Could senior cooperative housing, a model gaining popularity in states with aging populations, be the solution to alleviating social isolation and population loss in Montana’s rural small towns? Read Article
It is not hard to associate aging adults with limited technological knowledge, nor is it difficult to understand that teens can jump onto a new device with ease. And anyone can understand that tech support in the form of automated chats or lengthy phone calls can lead to more stress than so… Read Article
“His mobile home was not livable,” said Missoula Aging Services (MAS) Resource Specialist Linda Howard, about a client she worked with in Seeley Lake. This was not a problem Howard or MAS had the resources to address directly, but she knew people who did. With the help of a local church, com… Read Article
In 2010, the Whitehall Senior Center, an activity and meals hub for seniors in Whitehall, was trying to unload a bus and a van it had been using to transport its patrons and residents of a nearby assisted-living home. The Montana Department of Transportation had designated the center that ar… Read Article
Last week in Graying Pains, the Missoulian’s David Erickson examined the introduction and implementation of Kaigo Hoken, or care insurance, in Japan, the world’s demographically oldest country. This week’s conclusion of that story explores how a similar policy might translate to Montana, the… Read Article
This is part 1 of a two-part story about financing elder care in aging populations. Part 2 — what new strategies could Montana explore? — will be published next week. Read Article
Last week’s Graying Pains story explored the challenges of family farm succession as Montana’s agricultural demographic ages, and a program designed to connect up-and-coming farmers in western Montana. This week’s installment explores the same issue — and a community college proposal to addr… Read Article
The 68-year-old old poultry farmer pointed out the hen houses he built decades ago, providing details of each wooden tenement’s residents. Read Article
As Montana’s aging population continues to grow (18.9% of Montanans are now 65 or older), rural residents face the same aging challenges as their urban counterparts but often with fewer resources. Read Article
SEELEY LAKE — “Don’t bring in a rocker — I don’t need those kinds of things,” Pearl Hawkins told Seeley Lake Elementary preschool teacher Sheila Devins on her first day as a foster grandparent. “I’m going to get down in the beanbags with the kids.” Read Article
On March 12, a collaboration of 16 Montana newsrooms launched the first story of a series titled Graying Pains, months in the making, exploring Montana’s status as the demographically oldest state west of the Mississippi. Read Article
It looked like a lot of senior gatherings: a chatty group of folks, mostly in their 70s and 80s, with friends and family in a church basement, dining on quiche, pastries, fresh fruit, and other goodies. There was plenty of laughter, and a strong sense of camaraderie. Read Article
Graying Pains
People have been parsing the human lifespan into a taxonomy of ages forever. Aristotle proposed three categories: youthful, prime of life, and elderly. Two thousand years later, Shakespeare’s Seven Ages of Man carved human chronology into seven slices, with the body’s final frailty circling … Read Article