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Sedgwick Co. Commissioners Approve 2018-21 Plan For Local Agency On Aging

Lisa Edmonds, flickr Creative Commons

An agency that helps older adults navigate life transitions is adjusting to meet current and future needs in the community.

The Central Plains Area Agency on Aging serves people aged 60 years and older in Sedgwick, Butler and Harvey counties.

The agency says it’s noticing a change when it comes to nutrition programs offered in the tri-county area.

Agency executive director Annette Graham says more seniors are using a home-delivery meal program instead of going to community sites where meals are offered.

"The home delivered program serves a more senior population, a more frail and a homebound population, and we’re seeing more of that as, nationally, the fastest growing segment of the population is age 100 [and up]," Graham says.

The agency was able to shift funding within its budget to meet the needs in the community.

Wichita State University's Center for Economic Development and Business Research 2016 study says the senior population in the tri-county area is expected to increase by 27 percent in the next seven years.

Sedgwick County Commissioners on Wednesday approved the agency’s 2018-21 plan and application for a nearly $3 million grant from the Kansas Department of Aging and Disability Services.

The Central Plains Area Agency on Aging conducted a survey this spring of seniors it serves and their caregivers. The agency found most respondents identified four areas they perceived to be the greatest service needs: cost of medicine, home repair/ yard upkeep, cost of food and health/physical activity.

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Follow Deborah Shaar on Twitter @deborahshaar.

 
To contact KMUW News or to send in a news tip, reach us at news@kmuw.org.

 

Deborah joined the news team at KMUW in September 2014 as a news reporter. She spent more than a dozen years working in news at both public and commercial radio and television stations in Ohio, West Virginia and Detroit, Michigan. Before relocating to Wichita in 2013, Deborah taught news and broadcasting classes at Tarrant County College in the Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas area.