Before COVID-19 sent the United States hurdling toward a devastating economic recession, 37 million adults aged 50 and older were already living in poverty — with another 10 million on the brink, according to Lisa Marsh Ryerson, president of the AARP Foundation.
“What we have seen since the pandemic is that the numbers are on the rise,” she said, adding that calls to her organization about food assistance continue to increase.
In separate interviews, Street Roots recently spoke with Ryerson and Kevin Prindiville, the executive director at the national legal advocacy nonprofit Justice in Aging. Both are focused on combating senior poverty.
While they explained the situation facing many aging Americans is dire, Ryerson and Prindiville’s organizations are finding ways harness a moment in which their plight has been brought into the greater public’s consciousness.
Like it has with so many other social issues in the U.S., the coronavirus pandemic has illuminated the economic hardship and isolation facing many of our nation’s senior citizens, and the lack of value placed on the people who care for them.
“We’ve underinvested in our Medicaid programs and long-term care programs that help people stay home and in their community, which leaves many families with the only option to move an older family member into an institution,” Prindiville said.
It’s estimated that one-third of deaths due to COVID-19 in the U.S. have occurred in nursing homes, where the virus often spreads quickly, infecting residents and workers alike.
“This virus has hit people that live in nursing facilities so hard, and it’s reminding us that many of those people are in facilities where the quality of care is low. They are institutionalized, and they are isolated from their families and communities,” Prindiville said. “And, there’s a workforce in those facilities that is in many ways heroic, yet it is undervalued and underpaid.”
He noted the pandemic has brought forward ageism embedded in the U.S. political system, its policy making process and its health care and long-term care systems. "It’s really showing how we’ve underinvested in programs that serve older adults, especially older adults that are low-income and from communities of color,” he said.
Age discrimination is also prevalent among the nation’s employers, putting older workers at an increased disadvantage as unemployment skyrockets, explained Ryerson.
“We know that older adults are unemployed for longer periods, and likely that will be true during this time,” she said.
But poverty is only one side of the pandemic’s impact on aging Americans. Ryerson said 1 in 4 older adults are socially isolated and 1 in 3 report feeling lonely. Add to that, policies at nursing homes during the pandemic that don’t allow for visitors and the reality that many seniors are facing shelter-in-place orders while living alone.
“All of these issues intersect,” she said, “and the risk of these issues is higher for people who are low-income, or identify as members of marginalized groups. As it relates to social isolation, the numbers are significantly higher for older adults who indicate that they are LGBTQ.”
“We’re now seeing the impact of those inequities and disparities, which are playing out in the most extreme way possible,” he said. “It’s literally a life or death situation for older adults in our communities.”
Isolation can, for example, create problems with housing and accessing food, Prindiville explained.
But both Prindiville and Ryerson believe the gravity of seniors’ situation under the pandemic gives way to opportunity.
“There’s no more hiding or ignoring the injustice and the way we treat older people,” Prindiville said. “So our opportunity is to entirely rethink how we provide care to people with long-term care needs, both older adults and people with disabilities. The transformative possibility is to push for more care to be provided at home and in the community.”
Justice in Aging is fighting for increased funding of Medicaid programs that serve people in their homes.
“People who, with some extra support from Medicaid, could get out of a nursing facility and be at home with family should absolutely be at home,” Prindiville said.
FURTHER READING: Protecting older adults from coronavirus means talking about senior poverty
His organization is also examining state guidelines related to crisis care — some of which contain age discrimination. “We are engaging those states, and informing them that their policies are illegal and violate antidiscrimination laws. We’re working with them to develop new policies that do not rely on age as a determining factor in providing care,” he said.
Prindiville finds Americans’ willingness to socially isolate to protect lives encouraging.
“To me, that’s ultimately a recognition of the value of the lives of older people and people with disabilities,” he said. “Counter to that, though, we have politicians saying we should be prepared to sacrifice the lives of older people in furtherance of our economy. We have people storming state capitols demanding that the economy be reopened. There certainly is a counter force that gives me pause. But I think the numbers of people who want to do the right thing to support their older parents, grandparents, spouses, and neighbors, far outweighs the people that seem ready to dismiss the value of those lives.”
AARP and the AARP Foundation have used the pandemic to spotlight the lack of transparency from nursing homes, pushing for better shared information and public reporting now and moving forward, Ryerson said.
“Low-income older adults are pretty invisible. So I want to harness this movement to make sure that they are visible,” she said.
Her foundation is also focused on promoting its job-training programs as the country heads into recession. Those include its Back to Work 50+ and Work for Yourself 50+ programs, which help seniors adapt to newer workplace technologies, as well as teaching other skills.
“The key is that we use this moment for transformational change,” Prindiville said. “There’s strong bias in our systems and politics towards nursing facilities. But I think the moment is teaching us that we absolutely do need to make change or we continue to put the older adults in our communities at risk.”
Get Involved
Street Roots asked Kevin Prindiville, the executive director at the national legal advocacy nonprofit Justice in Aging, and Lisa Marsh Ryerson, president of the AARP Foundation, how our readers can help America’s senior citizens at this time.
Prindiville said voters call their representatives in Congress to show support for the proposed legislation that he said would direct coronavirus relief to older adults and people with disabilities.
Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pennsylvania) introduced the bill in March, called the Coronavirus Relief for Seniors and People with Disabilities Act.
“It would increase funding for nursing home inspections to promote infection control,” said Prindiville. “It would get more seniors enrolled into programs that help cover Medicare premiums and cost sharing; and it would help increase funding for home and community based services so that older adults can get help with their long-term needs while staying at home, instead of having to move into these facilities where the problems are the greatest.”
He also pointed to legislation introduced by U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Illinois) that’s targeted at increasing COVID-19 testing in nursing homes.
“The legislation would address infection prevention, quality of care, and worker safety,” he said.
“Lastly, there’s also the social side of things,” he said. “Reach out to older adults in your community and check in on them; make sure they’re OK. We think that community support is critical, especially if that group is likely to need to stay isolated longer than younger folks.”
Ryerson recommends joining advocacy efforts aimed at increasing transparency around the tragedy in nursing homes and at combatting food insecurity. She also points to the AARP Foundation’s website, where there’s up to date information about how seniors can face the pandemic, as well as relevant legislative efforts and advocacy.
“We have to support the work to strengthen the social safety net. SNAP benefits matter. We have to address issues of intersectionality, predatory financial practices, fair housing practices, allowing low-income older adults across identities to be able to live in the communities where they want to live,” she said. “Join in a movement that says older adults matter and they must remain socially connected,” she said. “Reach out as a caring, friendly, active neighbor. Take an individual stance that says I will speak out against injustice where I see it and I will actively engage with vulnerable older adults in my community, that they will not be invisible.”