SILVER CLIFF – Colorado is struggling to support its elders, placing thousands on waiting lists for delivered meals and rides to doctors, slammed by a demographic shift that already has turned rural communities such as Silver Cliff predominantly gray.
The latest population data prepared for state lawmakers this month shows a sustained multi-decade surge in Colorado’s over-65 population. By 2035, the number of over-65s, now at about 928,029, will reach 1.3 million – 20% of Colorado’s projected 6.8 million population — and outnumber the under-18s through 2060, according to the State Demography Office data.
This shift brings benefits of experience and wisdom in a state still slightly younger than the U.S. average but also intensifies challenges, ranging from dementia to wheelchair accessibility — as seen in Silver Cliff and surrounding Custer County at the base of the Sangre de Cristo mountains. The average age here is 59, the oldest in Colorado and among the oldest in the nation.
Members of the Custer County Senior Citizens Center, as old as 90, gathered in their basement below the town hall on a recent frigid morning for one of three weekly meals. Handmade Valentine’s hearts hung on the walls around a library, pantry, pool table, and bingo set-up with chocolates and teddy bears as prizes on display.
Most members regard Silver Cliff’s rural norms as healthy for senior living. They breathe clean air and see stars at night. “When you go into the stores, you know people,” said Janice Brunke, 81. Retired Xcel Energy accountant John Stevens, 74, savors his escape from the noisy congestion he navigated in west metro Denver. “By the time you pulled out of your driveway, you were in traffic,” he said. “It’s not like that here.”
Only one of the 20 in the center used a cane. Site manager and chef Darcy Rhodes, 37, watched them standing in line for her Sloppy Joes and scalloped potatoes. “Anything with meat, they love,” she said. Meals she prepares also are delivered by volunteers to a dozen or so members who can’t make it to the center off Main Street. When winds rage down from the mountains and temperatures plummet, deliveries include emergency “blizzard boxes” of canned goods and other items sufficient for three days.
But streets in Silver Cliff and neighboring Westcliffe remain mostly unpaved and lack sidewalks — nearly impassable for a wheelchair. There’s only one doctor living in the county and no urgent medical care. The Wet Mountain Valley Rotary Club’s transport van service is stretched.
Low-income seniors in Custer County increasingly seek help handling home chores, getting to dentists and eye doctors, and arranging breaks for their caregivers. A waiting list of 50 for this county and three others is growing rapidly, said Tom McConaghy, director of the Salida-based Upper Arkansas Area Agency on Aging, one of the 16 agencies around Colorado that coordinates public-funded senior care. Looming budget cuts mean services cannot be increased and most likely will be reduced, said McConaghy, a former police officer who recently testified in the state legislature.
“Having social connections is extremely important for an older population, and people tend to eat better when they’re not alone,” he said in an interview, warning against the “anonymity” in technology-driven cities.
“But we are behind the 8-ball. We are behind in preparing for the larger number of elderly residents we will see in the next 25 years. Why does this matter? I don’t want to see people go without food or live in unsafe conditions. These are people who worked very hard in their lives. We owe it to them to help meet their needs. It is a moral issue. Are we discarding older adults because they are no longer any use to us?”
The average age in Custer County is 59, the highest average age of residents in any Colorado county. Silver Cliff is pictured here on Feb. 20, 2024. (Photo by RJ Sangosti/The Denver Post)
“Struggling to handle what we have now”
At the Custer County Health Center, 60 to 80 new patients a month seek appointments, which typically aren’t available for three weeks. “We’ve had a huge influx of older people who moved from Texas and California,” manager Tammy Ahlers said in her office adjacent to a busy waiting room.
The clinic offers only general “family practice” care, but Ahlers said staffers face constant and increasing demands to handle emergencies.
She’s arranged for a bone specialist to visit the clinic once a week. Heart and lung doctors swing through the county every other week. “Telehealth” often proves insufficient.
For urgent stroke symptoms, chest pains, breathing problems, kidney dialysis, and radiation treatments, Custer County seniors must drive or seek emergency transport to medical facilities in Canon City, Pueblo, or Colorado Springs.
“Rural Colorado is not ready for a more elderly population. We’re struggling to handle what we have now. You would be taking a risk if you live in rural Colorado and have a health issue.”
