Expanding aging population poses new challenges for human services

Today California has 3.5 million people over age 65 — the largest older adult population in the country. In our state alone, this figure is projected to reach close to 10 million over the next 40 years, with most of the growth occurring in the next 20 years as the baby boomer generation reaches senior citizenhood. Additionally, with the increase in life span of the elder population, California will soon face an unprecedented need for services like in-home supportive care and protection against elder abuse.

Today, the single biggest challenge facing the adult social services field is dealing with a marked increase in the number of caseloads, with fewer resources available to support these programs and services. Before Richard Marmer began developing curricula and teaching courses in adult services and in-home supportive services at UC Davis Extension, he worked for more than 20 years in county adult services. Marmer says that while he's glad there has been greater awareness lately of elder abuse promulgated in large part by the media, the resulting effect is a dramatic increase in calls.

"Most county agencies are not properly staffed and/or trained to handle the increasing caseloads," he says.

For example, in 1999 Contra Costa County's Adult Protective Services (APS) agency responded to an average of 70 calls per month. In 2004, that agency received an average of 176 reports of abuse each month. And experts estimate that at least four times as many incidents go unreported.

Not only has the number of calls increased, but changing legislation has mandated increases in the level of service as well. "The problem is there's not enough money to hire new workers for these expanded services and programs," Marmer says.

The squeeze on resources is especially evident in the state's smaller counties. Phil Reinheimer, director of the Department of Health and Human Services for Colusa County, explains: "Like a lot of smaller counties, we're looking at areas of funding that will help us increase our staff. At this point the recruiting for social workers and especially public health nurses is difficult (due in part to competition with other, more urban, counties). At the same time, within the last two to three years, we've seen quite an increase in the need for senior services as this county shifts from a farming community to a more residential area."

Colusa County also anticipates the number of adults over age 85 in that county will double in the next five to 10 years — producing a significant impact on the county's need for things like geriatric health services and in-home supportive services. "The infrastructure is going to need to be built up rather quickly," Reinheimer adds. "In particular, our staff needs to be trained in the field of gerontology to better meet the needs of aging adults in our county."

Now more than ever, counties like Colusa are turning to The Center for Human Services at UC Davis Extension to satisfy their training needs.

"We rely a great deal on the regional approaches and training provided by UC Davis Extension," says Reinheimer. "The ability to provide on-site and regional trainings has been extremely valuable for us."

With respect to the aging of his own employees, Reinheimer says his agency is also currently using The Center for Human Services' leadership development program to prepare existing staff to "step in on our behalf as we retire."

According to a 2003 national report titled "The Aging-and-Retiring Government Workforce": "America is rapidly approaching a crisis in its workforce, triggered by the growing number of aging baby boomers and the much smaller number of younger people who will follow behind them." No other industry will feel the impact of this shift more so than the government sector. Government jobs like those in the human services field will see a mass exodus in the next decade, making succession planning an issue not to be taken lightly by county and state agencies.

In addition, baby boomers are getting out early — retiring after 20 years of service and often starting another career, Marmer notes. "So it's difficult to gauge succession planning because we don't know at what age these workers will retire. There is a real need to pass their set of knowledge and skills onto the younger generations."

The effects of a changing demographic landscape have already begun to take shape within the human services field. The Center for Human Services strives to keep up with changing needs and holds firm in its commitment to developing new ideas and ways to serve its clients.

For more information about The Center for Human Services at UC Davis Extension, please call (530) 757-8643 or visit the Web site at www.humanservices.ucdavis.edu.