While it is true that the Mid-Shore has benefited significantly from the number of affluent couples who have chosen to retire in Kent, Talbot, or Caroline Counties, there are an equal number of those over 65 years old who are some of the region’s most frail and at-risk elders with their physical and mental health. With an estimated total of over 22,000, these individuals now faced even greater hardship as the threat of both federal and state funding caps on essential programs make it even more difficult keep pace with the cost of living and inflation.
This funding gap directly falls on the shoulders of one particular agency to fill these much-needed services to Mid-Shore elders, and that would be Upper Shore Aging, who has been doing just that for the last 43 years.
The Spy thought it would be a good time to sit down to check-in with Gary Gunther, who has been leading Upper Shore Aging for close to three decades, to understand more clearly their role in helping seniors. Gary has been one of the most consistent senior care advocates on the Shore as he and his agency face the ongoing challenge of providing essential services to the aging, manage three senior centers in Chestertown, Denton, Easton (and very shortly in St. Michaels) while continuing to run such well-used programs like Meals on Wheels and low-cost warm lunch meals to thousands in the region.
This video is approximately four minutes in length. For more information or to make a donation to Upper Shore Aging please go here
Muriel Cole says
Thank you for highlighting the issue of local services for seniors. Although managers of these services make an effort to focus on what is available, Gary Gunther points to the increasing limits on resources and notes that “each year you can do less.” There are limited service hours, there are waiting lists, and there are rapidly increasing needs due to our graying population and tendency to love longer, albeit with chronic illness, loss of loved ones, and dwindling finances.
We really need to re-think priorities and adopt a new paradigm, where the allocation of public funds for elderly people is put on a par with funds for young people.