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When Janice Brunke’s husband needed radiation treatments to be cancer-free, the two of them made the two-hour back-and-forth trip over the twisting Hardscrabble Pass to Pueblo 45 times, she said.
The nonprofit Valley Assisted Living facility in Westcliffe offers 14 beds. But seniors with medical needs typically must be transferred to facilities in Pueblo and Colorado Springs, activities director Sherry England said. “A lot of them don’t want to leave. They have no choice,” England said, adding that there’s a waiting list for space in the facility and that survival depends on charitable donations.
Darcy Rhodes prepares lunches at the Custer County Senior Center in Silver Cliff on Feb. 20, 2024. (Photo by RJ Sangosti/The Denver Post)
A microcosm of challenges statewide
Struggles in Custer County increasingly are replicated elsewhere.
Statewide, waiting lists for meal delivery and transport have ballooned into the thousands. Overseers of the area agencies on aging estimated clearing those lists would cost an additional $20 million in funding — above the current total budget of around $46 million using state and federal funds.
In the eight-county metro Denver area, more than 3,000 seniors are on waiting lists for meals, said Jayla Sanchez-Warren, director of the Area Agency on Aging for metro Denver, run by the Denver Regional Council of Governments. Beyond that, more housebound seniors are asking for rides to medical appointments, an unmet need that reverberates because appointments often must be canceled, leading to seniors skipping necessary health care.
“Let’s say you just got out of the hospital and you cannot prepare your own food because you just had surgery. Normally, you could call and we would have a meal sent to you the next day. But right now in metro Denver, if you need a Meal on Wheels, you will be put on a waiting list,” Sanchez-Warren said.
Metro Denver services providers also are anticipating an accelerating rate of residents suffering from Alzheimer’s disease (estimated 76,000 over-65s diagnosed in Colorado) and other forms of dementia, she said.
“This is going to be difficult. More people in nursing homes. More people living in isolation. More amber alerts for older adults. More ‘I’ve fallen and can’t get up’ calls to the fire departments. More people having a hard time just meeting their basic needs. Unless we understand this at a deeper level, it’s going to be about surviving, not about thriving. I am sure we have had people fall through the cracks. There will be more and more people who fall through the cracks.”
Seniors gather for one of their 3 weekly meals served at the Custer County Senior Center in Silver Cliff on Feb. 20, 2024. (Photo by RJ Sangosti/The Denver Post)
Home-bound elders await food
The Adams County Senior Hub on Dec. 31 suspended meal deliveries. Sanchez-Warren and a colleague stepped in, drawing on county emergency funds the first week of February, and rounding up frozen food supplies. They headed to the plains towns of Bennett, Deer Trail, Strasburg, and Watkins. Thirty residents in this area were practically desperate.
“These folks really needed the food,” Sanchez-Warren said. “They could not prepare meals for themselves. They could not drive. We saw a lot of people on walkers and in wheelchairs. Some could not come to the door. We saw poverty.”
American Association of Retired Persons officials are pressing for increased funding because reduced meals, transport, and other services for seniors living in their homes could lead to shifting more elders into situations where they need skilled nursing medical care — likely in institutions, said Sara Schueneman, the AARP’s state director.
That’s ultimately more expensive for taxpayers, Schueneman said. And institutional living can increase disorientation and isolation.
“We’re already struggling with the health care industry not having enough workers,” she said.
“How are we going to support these vulnerable populations?”
Joan Wiehoff, 88, sits down at a table with her lunch at the Custer County Senior Center in Silver Cliff on Feb. 20, 2024. (Photo by RJ Sangosti/The Denver Post)
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Government agencies ramp up planning
Colorado government officials say they recognize a need to strengthen support for the state’s aging population.
The Colorado Department of Human Services responded to Denver Post inquiries about preparations for the aging population with a statement that said state officials are “aware there are gaps in services.”
Finding ways to encourage and support in-home care workers and to expand socialization opportunities for older adults through day programs and shared meals is part of what must be done, the statement said.
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis has been working “to ensure that our state is the best place to live and age,” gubernatorial spokeswoman Shelby Wieman said.
