According to the 2006 U.S. Census, 13.9 percent of Rhode Islanders are age 65 or over.

As we grow older, most of us would prefer to stay in our own homes. And the research shows that if we were able to do this, we’d be much better off. Not only that, in most cases, staying home would cost far less than a nursing facility.

Then why, here in Rhode Island, do we spend about 90 percent of our Medicaid dollars to institutionalize our elderly while many other states use as much as half their funds to support alternatives to nursing homes? Why do we lack a lot of the community supports that are necessary for older citizens to age in their own homes?

According to Jessica Lee Buhler, director of the Senior Agenda Coalition in Rhode Island, this issue became the pivotal question that brought senior advocate groups together about five years ago. Groups such as the Gray Panthers of RI, the Silver-Haired Legislature and the Alzheimer’s Association came together in the coalition to leverage their power and speak even louder with a unified voice.

With the influx of Baby Boomers, the Rhode Island Statewide Planning Agency projects our elderly population will increase by 59 percent by 2030.

And there are many reasons why having a louder voice has never been more critical. According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2006 American Community Survey, median incomes of Rhode Island’s elderly households lag behind those of seniors in the rest of the country. Our seniors also have to contend with the increasing complexity of health care, insurance, and long-term care options. Clearly, presenting a united front is essential.

Almost half of Rhode Island’s elderly households have incomes less than $24,999.

“It was becoming apparent that a lot of major changes needed to happen with the way we create policy for older people in our state,” Buhler tells me. “We really are behind the times. A lot of seniors don’t realize that. They get used to the system they’re in and as they get older, they don’t want to rock the boat.”

Buhler says there are several ways the coalition works to affect policy. The first is research, like the statistics you’re reading here. They come straight out of the newly released Senior Agenda 2006-2007 Factbook. This “Profile of Well-Being of Older Rhode Islanders” is used to educate policymakers on the issues and it’s also an eye opener for anyone who is a senior, knows a senior or loves a senior. That would be all of us.

Nearly 10 percent of our state’s population 65 and older lives below the poverty level.

With research in hand, the Senior Agenda Coalition is able to mobilize like-minded organizations, citizens, affected seniors and their caretakers. Working together, they are certainly a force to be reckoned with.

I know getting older is something you don’t want to think about. Neither do I. But Buhler is urging us to do just that. “People should start thinking about it a little earlier. Even when you’re 70. To have some kind of plan, how you’re going to avoid going into a nursing home.”

41 percent of Rhode Island elderly women live alone.

“I think it benefits me, it benefits society, having older people in my community,” says Buhler. Even though I’m only 30 years old, if I don’t have older people living on my street, I think that’s going to diminish my quality of life. If I see an older person suffering, and not being able to get food, that affects me.”

That affects all of us.

Rita Lussier can be reached at ReetsAL@aol.com or by mail c/o Features Department, The Providence Journal, 75 Fountain St., Providence, RI 02902.