn that you can’t always do it alone, but I was determined to keep him at home as long as we could. And I just knew, just like I said, that I had no experience in caring for people, so I needed to get some. That was my attitude. And then actually I worked, after that it became difficult to leave him alone and then I worked as the in-home care commission. I’d get jobs where they let me bring my husband. But that didn’t change much, because then he would sit with them and watch TV all day and doze off, so that didn’t work either.

Miller: What followed from there?

Molnar Fitzgerald: We decided to start the nonprofit so he’d have a place to go and be active.

Miller: But that was also a way to help other people. I mean, the nonprofit, it wasn’t just a place for your husband. This became a place where other people could go.

Molnar Fitzgerald: Yeah, we recognized, particularly in our community, there weren’t many places to go where he would enjoy it. People weren’t always kind to people with dementia or disabilities, so we were to discover that. So we wanted a place where people would come and enjoy themselves.

Miller: Jan, I wanna hear more about your story. But as I noted, Helen Beaman is here as well, older adult behavioral health specialist for Lincoln and Tillamook counties. What does that job entail?

Helen Beaman: How much time do you have?

Miller: Well, give us a medium version.

Beaman: So I’m one of 24 specialists representing every community in the state and we’re celebrating our 10 year anniversary for our initiative. We have a couple primary buckets of work and how we look at our kind of focus. One is community education. We’re calling that “community wellness.” And that’s when I bring information education directly to the populations that we serve in hopes of empowering through knowledge and information, helping people feel more equipped to advocate for themselves.

We also do workforce development, so we’re not only trying to drive and increase our workforce, encourage, sometimes rather aggressively, people to get into this meaningful work, [but] also make sure that those who are already serving these populations are well trained and understand how to deliver not only trauma informed care but very time appropriate care. We don’t want them overdoing or underdoing. So we want them to have all the tools and information that they need to stay in the work, not get burned out or feel like they’re not well equipped, but to also provide just an excellent level of care.

We also do a lot of collaboration and coordination. So I think of it as being a golden thread in the communities, trying to get relationships built with all of our community partners, the populations themselves. And then [we] try to work to get all of those people working together and talking together, making sure that our community partners and agencies know what the other one does and doesn’t do.

Sometimes it’s as simple as them understanding policies and procedures. And those things, if they’re not familiar, people get referred to something, they are told what to expect and sometimes it’s not accurate. Then people don’t get what they need and they get even more burnout or frustrated when they think they’re going to get something and they have to go out and seek it out. Then their needs aren’t met. So we want to improve that and get everyone just more connected, try to break down the silos within health care. That’s a huge issue. So those are kind of our main buckets of work.

We’re advocates. We try to represent those populations that we serve – older adults and also adults with physical disabilities – wherever we are, whatever table we’re sitting at, if we can’t get someone from those populations there to represent the populations themselves, which would be most ideal.

Miller: Looking at your bio, it seems like you’ve worked in a variety of settings and for a variety of populations, including in primary care, including in corrections. But you’ve come back to serving older adults. Why?

Beaman: I just kind of go where my interests take me. My father was actually a family medicine doc growing up, so that’s where I got my start. And I liked the idea of family medicine. Now, family medicine is very different than what it used to be. We have everything kind of broken out into specialties, pediatrics go somewhere else. What I found in working with primary care groups is that it was a lot of older adults that I was working with. The other thing that happened was, as a behavioral health provider integrated into primary care, I expected that I would see the entire lifespan. And I can see the entire lifespan.

I noticed a broader interest from older adults, which I didn’t expect for a lot of different reasons, that they would want the services that I provide. But I also noticed that insurance was a huge barrier. So even if someone had a therapist in private practice that they knew of or a friend told them would be great, a lot of times if they’re coming with Medicare – which things have improved since I got my start in primary care – they could only see me because I worked for a CCO. So I could accept pretty much every type of health insurance out there.