Polis has prioritized investments in the direct care workforce, supported efforts to ensure housing and health care including affordable prescription drugs, and closed a tax loophole to eliminate income taxes on Social Security for Coloradans over 65. He also supports efforts to broaden a partial property tax exemption for over-65 residents so that older residents aren’t penalized for moving to smaller homes.
A plastic toy figure of an old woman stands guard over plugs that are not supposed to be unplugged at the Custer County Senior Center in Silver Cliff, Colorado on Feb. 20, 2024. (Photo by RJ Sangosti/The Denver Post)
Over-75s surging
Colorado’s over-65 population has ranked among the fastest-growing in the nation, behind only Idaho and Alaska between 2010 and 2020, with over-65s increasing by 319,070 people. By 2030, the state’s latest demographic projections show, the over-65 population will increase by another 315,000 above the 2020 level. The shift is driven by Baby Boomers who flocked to Colorado in the 1970s and largely stayed in the state.
“Now as they are leaving the labor force, entering retirement, and entering an age cohort where we see transitions we are seeing a significant impact,” state demographer Elizabeth Garner said.
The fastest-growing segments of Colorado’s population are those between 70 and 74 (224,681), 75-79 (129,810), 80 to 84 (82,812), and over 85 (88,264), according to census data. State forecasts show the over-75 population growing by 68% over the 2020 level by 2030 and the over-85 population growing by 50%.
“This decade is when we will see the largest and fastest growth,” Garner said.
Around the state, the biggest increases in over-65 households will occur in the relatively young metro Denver area, according to data prepared for state lawmakers. Jefferson County is expected to change the most with its number of over-65 households increasing above the 2020 level by 26,180 before 2030, followed by Denver County (22,866), Arapahoe County (22,402), and El Paso County (20,913). That will bring Jeffco’s total of over 65 households to 90,414.
Moral obligation
Scrambling to minimize program cuts this year, lawmakers are considering a $5 million increase in the state’s contribution to funding the area agencies on aging.
“I mean, a wait list for Meals on Wheels? That’s not the Colorado I want to live in,” said Sen. Jessie Danielson, D-Jefferson County, who sponsored that legislation and in recent years has championed other measures to protect seniors, such as first steps to combatting financial abuse.
“If people aren’t concerned, they should be. Colorado is aging more rapidly than most of the rest of the country,” Danielson said. “We’re not prepared for the needs of our community. We have an obligation to prepare as well as we can. I was raised with a belief that you respect elders. Older Coloradans built this place. This is their community. We should be grateful to them for the things they’ve done. Right now we are not prepared to support them in a way that allows them to age with dignity.”
Steve Lasswell, 74, packs food for a meal delivery program into his car parked outside the Custer County Senior Center in Silver Cliff on Feb. 20, 2024. Lasswell was set to deliver 13 meals that day. (Photo by RJ Sangosti/The Denver Post)
Looming cuts
Meanwhile, Custer County elders bristled at the prospect of fewer meals and the camaraderie they bring.
Supervisors of their 53-member senior center pointed to continued population growth in the county and agency funding of only $300 a month, enough for food but not enough to cover their latest electricity bill. Back in 1990, the median age in Custer County was 38, state records show. But in recent years the number of babies born in the county each year has stayed below 50. And, of the 800 newcomers who moved into the county from elsewhere over the last decade, 62% were older than 55.
Losing the center would be horrible, members said. “We do have poverty in this county,” Cindy, 61, emphasized, asking that her last name not be printed for fear of an ex-husband in Texas. The three meals a week she eats at the senior center are her only proper meals, she said. From the pantry shelf, she grabs cans of chickpeas and other items to tide her over in her cabin south of town where she relies on burning wood for heat.
Bingo began in the basement. A Beatles tune played on the local radio. Shooting pool in the library, third-generation Wet Mountain Valley resident Dan Jones, 82, a priest clad in brown robes, said the two dozen churches in town may serve as a fallback for supporting the neediest residents.
He sank a yellow-and-white nine-ball in the corner pocket — and smiled. This senior center has served elders for 46 years, he said.
“It has been good getting to know each other here. That’s important for seniors. It has been a really good meeting place.”
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