Planning Ahead to Care for A Growing Number of Older Adults

By 2030, just eight years from now, Santa Clara County projects that residents aged 65 and up will make up one-fifth of our population—outnumbering children for the first time.

Many older adults have special needs related to nutrition, medical treatment, mobility, transportation, and social interaction. Caregivers— whether a family member, a community volunteer, or hired helpers— provide life-enhancing, indeed often life-saving, support.

Finding compassionate caregivers for our aging loved ones is a concern for many of us, especially now.

The pandemic placed additional financial and health-related burdens on many of our families, and strained the already limited number of caregiving providers available for in-home support services. Programs such as senior nutrition and social activities were negatively affected by the pandemic as the County and local nonprofit organizations were forced to reduce or suspend in-person congregate meals and gatherings.

A further complication is that the current landscape of caregiving in our County is fractured and confusing. Those seeking care don’t always know where to start looking. Likewise, caregivers and the agencies that support caregiving sometimes find it difficult to make referrals for appropriate services and service providers.

As we move past the acute phases of the COVID-19 pandemic, now is the time to assess the nature and extent of the challenge of caring for our County’s older adults. That way we can identify real solutions— because the need for services can only grow as our population ages.

I’m gratified that my colleagues on the Board of Supervisors recognized the importance of this challenge, unanimously supporting my proposal to conduct a comprehensive assessment of older adult caregiving needs and capacity in our County. We’ll be looking to identify:

• Who needs caregiving and what services are needed, juxtaposed against the services currently available;
• Who is currently providing caregiving services—both formally and informally; and,
• What gaps and barriers are preventing people from accessing those services or providing them.

We’ll also be soliciting feedback from community stakeholders like Asian Americans for Community Involvement (AACI), Working Partnerships USA, the County’s Department of Aging and Adult Services, Sourcewise, and others to inform the strategies we use to address the inevitable increase in demand for caregiving services, as well as the likely shortage in providers.

As AACI president and CEO, Sarita Kohli, put it, “We need to define the problem, identify potential solutions, and then implement them to ensure the elders in our community—who have given so much to us—are cared for in the way they deserve to be.”

The County’s study will investigate local needs and opportunities, dovetailing with a larger statewide effort. The California Master Plan for Aging is an initiative launched in 2019 by Governor Gavin Newsom in pursuit of five goals: 1) housing for all ages and stages; 2) health reimagined; 3) inclusion and equity, not isolation; 4) caregiving that works; and 5) affordable aging.

Caregiving for our older adults will affect almost all of us at one point or another, either when a loved one is in need or when it’s time to receive these services ourselves. The County’s Older Adult Caregiver study is an opportunity for us to plan now and get ahead of the problem, before our system is overwhelmed.

Joe Simitian
Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors

This article was originally published in Los Gatos Living Magazine in May 2022.