So I started to notice this practice composed primarily of older adults. And I don’t know if you felt moved when you listened to Jan’s story, but that’s the experience, there’s the population with lived experience … I always felt like I was so honored to be invited into their space and to offer them whatever it is that could be helpful. You feel like you don’t have anything to offer compared to the wisdom that comes through the door. But it’s just really enriching work that gives a lot back, and you don’t find that in every space in human and social services these days.

Miller: Did I understand you correctly that you’d been wondering, as somebody who offers behavioral health care services, if older patients would seek out your services? Why did you think they might not do that?

Beaman: So I would even split the hair. There is like “seek out,” and then even if their primary care provider is like, “hey, you should talk to this person” or be a willing participant, there’s so much stigma still around mental health and behavioral health. And we started talking about mental health using behavioral health because that is even a little bit less stigmatized ...

Miller: And did you see that stigma generationally? I mean, I guess I do feel like, say, Gen Z on down seems, as a generation, very comfortable talking about trauma, talking about mental health, talking about accessing mental health care. Is it different in your experience for people over the age of 50, 60 or 70?

Beaman: Absolutely. I think it’s interesting because I work with younger populations too in other things that I do. And for them, they would think it’s super bizarre and unhealthy if you didn’t have a therapist. It’s kind of the opposite. It’s like some people, I just say, hey, if you want to share with your friend that you see a therapist, if you want to encourage and make that feel more accessible to someone.

Older populations have a really unique historical experience of mental health services. What that means, I think all of these cliches come to mind, like the “loony bin,” the “funny farm.” And it was not very long ago that we had really barbaric treatment options for people. We really had a lot of misunderstandings. I’ll just be generous and say it was misunderstandings. We didn’t know as much, so we weren’t doing very well.

But that trauma, I think, and all of those beliefs around what it meant if you experienced difficulty, like even the way that I label some of my community wellness talks. I learned right off the bat when I started this position for a different region in 2016 … They kept saying, “Hey, don’t call it ‘depression’ in the title. People won’t come. Call it ‘blues.’” So I would say, OK, “dodging the holiday blues” or “dodging the springtime blues,” because those words were not as heavy. They didn’t carry so much impactful context with it. So there’s a huge, huge historical kind of piece there that creates a big barrier for people that I do see improving. But it takes people championing that and saying, like, “Hey, I went to therapy. They didn’t even make me cry. They talked about real life skills. They honored my experiences and my skills. And it was helpful.” Word of mouth.

Miller: North End Senior Solutions includes an adult day service in Gleneden Beach. Jan, what happens at that adult day service?

Molnar Fitzgerald: Well, going along with what Helen said, our generation, our older generations are taught to just suck up your feelings. So everyone comes in our door, they’re definitely not gonna talk about their feelings or dementia. They’ll say the “D word.” So that’s the first thing we work on. We say to everybody, there has to be something wrong with you to come here. So make them comfortable and let people talk about it.

So, what was your question?

Miller: What services do you offer there?

Molnar Fitzgerald: OK, so in that line, at the day service, we offer people to engage socially and do things: play games, exercise, keep mobile. We like to say we’re not gonna cure anyone. If they got some disease, we’re not gonna cure you, that’s not what you’re here for, but we want you to die standing up. So we keep people moving. And the other programs, back to the caregiver side, the family caregiver – we have a family caregiver support group so that people can come and talk about what it’s like to take care of their loved one, their family member.

And then we have classes also. One of our favorite classes is The Savvy Caregiver. That’s actually a course where you learn how to take care of someone with dementia. And I’ll add to that. One of the first courses we taught, there was a man in the class. He kept saying, “that’s my wife you’re talking about” in the class. It’s a six week course. Every time he left, we’d say he’s not coming back because he couldn’t take our instruction. But he did. He took the six-week course. At the end, he said, “This isn’t a course just for people with dementia. It’s for everyone. You’ve changed my life. I treat everyone differently.”

Miller: What did he mean when he would say “that’s my wife you’re talking about?”

Molnar Fitzgerald: Because we were telling him how to engage with his wife. One thing is people get overprotective. They treat you funny when you’re old and they won’t let you do things. So we encourage them to continue to let her work in the kitchen. That’s what she’s done all her life. People are scared. They think she’s gonna leave the stove on or something, so work around it. He’d already made up his mind that she has to stay in this one place and he’ll do everything.

