Community-Based Learning Commons^™

Barriers To Aging And Thriving In Place In A Rural New England County, David Wihry, Lenard W. Kaye, Jennifer Crittenden

Maine Center on Aging Research and Evaluation

This project was developed in order to understand challenges to aging in place faced by a rural New England county as well as the systemic issues preventing coordination of services to support thriving in place. It utilized a needs assessment to inform the direction of health and human service providers in implementing services. The median age of respondents was 73. They all lived in their own home, and 55 percent lived along. Challenges identified through a needs assessment by hospital systems included a high poverty rate, low median income, fair to poor health, high mortality rate, high incidence of chronic …