Clark County commission to update Aging Readiness Plan

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A volunteer commission tasked with implementing Clark County’s Aging Readiness Plan is working to make a major update to the 11-year-old document.

During a joint meeting with the Clark County Council on Feb. 15, the Clark County Commission on Aging presented the process for updating the plan.

The original plan was completed in 2012, the same year the nine-member commission on aging was established. The commission’s chief directive is to implement the plan.

The plan currently has chapters on housing, community engagement, supportive services, healthy communities and transportation. The update will include a sixth chapter to address health and safety due to the experience of the COVID-19 pandemic, commission vice-chair Franklin Johnson said.

Beginning last fall, the commission began gathering data and hosting stakeholder interviews ahead of the plan update. A number of findings were uncovered and the commission developed several recommendations for additions to the plan.

Of those findings, the commission found that although service providers in the community offered more services during the pandemic, they still experienced gaps in reaching older adults, said Cass Freedland, the commission chair.

Volunteers to serve the aging population are in high demand, Freedland said. Family, friends, neighbors and faith community members are essential to the local support network, both as connectors to services and providers themselves.

Though not specifically mentioned in the commission findings, commissioners touched on the impact faith communities have on caring for the aging population. Freedland said past discussions with faith communities who provided support to senior citizens were some of the most vibrant during conversations with stakeholders.

“Oftentimes, that’s the only connection that an aging adult will have with their community,” Freedland said.

The commission also found that caregivers aren’t sufficiently taken care of, which leads to burnout, stress and depression, commission member Mel Sanchez said. Care providers are also finding a gap in professional caregivers who specifically have geriatric expertise.

Though in past years, the commission sent its recommendations directly to the council for consideration, that changed this year. The proposed updates to the aging readiness plan this year are for the commission itself, Sanchez said. The commission will come back to the council for potential adoption of those recommendations.



Among those recommendations are ways the commission and community organizations can better support the Area Agency on Aging and Disabilities of Southwest Washington to help create a “one-stop shop” for aging resources, Sanchez said. Other recommendations include how the updated plan can better address the professional caregiver shortage and the needs of unpaid caregivers.

The commission also recommended addressing how the plan can support solutions to issues spurred by the pandemic, specifically through policy or legal changes, as well as how to find sustainable funding to replace the emergency pandemic funds, Johnson said.

The new chapter regarding health and safety will cover natural and manmade hazards as well as lessons learned from the pandemic that were not foreseen in the original plan, commission member Chuck Green said. The update will also include the addition of details to help monitor progress on implementing the plan and will contain clearer identification on which groups can help that implementation.

Other parts of the update will acknowledge changes in the 11 years since the plan was created, like the increase in accessory dwelling units and tiny homes as well as the proliferation of rideshare applications for means of transportation, Green said.

The Clark County Council was supportive of the commission’s efforts to update the plan. Councilor Sue Marshall commented specifically on the commission’s findings on caregiver support.

“The level of stress that one experiences, it’s often the case that the caregivers themselves become ill,” Marshall said.

Commissioner Larry Smith said pay for professional caregivers is an issue, which makes it a challenge to employ people in those jobs that often feature low pay.

“That starts with nurses, counselors, people that work in retirement centers. … That’s a challenge that we have in our community to get folks to be attracted to those jobs that are important for our seniors,” Smith said.

Councilor Gary Medvigy alerted the commission to the county council’s decision to offer $3 million in grants from American Rescue Plan Act funds to nonprofits and small businesses as a potential boost to organizations that support seniors.

Public workshops and meetings on the plan update began in January, according to the commission’s presentation. A draft plan update is expected to be complete in the spring, with the final adoption this summer or fall.