So, does that answer your question?

Miller: Yeah.

Molnar Fitzgerald: That’s part of the problem. My husband would go out and people would talk down to him. That’s the word we use. Our first rule of engagement is don’t talk down to people. We have a volunteer that just turned, last Saturday, 55 years old. And she was born with Down Syndrome. Her biggest complaint is that people treat her like a child. So that happens as you get older, a little pat on the head.

Miller: I mean, is it fair to say that that’s not simply something that can happen when somebody develops dementia or has developmental disability, but it can be a part of simply getting old?

Molnar Fitzgerald: It can be.

Miller: In terms of the way society, our American society treats people?

Molnar Fitzgerald: Yeah, exactly. I mean, everywhere my husband and I would go, he would get to a point where he’d pause and not want to go in a place because they talked down. We’d start thinking they’re children again. Honest … OK, when we first started, my husband was a plumber. He was a supervisor, way up the ranks in the union. And one of the volunteers – you can tell my passion comes out – brought him a box of Tinketoys to play with.

They think just because you’re old, you’re reverting back to being a 5-year-old or something.

Miller: From their perspective, maybe it was a well-meaning gift. This is something to keep him physically engaged, keep him sort of manually dexterous. But how did it hit him? He was insulted?

Molnar Fitzgerald: Well, he didn’t say anything. He’s a really wonderful man. He wouldn’t say anything, but he never touched them. And we started out at another day service up in Tillamook, in Beaver. The Adventist Church is, it’s kind of a church hospital, religious. So the day service they had there was really grateful to try. Mostly, the volunteers were probably Sunday school teachers. So they brought in Sunday school things to color and stuff. And my husband, he liked being with people, so once again he didn’t say anything. But he’d get in the car and tossed the colored thing that he had to make that was for a 5-year-old in the back seat. So that’s why we started a nonprofit. We wanted a place where we treat everyone with respect.

Miller: Helen, how does ageism show up in our society, based on what you’ve seen in your work?

Beaman: There’s nowhere it doesn’t show up if you’re looking closely. So Jan highlights, with real life experience, some of the more overt problems. But I usually just try to start with people, like, “think about your words.” And if you’re using words that you have never actually looked up, where did this word come from? What is it derived from? What is the historical context around the language? Think about this word, what does it bring to mind for you?

The word “elderly” is kind of one of my first targets. And I say you can ask a group of people, it doesn’t matter their ages, what comes to mind when you think of elderly? I’ll pitch that to you. What comes to mind?

Miller: To be honest, the first word that popped in … I was afraid you’d ask me.

Beaman: Don’t be nervous.

Miller: But it was doddering. That was the first word that came to mind.

Beaman: Daughtering. OK, so it brings up this relationship kind of behaviors?

Miller: Oh, no, not daughter.

Beaman: Oh, oh! Doddering.

Miller: No, like D O D D, however else they spell the rest of it. Sort of frail and trembly ...

Beaman: The F word, that’s what I was trying to get out of you.

Miller: Yeah. So sadly, I have proven you right.

Beaman: You just had fancier words. So we got to frail and frailty. No one wants to feel or identify as frail, even if that may truly be the case for you, right? We want to keep moving and keep experiencing our lives to the fullest that we can. And I think when we start using words like that at other people and we start telling them that they’re not able, that they are basically reverting back to being babies, you’re really taking a lot from them. You’re also making it a lot easier, I think, to devalue that person and the unique experiences and wisdom that they bring into our society if we choose to reembrace that. I think it’s something that’s been lost, just from my lived experience. What I see is just appalling. I’m like, you’re not holding a door for this person. I don’t care what their age is or what their ability is. So I think just starting with language, look at your language. If you can change the word “elderly,” an easy swap is “elder.” That word brings to mind what for you?

Miller: Wisdom.

