Aging Reports & Resources

The Maine Council on Aging draws upon wisdom, experience, and data to influence policy, educate stakeholders, and advance initiatives that move us towards our vision of living healthy, engaged, secure lives as we age in our homes and in community settings. On this page, you’ll find reports we’ve generated after significant “wisdom gathering” and stakeholder engagement and data sources we rely on to advance issues related to healthy aging.

MCOA Biennial Report

July 2022 – June 2024

Access the Online Report Here

MCOA Biennial Report

July 2020 – June 2022

Access the Online Report Here

 

Reports and Resources

Maine State Plan: Addressing Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias
2022 – 2027

https://www.alzimpact.org/Maine-State-Plan-2023

Maine Center for Economic Policy Report: The High Cost of Undervaluing Direct Care Work

April 2023

U.S. Census Report: Income, Poverty and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2021

Data Report – September 2022

Adult Day Services in Maine: Benefits, Challenges, and Opportunities

Data Report – September 2022

Economic Security of Older Women in Maine

Data Report – January 2022

Policy Matters – Women and aging: A crisis unfolds – June 7, 2022
Watch: Policy Matters: Women and aging – Press Herald

Maine State Plan on Aging 2020-2024

State Plan on Aging – Released September 2020

Maine Age Friendly State Plan

Age Friendly State Plan

Maine State Plan On Aging: Needs Assessment

Summary of Findings March 2020

Re-imagining Residential Care “Think Group”

Read the report – released December 2020

2020 Report of the Commission to Study Long Term Care Workforce Issues

Commission to Study Long-term Care Workforce Issues – Released January 2020

2018 Maine Blueprint for Action on Healthy Aging

The MCOA issued the Maine Blueprint for Action on Healthy Aging in October 2018.  It reflects the knowledge and wisdom of more than 350 professionals, public officials, community leaders and researchers who gathered at the 2018 Maine Wisdom Summit to build a plan for healthy aging.  This forms the basis of our priority action for the next several years.  The Blueprint lays out a plan to build a cost-effective support infrastructure that is fully aligned with our care delivery systems and that leverages the power of community efforts.

2019 Task Force on Healthy Aging in Communities Objectives

In February 2019, the MCOA convened a task force of municipal leaders, state officials and service providers to identify strategies to grow, strengthen and support municipal efforts to ensure healthy aging and to create a plan to better integrate municipal efforts with regional and statewide systems.  Read the recommendations from the first phase of this work.

2018 Long Term Supports and Services Reform Recommendations

As a result of the Blueprint recommendations, in the fall of 2018,  the MCOA convened a working group to identify Long Term Supports and Services (LTSS) minor and major reforms that could be made by the new administration.  The recommended reforms that can be read here have been provided to the new leaders of the Department of Health and Health Services.  We will be working in collaboration with them to implement some of these reforms.

2018 Housing Solutions for Maine’s New Age

In May 2018, the MCOA hosted Housing Solutions for Maine’s New Age, a facilitated housing planning conference held in Belfast, Maine.  The conference brought together a diverse group of housing, planning, and finance professionals with municipal and community leaders to learn about and plan to develop emerging housing models that helps us age at home and in our communities. The conference focused on the following models, integrating concepts of universal design into each: Home Repair & Modification, Accessory Dwelling Units, Small Homes and Shared Housing. The day was broken down into two parts: in the morning plenary sessions, experts will present information on these models and solicit feedback from participants. After lunch, invited planning teams worked collaboratively to plan out different aspects of the four types of housing, including model ordinances, design aspects, code issues, finance and legal issues. Each team emerged from the planning process with recommendations which will form the basis of a conference report and plan of action.  Click here to read our housing report.

2014 Blueprint for Action on Aging

The Blueprint for Action on Aging was issued in March 2014 with the input of more than 600 Maine leaders.  It envisions Maine’s changing demographic as an opportunity and is the road map for the first few years of our work.

Maine’s Aging Demographic

Maine Resource Guide

 

Health & Well-Being
    • On January 20th, the John T. Gorman Foundation issued a new report called “A Portrait of Wellbeing: The Status of Seniors in Maine”. It highlights economic, housing and social factors impacting older adults across 10 regions within the state. This report creates a much-needed baseline for measuring progress in these areas in the coming years. Among the publication’s findings:
    • – Maine has a higher percentage of seniors with low incomes than neighboring states: 29% compared to 21.1% in New Hampshire and 23.5% in Vermont.
    • – Seniors living in southeast Cumberland County are more likely to be poor or low-income when compared to those living in other areas of the state.
    • – Seniors in Oxford, Somerset, Franklin, and Piscataquis counties, as well as southeast Cumberland County, are more likely to live alone.
    • – Half of Maine’s senior renters live in homes where more than 30 percent of total household income is spent on housing costs.
    • – Across the state, low-income seniors consistently fare worse than their higher-income peers on indicators of well-being: they are more likely be burdened by housing costs, whether they rent or own, are less likely to be married, and are three times more likely to live alone.
    • Click the link above to read the full report.
Reframing Aging
“The way Americans currently think about aging creates obstacles to productive practices and policies. How can the field of aging help build a better understanding of aging, ageism, and what it will take to create a more age-integrated society?

To answer this question, a group of leading national aging organizations and funders commissioned the FrameWorks Institute to conduct a Strategic Frame Analysis®, an empirical investigation into the communications aspects of aging issues. In this toolkit, you’ll find this original research as well as a variety of materials to help you apply it. If you use communications to make the case for adapting society to the needs of an aging population, the evidence-based insights here will be useful to you.” 

Click the link below for more information and resources:

 

Learn more about Reframing Aging here.