State Senator Lowe Finney (D-Jackson) writes in The Tennessean about his ongoing efforts to create a Cabinet-level position for seniors to help more than 1 million Tennesseans navigate the maze of bureaucracy that sometimes delays or prevents them from obtaining services.
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BY STATE SENATOR LOWE FINNEY
In my first campaign in 2006, I met a couple in their mid-50s in a local diner. They were from another state, found a farm for sale in West Tennessee on the Internet, and moved across the country to begin their retirement.
They told me they liked it here and wished they had found us sooner! I’ve heard this story repeated numerous times over the past four years.
Indeed, Tennessee has become a top choice for retirees from other states. Unfortunately, not all of Tennessee’s seniors enjoy retirement with ease. The majority of calls to state lawmakers typically involve questions about health care. Many have eligibility issues concerning TennCare, while others don’t know where to begin to obtain desperately needed services: where to find help for a mother with Alzheimer’s disease; how to arrange for nursing home or home health assistance; where to turn for help with prescription drugs or a home foreclosure; or whom to call for a hot meal because the cupboards are bare.
Sadly, these are questions that Tennessee senior citizens and their caregivers face more and more each day. But our state government does not recognize and respond to the needs of senior citizens as we should.
Our population is getting older. Within the next 20 years, nearly one-fourth of Tennesseans will be senior citizens. But more than 1 million Tennesseans over age 60 enter into a maze of bureaucracy every time they need assistance. More than 100 services for senior citizens are currently spread across 23 state departments, agencies, commissions, boards and bureaus, with no centralized oversight. We have the resources to assist seniors, but the path to help is confusing, costly and burdensome to both our seniors and our state.
We began addressing some of these concerns in 2008, when we passed the Long-Term Care Community Choices Act to give seniors a “one-stop shop” for help in choosing long-term care services. This was a great first step, but more work remains.
Perhaps the most troubling aspect is that senior citizens still have no single ally working for them in the highest reaches of state government. It is time for this to change. In 2009, I co-sponsored legislation to study the creation of a Department of Aging and Adult Services. Gov. Phil Bredesen’s administration commissioned a report by Alicia Smith and Associates LLC, who specifically recommended streamlining services, providing a single point of entry for needed services, and providing seniors an individual with direct contact with the state’s chief executive. The joint study committee will finish its work next week.
I am pleased that Gov.-elect Bill Haslam has promised to hold a summit on aging during the first half of 2011. Hopefully, the meeting will revisit the idea of creating a cabinet contact who speaks directly to the governor about matters affecting senior citizens, while consolidating government programs and saving taxpayer resources. I am optimistic that Mr. Haslam will come away convinced that we must do more to give our parents and grandparents the representation they deserve.
When Mr. Haslam convenes his new cabinet next year, he will look around his conference table and see commissioners representing many segments of Tennessee society: veterans, farmers, children, teachers, tourists, and even bankers, lawyers and insurance brokers. But there will also be an empty chair. Filling that place could be the voice of someone who solely represents the senior citizens and aging community of our state.
Mr. Haslam has done well to suggest a discussion of this issue. He’ll do even better if he ensures that Tennessee’s seniors will no longer be forced to remain silent.