Beaman: Wisdom, respect, honor – all of these things that make up a person who has been on this earth for a really long time. They know things. They’ve been through things, especially our older generations. There’s a grittiness there that no word can really capture.

Miller: Jan, how do you respond to these language suggestions that we’re hearing from Helen?

Molnar Fitzgerald: Oh, well, I try to correct them. I say we don’t say that or say it this way. I’ll say it out loud. “Let them do it.” Let them do it is a big one, because everybody grabs things out of their hands like they can’t carry their dish to the kitchen. Allow them to do that. A good example is, as my husband was declining, I had to learn all this. I’m still learning. As my husband was declining, it got slower and slower.

We were going to the doctors that morning and I was hurrying to get him to the car. He was in the passenger seat and I was putting the seat belt on him. And it kept coming out of the slot and I’m thinking I did it again. It came out again. I did it again. It came out again. And I’m thinking there must be some coin in there or something until I finally heard him telling me, “I can do it”. Click. “I can do it.” He was teaching me.

Miller: He was undoing it.

Molnar Fitzgerald: He was undoing it. He was teaching me, “I can do it.” So I say that to everyone: “let them do it.” If they need help they’ll ask you. Or you can say, “do you need help?”

Miller: Helen, you’d mentioned that among your roles and the many aspects of your job is workforce development. What is the current workforce like, in terms of the wide variety of services that ideally would be available for a growing population of elders?

Beaman: You said the word “ideally” and that threw me. The term skeleton crew comes to mind in places …

Miller: That’s where we are right now?

Beaman: That’s where we are, in my opinion. And I have to admit I might not be objective because what is ideal in my mind, not only delivering direct service in different parts of my career but also being on the outside now looking at gaps and these unmet needs … There are some organizations that are just running on fumes, constantly.

The people who are actually there doing these roles, everyone’s trying their best. But we’re not having enough people go into these roles or the fields to keep up with or even catch up with, right? It’s not even keep up with. We never caught up. We didn’t get ahead of this in time. I don’t know at what point we should have started this process, but we didn’t really plan ahead enough. So I tell people – I’m shameless – you should be a social worker if you need to know how to do it, or [if] you want me to fill out your application to graduate school, I will. Kind of joking, kind of not, because we have to keep funneling people into the workforce.

The other component of that that I understood after years of doing this work is that we’re seeing people having fewer children. Our systems really heavily relied on those natural supports: adult children, family members, other people who were aging around us, but who were younger and could help.

Miller: People like Jan.

Beaman: People like Jan, exactly. So that kind of natural support, natural workforce, you see that dwindling. They’re still out there and they’re like Jan. They work hard and they do everything that they can to help as many people as possible. But we really need to be building that workforce out as rapidly as possible.

Miller: One of the issues that we’ve talked about as part of this Think Out Loud reporting trip is housing affordability, the lack of affordable housing, which is an issue obviously all around Oregon, but it seems particularly acute on the coast. How does that play into workforce issues?

Beaman: It’s a huge issue. And so I have lived out on the coast for five years and some change now. I got really fortunate with being able to find a home I could afford. So I could come out here and work at the CCO here. And so a lot of times, we have some of our homes, a large portion of our homes that are owned by people who don’t live here – they’re vacation homes, they’re rentals, short-term rentals. So there’s some work around that being done, but I don’t know if it’s a completely solvable issue. It’s one of the biggest barriers.

There are not enough homes, so you see people driving [from] what we just refer to as the Valley. It could mean Eugene, Salem, Corvallis, kind of the bulk of [where] you see the workforce heading out every morning and heading home. But there aren’t enough homes or apartments, and then you look at coastal living. We live in tourist land all the time, even our groceries. I don’t get sticker shock when we travel to fancy places. Like, oh, they only want $8 for this gallon of milk.

Miller: Oh, because you pay vacation prices every day.

Beaman: Everything that we access here. So if you’re thinking about an older adult or someone who wants to come out and maybe start their career, and they have student loans, and they’re not making it [to] the top of their pay grade yet, there’s no space for them.

