Census sees spike in seniors
Well, it's official: Pennsylvania and its residents are both getting a little grayer around the temples and a little stiffer in the joints.
The number of Pennsylvanians aged 65 older has surpassed 2 million for the first time, according to the 2012 Detailed State and County Population Estimates released this month by the U.S. Census Bureau.
Pennsylvanians aged 65 or older numbered 2,042,861.
The commonwealth's elderly population grew 4.3 percent since 2010 and accounted for 16 percent of the Pennsylvania's total population in 2012.
Butler County is slightly younger than the state average. According to 2010 U.S. Census figures, the latest available, 15.2 percent of the county's 183,862 residents are 65 or older.
Nationally, Pennsylvania ranks fourth in the percentage of persons 65 and older, behind only Florida, Maine and West Virginia.
The effects of an aging population are far-reaching, said Keith Frndak, president and CEO of elder-care provider Concordia Lutheran Ministries with 14 locations including Concordia at Cabot in Jefferson Township, Concordia at Cranberry and Concordia at the Orchard in Center Township.
“The implications for Concordia is that we try to provide services that people can age successfully and safely in place,” he said.
“Rather than build, we're focusing on keeping people in their homes,” Frndak said, adding construction of facilities is expensive and “the government sure doesn't seem to be in position to pay or provide more funds for facility-based hospitals, nursing homes or retirement facilities.”
David Fenoglietto, president and CEO of Lutheran SeniorLife, which operates senior-living communities throughout Western Pennsylvania, including ones in Zelienople, Mars and Center Township, agreed.
“While the release of the census data of Western Pennsylvania is news inasmuch as the data has been reported, it is certainly not a surprise to anyone who has been following the trends concerning the aging population in this region,” said Fenoglietto.
“Certainly anyone involved with long-term care or senior living communities and programs is aware that this is only the beginning of a trend that should continue for years, if not decades, and it is something for which we all must be prepared,” Fenoglietto said.
He said it's a major reason Lutheran SeniorLife has been focused on increasing home-care and community-based services, expanding its continuum and building capacity.
Frndak said past labor gains are responsible for the present uptick in senior citizens.
“For Pennsylvania, in the industry of aging services it's commonly known that areas with an aging population — lots of 70-, 80- and 90-year-olds — you can look back 40 years and see periods of superior employment growth,” he said.
“Look at all the steel mills, heavy industry, jobs with pensions, Pennsylvania was at the core of the industrial revolution 40 or 50 years ago. People tend to stay,” Frndak said.
Care providers have opportunities to expand to cater to a greater number of seniors, he said.
“The challenge is you can't build buildings that cost you $40 million. We are concerned that the dynamics of 40 years ago do not exist today. Butler and Pittsburgh does not have the same employment they did 40 years ago,” Frndak said.
Ann Mutmansky, director of marketing and admissions at Lutheran SeniorLife's Passavant Retirement Community in Zelienople, said, “As a company, we have been strategic planning for this for 10 years, and it's a very complex issue because at the same time you hear daily reports that Medicare is going to run out of money on such and such time and that Social Security is going to run out of money at such and such a time.”
“This dramatic increase in the 65 and older population will result in an increase in the need for residential services, as well as home and community based services for the elderly,” said Toni Hively, executive director of LIFE Programs of Lutheran SeniorLife, which offers adult day care and in-home support services to seniors.
