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Montana politics, elections and legislative news

Bullock, Sands Want $1.6 Million for Seniors, Caregivers

Barbara Dryden, center, and Richard Blank, to her left, tell Governor Steve Bullock about the challenges family caregivers face Monday at Missoula Aging Services.
Kim Hutcheson, Missoula Aging Services
Barbara Dryden, center, and Richard Blank, to her left, tell Governor Steve Bullock about the challenges family caregivers face Monday at Missoula Aging Services.

Governor Steve Bullock and Democratic State Senator Diane Sands say the state legislature should boost spending on assistance programs for the elderly by $1.6 million.

They made the pitch at a visit to Missoula Aging Services Monday. There, Bullock and Sands heard from people who’ve used the kinds of assistance they want to expand.

People like Richard Blank, a retired physician who cared for his wife who had Alzheimers for ten years. Blank called that extremely stressful, and says he was grateful for respite care - or when another caregiver could take over temporarily and give him a break.

"And secondly it it actually gave my wife an opportunity to get away from me, who was telling her what to do all the time," Blank said, to laughter from those in the room. "I tell you, I think that’s really missed," he said. 

The Governor’s office says about 100,000 Montanans are caring for adult family members or friends. Bullock is proposing to spend $120,000 in state money to extend what is now a federally-funded respite care program for people like that. That funding is only for one more year.

The non-profit that runs the program now says $120,000 would pay for approximately 10,000 hours of relief for family members and friends caring for older loved ones.

Most of the money the governor is asking for, $1.5 million, would go to Area Agencies on Aging, like Missoula Aging Services. 

"I didn’t have to try to figure out where to go to try to get started, because my mom had Missoula Aging services for my dad," said Barbara Dryden. Her mother was getting help taking care of Barbara's physically disabled father until she needed her own help from Barbara some years later.

Dryden found herself caring for two aging parents, while at the same time raising a daughter. She says services like like Meals on Wheels and other help from the area agency on aging were virtual lifesavers.

Montana currently spends $5.8 million a year on aging agencies. The $1.5 million boost Governor Bullock is proposing would be a 25 percent increase.

The third bill Governor Bullock and Senator Sands are backing would cost state taxpayers nothing. It’s designed to prevent people having to return to hospitals by better coordinating their post-hospital needs with their designated caregivers. Similar bills have passed in 19 other states, with backing from AARP and bipartisan support.

Eric Whitney is NPR's Mountain West/Great Plains Bureau Chief, and was the former news director for Montana Public Radio.
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