Miller: Jan, before we say goodbye and take a break, I’m curious how the work you’ve done, first taking care of your husband, and now expanding that and helping many other people, has changed your conception of what a good life is as you get older.

Molnar Fitzgerald: Maintain purpose, number one. Everyone has that purpose, so we say it before we walk in the door: What’s your purpose?

Miller: And do you talk to people who don’t have an answer to that question?

Molnar Fitzgerald: Yes, and they get to think about it because life changes.

Miller: But why is that important? I mean, what happens if you don’t have purpose?

Molnar Fitzgerald: What would you do? Like people still ask me, “why are you still working?”

Miller: How old are you?

Molnar Fitzgerald: Why do you ask? [Laughs]

Miller: I’m asking because …

Molnar Fitzgerald: What happened to the rule of don’t ask women their age? [Laughs]

Miller: Oh, I don’t … I mean, I can’t tell if that’s a good rule or a bad one. I guess the reason I ask is, to answer your first question, I know that it’s socially rude, but I also feel like there’s both a sexism and an ageism built into the idea that it’s rude. But the reason I ask is because, for a lot of people, there’s a desire to relax a little bit, to stop doing stressful things, to push your feet up or do things that are not work-related as you reach some age after you’ve worked a lot.

So that’s why I asked, but you said people ask you why you worked, so I was curious if the reason they’re asking is because they would assume that at whatever age you are now, you deserve to not have to work.

Molnar Fitzgerald: Yeah, so that’s part of it. But once again, I’m a person of purpose. That’s why I teach it. But to answer that, why I hesitate to give my age, is because when I do they don’t believe me. They think I’m older than that. They think I’m lying. [Laughs]

Miller: But your purpose, what is your purpose then?

Molnar Fitzgerald: I have no doubt how to follow my purpose. To help others do their purpose.

Miller: Helen, I’ve learned, I will not ask how old you are.

Beaman: I’m 42 and proud. Just don’t tell me I look good for my age because that’s super ageist and sexist.

Miller: So I won’t say that. But how has doing your job affected the way you think about, say, being twice your age, in your 80s or older?

Beaman: I am caught in a dichotomy of being really excited and really hoping that I’m lucky enough to have a really long life, and I’m also scared. So I see the realities and obviously that gives me purpose, right? Keep working. Keep working to make things better so that we all can have that long life and that aging experience that I think all of us really do deserve. So contributing in that way to make my own journey better and those who I love better.

But I used to be a person who would kind of get grumpy around my birthday. And I’d be like, “I don’t like birthdays.” And then at some point it occurred to me, what’s the opposite of having birthdays? That would be that I’m dead. So then I was like, I don’t know if this is me becoming an optimist, but I think I like birthdays and I’m excited because I do have purpose.

I’ve learned, in working with the older adult population, hang on to your vitality. Never stop questioning, what are my values, what I want to do. Don’t let things hold you back. Don’t be afraid to fail – that’s one of the biggest journeys. So I hope that I get decades and decades more. I hope that I can live long enough to grow into this name that I have because it’s an antique. And everyone always assumes I get lots of deals in the mail from AARP and good deals on cremation services. [Laughter] So I embrace some of the ageism that comes my way from my beautiful vintage name.

Miller: Helen and Jan, thanks very much.

Molnar Fitzgerald: Thank you.

Beaman: Thank you.

Miller: Jan Molnar Fitzgerald is the executive director of North End Senior Solutions, which includes the Adult Day Service Club in Gleneden Beach. Helen Beaman is the older adult behavioral health specialist for Lincoln and Tillamook counties.

I’m joined now by Randi Moore and Debby Rhein. Randi is the director of Senior, Disability, and Community Services Programs for the Oregon Cascades West Council of Governments. Debby is a volunteer for some of that council’s programs. It’s great to have both of you on the show.

Randi Moore: Thank you for having us.

Miller: Debby, first – my understanding is that I mentioned that you take part in a couple different programs that are under the auspices of Randi’s counsel. Can you tell us what it means to be a senior companion?

