UMaine center on aging to serve growing population

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ORONO – The board of trustees for the University of Maine System on Nov. 5 approved the University of Maine Center on Aging. The center will be housed in the UMaine College of Business, Public Policy and Health.

Faculty and researchers from throughout the University of Maine System, as well as community elders and members of the professional service community, will contribute to its programs.

The director of the program is Lenard Kaye, a nationally known specialist in the field of social gerontology.

Kaye had been at Pennsylvania’s Bryn Mawr College since 1986, when he came to UMaine last year as a visiting Libra Professor of Social Work.

While on campus to present lectures, conduct workshops and teach courses, Kaye was interested in statistics showing a 10 percent increase in the number of retirees living in Maine during the past decade.

According to the State Planning Office, Maine is one of the 25 states most likely to become a final residence for people 50 years and older. Currently 14.5 percent of the population is over 65 years old; by 2020 that figure is expected to exceed 20 percent.

Kaye began discussing the concept of a center on aging – a facility many universities have instituted – with colleagues in the School of Social Work. A number of professors shared his enthusiasm for the idea, including social work colleagues Gail Werrbach and Sandy Butler.

The teachers were encouraged by the support of officials from agencies serving older people, and also of university officials such as Robert Kennedy, executive vice president for academic affairs and provost; and Diana Lawson, interim dean of the College of Business, Public Policy and Health.

Kaye’s family also showed support.

“Halfway through my visiting professorship last year, my family informed me that we weren’t going back [to Pennsylvania],” Kaye said with a laugh. “This is a wonderful place to live, even if you have real, live winters here.”

He added, “Everyone has embraced us and we have a stronger support network of colleagues and friends than we’ve ever had anywhere else that we’ve lived.”

The center already is prepared to begin implementing a number of programs, including a community service demonstration project for family caregivers of the elderly, a series of lectures for health care professionals, a festival on aging and a senior college.

Kaye said he was convinced that the center’s interdisciplinary approach and commitment to building partnerships will make it an invaluable and unifying resource for the campus, the community and the state.

“We want to build strong relationships with organizations in the local community and throughout the state of Maine,” he said. “That’s the best way to serve citizens.”

The center’s first program, the Maine Primary Partners in Caregiving project, will be implemented in concert with the Eastern Agency on Aging in Bangor. Other community-based partners include the Aroostook Area Agency on Aging, Bucksport Regional Health Center, Horizons Health Services, Indian Township Tribal Health Center, Norumbega Medical, Rosscare and Senior Spectrum.

The project, which will begin providing service by January, is funded by a three-year, $600,000 grant from the U.S. Administration on Aging’s National Family Caregiver Support Program.

MPPC aims to provide information, training and support services for caregivers of older relatives in Penobscot, Hancock, Washington, Waldo and Aroostook counties.

It will focus on preventing the stress and burnout that can occur when relatives care for an elderly family member. The program will provide a variety of educational and support services.

The caregivers will be identified by completing a screening questionnaire when they have check-ups with their personal physicians.

Kaye said the project has the potential to significantly improve the quality of life for both family caregivers and elderly relatives.

“We want to reach people early on in their caregiving experiences, when they are ‘upstream’ – before they reach the dangerous waters down below, so to speak, and are overwhelmed by the personal crises and inordinate stress and strain,” he said.

The center also will coordinate a Professional Excellence in Geriatrics Series, a set of eight, two-hour continuing education sessions in Belfast, Orono and Bangor in March and April.

The continuing education is designed for professional service providers, and will be presented by leaders in geriatric medicine, psychiatry, nursing, social work, law, psychology, therapies and related health and human service professions.

In addition, Kaye said, a festival on aging is in the planning stages. He hopes the event will occur in May in Bangor and will feature several days of lectures, music, information sessions and intergenerational programs. The festival will be produced in collaboration with the Eastern Agency on Aging and several other groups.

“The idea is to highlight the contributions that older people bring to the community,” Kaye said, “their wisdom, experience and history, and their knowledge of the region’s culture and its evolution. We really want to honor older adults and share with the community all that they have to offer.”

The center also will begin to develop a senior college where older adults could both attend and teach classes. Participants would lead its planning committee and determine priorities and course offerings.

The Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at the University of Southern Maine will be available to provide technical assistance and start-up support as the senior college program develops.

“The development of a senior college would really empower older adults,” Kaye said. “In this area especially, there are a number of active, well-educated elders. They have energy to spare, and early discussions with older residents in the community confirm a high degree of interest.

“It’s certainly been exciting. The faculty here in social work and nursing, and elsewhere on campus have expressed a real commitment to developing an active program in aging. We want to serve the community locally and then take our programming on the road serving communities throughout the entire state and beyond,” he said.

Previously, Kaye was a professor and director of the doctoral program at the Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research at Bryn Mawr College, and associate Director of the Brookdale Institute on Aging and Adult Human Development at Columbia University.

Kaye is a member of the editorial boards of several specialized journals in aging, a fellow of the Gerontological Society of America, and an adviser to local and national health and human services organizations.

He has published more than 100 journal articles and book chapters, and 10 books on topics including older men, home health care, family caregiving, issues in aging, support groups for older women and congregate housing.

Kaye is currently working on several books including a text on human services planning and administration.