Debby Rhein: Yes, a senior companion is someone who is essentially a companion to someone who needs help shopping, going to the doctors, wanna play cards, go see a movie, go to a restaurant, haven’t been out for a while, take a drive, go to the beach. It’s whatever helps that person engage in life in a way that they’re used to when they may not have transportation to do these things that they love to do, and still would like to do, but don’t have the opportunity.

Miller: How did you decide to become a part of this program?

Rhein: I found out about the program from my sister who’s been a foster grandparent in Montana for about 15 years. When I retired she said, “You should check that out.” So I did. I checked out the foster grandparent program, but I also became very interested in the senior companion program. It’s something that I’ve always done. I’ve always had an elder in my life that needed help shopping, can’t drive anymore, that sort of thing. So being able to do it instead of a 9 to 5 job. I enjoy doing something every day for something, for somebody that I know and have come to love, and also working with children in the foster grandparent volunteer program in the school. Not having children, that’s been a learning experience as well.

Miller: I wanna hear about that because that seems like the other end of the age spectrum. It’s fascinating, I imagine, to do both of those at the same time. But where do you start? Am I right that some of the people that you help out, that you support as a senior companion, some of them you already know, but some of them have been strangers?

Rhein: Yes.

Miller: So for the strangers, how do you start that relationship?

Rhein: Well, I was raised in the military, with a military family. And my mother was very precise in making sure that all of her children knew how to behave, how to be kind and how to help. My ability to talk to people probably is an outreach of that. I’m respectful, I enjoy them. And I tell them the truth about things.

Miller: What do you mean by that?

Rhein: “Yeah, your memory is going, but that’s OK. I don’t mind if you don’t remember things. I’m happy to remind you.”

Miller: As opposed to saying, “no, you’re fine.”

Rhein: Saying, “no, you’re fine,” or “how many times do I have to listen to this story?”

Miller: Is that something that you think people are hearing?

Rhein: I think that people who have loved ones with dementia and loved ones with memory issues, the comfort level of the person that has a memory issue, they’re excited to tell you something that they’re remembering. And it may be the 47th time you’ve heard it. Being able to just listen, accept and enjoy that this person has a memory that has stuck with them for so long, it’s important to them.

Miller: Yeah. Randi, what does the Oregon Cascades West Council of Governments do?

Moore: Oh, like Helen Beaman, your guest in the first half said, how long do you have?

Miller: In this case, a minute.

Moore: In a minute.

Miller: Because there’s so much I want to ask you about.

Moore: The Council of Governments is a voluntary association of member governments. We help our member governments in our community and individuals connect with resources and supports. We have departments in community and economic development, so we can help small businesses. We have a loans program, we have transportation programs, and we have programs that help older adults and people with disabilities.

Miller: I’m curious, in the big picture, it seems like your job gives you a really high level view of the gaps in the services. So what are the glaring gaps right now?

Moore: Well, I would say that the gaps can depend on the area or the region that we’re serving. We serve Linn, Benton and Lincoln counties. The gaps that face someone in Corvallis, potentially is very different than the gaps that face someone who’s aging in Otis, for example, which is a very small north county, coastal county community. But I do think that there are some standards that people are facing right now.

Ageism, as our first group was talking about, is definitely a societal norm in the United States and something that we all see our older adults facing, But I would say the biggest things that I’m seeing as far as issues right now are an integration of aging and mental health services – which we’ve talked a little bit about – transportation, accessible and affordable housing, and definitely workforce is an issue right now. I also have to tap on emergency preparedness to support older adults, which is one of my big stressors.

Miller: I’m glad you mentioned that because we’re not that far from the coast. The Cascadia Subduction Zone and tsunami danger [is] in addition to things that people in big chunks of Oregon have to deal with, including wildfires, ice storms or days of potentially deadly heat. But the tsunami is not something that most of Oregon has on their doorstep. It is here.

Broadly, how do you think about emergency preparedness when it comes to older Oregonians?

Moore: Well, unfortunately they are the most vulnerable in these situations. So when you think about a coastal community, one, because of their rural nature and their small town charm, they do have less in the form of resources to support older adults. And then you add on a crisis. Almost every year, we’re facing some level of crisis where we’re calling 500 consumers to see how they’re handling the crisis, whether it’s a wildfire or, for example, last winter we had a horrible ice storm on the coast.

You don’t think of ice storms on the coast, but we did have a horrible ice storm here in Lincoln County. When we started calling to say, “what resources can we have,” because people were running out of heating oil or their electricity was off because a tree had fallen on a power line, we really started ending up having to call neighbor to help neighbor. The emergency response systems were just so overwhelmed with the systems and they couldn’t get any place because of the ice storm as well.

So, definitely in these rural communities, I think that the emergency preparedness system is going to have to be counting on the people who live near you and supporting you.

Miller: Debby, am I right, that’s not a system, that’s just a question of whether or not individual neighborhoods, knitted together, that when you add them all up, turns into a community, a city, a town? How much do you think people are paying attention to their neighbors now?

What you were talking about before, what we were talking about, is this very established program where you get the names, addresses and phone numbers of specific people, and you can help them out. That’s different from someone knowing and caring about the person who’s across the street, who has mobility issues. How much do you think that that’s happening right now, that knowledge and that care?

Rhein: I think it’s happening. I think that it depends on who you are in regard to your neighbors. I happen to know my neighbors.

Miller: That does not surprise me.

Rhein: And, interestingly enough, our little community, little three houses where I live, are probably 14 houses on a very small block. There may be five or six houses where there are full-time people living.

Miller: Huh, the rest are …

Rhein: Vacation rentals.

Miller: Short-term vacation rentals. So even the idea of a neighborhood then, what do you even mean if most people are transient?

Rhein: I love my neighbors and we do help each other. And I think for smaller communities, as we have become in that section of town, it’s more important to know your neighbors and be able to help. And both of my neighbors are wonderful.

Miller: Randi, we were talking before with Helen about housing affordability in the context of workforce challenges. But this affects everybody. How does it affect older Oregonians in particular?

Moore: Well, as Helen mentioned, workforce is an issue. One, if you were an older adult and you have a younger family who helps care for you, the chances of them being able to find housing to stay here and be in the workforce, so they can be a natural support, is definitely an issue. I think that’s one of the issues with Lincoln County’s aging population. A lot of the younger workforce is leaving because of the lack of affordable housing, which also means younger families that support older adults are leaving. Care providers …

Miller: And isolated people potentially as well.

Moore: Definitely.

Miller: Socially isolated, I guess I mean.

Moore: Definitely. I mean, we know that the younger generation can be a little more flexible in trying to move to different locations for jobs. It just seems like that’s a culture. So older adults are moving here, younger people are moving out, the workforce is definitely suffering from it. We have only one nursing facility in Lincoln County because the other one closed several years ago. But unfortunately, that also means you have older adults who, if they do have a health crisis, have to go to the Valley for care. Because even with one nursing facility here, they also struggle with the workforce.

Miller: Are there geriatricians here? I mean, primary care physicians who focus on the specific needs of older patients?

Moore: I would say the specialization of geriatrics unfortunately is not great anywhere, definitely worse in rural communities such as the coast. My neighbors and friends here would have to tell me whether they know of any geriatric specialists in the area, but I don’t think so.

Miller: I am seeing some shaking heads of no’s from folks who are here.

Moore: Yeah, I think in the Valley, we do have some geriatric specialists in Corvallis, for example. But unfortunately, if you lack transportation to get to the Valley for medical appointments, that’s going to be a challenge.

Miller: Debby, how much of the work you do, the volunteering work now, is taking people to medical appointments in the Valley, in Salem, Corvallis or wherever?

Rhein: I’d say 40% ...

Miller: Wow.

Rhein: … of the transportation things that I do.

Miller: … is to see health care professionals of some kind east of the coast.

Rhein: Tillamook, Salem or Clackamas. Thinking I have one gal who is a Kaiser patient.

Miller: So, two hours from here.

Rhein: All of her stuff is, yeah, out of the network as it were.

Miller: Debby volunteers for the council’s Senior Companion and Foster Grandparent programs. I did promise we’d get back to that. So what does it mean to be a foster grandparent?

Rhein: Well, I volunteer in the school and help the staff, whoever it may be with. I work in the library with the librarian, that’s something that I know about. Other helpers help the teachers in their classrooms with other … I’m not even really sure what other things there are.

Miller: What’s it been like for you to volunteer with these populations at sort of two poles of ages: kids in their teens, I’m imagining, and people in their 80s or 90s?

Rhein: Well, actually it’s kindergarten through second grade.

Miller: All the way down. OK, so kindergartners to second graders. I was giving them 10 years. OK, so then the question maybe is even …

Rhein: Less vocabulary.

Miller: Yeah, but it’s even more stark then, the population difference. What’s that like?

Rhein: Well, it’s pretty interesting. Kids these days come up with all sorts of things. I get to watch them play and they’re learning social skills. And it’s fun to be able to help guide them into a space where they’re able to be socially acceptable to my standard, which is different from probably most parents these days. But yeah, they’re just so full of life. And it’s hard to get kids to settle down these days. I think that could be just an element of kids don’t go outside and play all day anymore.

They have structured play time or they have structured things that they do. Their imagination is not left to turn loose over a period of hours and hours through the day. Plus, they have the toys, the electronics, the stimulation, so I think they need more and more stimulation to be satisfied. It’s very difficult for them to just sit and observe, or sit and listen, because they’re going for that dopamine hit that tablets give you, electronic games or even TV. So for that, it’s kind of difficult.

The older people I enjoy as well. They do have the habit, probably, of spending too much time, like we all do, in front of the television.

Miller: Screens of a different kind.

Rhein: Yeah, it’s a different kind.

Miller: I wasn’t facing you when we were having the first half of conversation with Jan and Helen. But when Jan was talking about the importance of having a purpose in life, talking to you now, I’m assuming that you were nodding your head because everything you’ve been talking about is the very definition of a purpose-driven life, service to other people. Is that fair to say?

Rhein: I think it is fair to say.

Miller: And this boils down to helping people. How much do you think about your ability to ask for help yourself if you might need it in the coming years?

Rhein: That is one thing that I’m trying to … boy, balance out myself. I see my older gals who have a hard time asking for help, but I tell them, “Call me. I’m here for you. All you have to do is call and we’ll figure something out.”

Miller: Have there been times when, in retrospect, they or you wish they had called sooner?

Rhein: Oh yes. One lady with a medical issue spent probably five or six hours in distress, because she didn’t know what to do and she didn’t want to call me.

Miller: OK, but even in your answer, you quickly talked about other people.

Rhein: Oh, it’s not about me.

Miller: I know. I recognize that. I mean, because really at base here, I’m wondering how doing this work has affected the way you think about aging yourself?

Rhein: I wanna keep moving. I see that moving is probably one of the more important ones, aside from engaging the brain. I talk about this TV thing. I don’t watch TV anymore. I go to YouTube and I look at things that I can learn – Hospice nurse Julie, who talks about the dying population, or regenerative agriculture where these guys are talking about how to grow animals and food in a more natural way. There’s guys who are building boats. So I am keeping my brain engaged by watching other people learn things that I’m interested in.

Miller: Randi, what about you? How has doing this work, for almost two decades now, affected the way you think about your own future?

Moore: I think, for me, I see people like Debby and like Jan, and I have listened to their message. Their message is having purpose and staying engaged in your community is the only way to age gracefully. I have an aging parent myself and I try to pass that message on pretty regularly, that when you decide to sit down and not be involved in your community, you’re going to start struggling.

Miller: Randi Moore and Debby Rhein, thanks very much.

Rhein: Thank you.

Moore: Thank you.

Miller: Thanks as well to our guests from the first half, Helen Beaman and Jan Molnar Fitzgerald. Thanks as well to Judy Cook and the folks here at Newport 60+ Activity Center for letting us take over their activity room for an afternoon.

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