Alaska Commission on Aging asks Juneau seniors to set priorities for next four-year plan

The Alaska Commission on Aging will ask Juneau seniors on Thursday, Oct. 29, what its next four-year senior services plan should prioritize. The listening session runs 1 to 2:30 pm in the large meeting room of the Mendenhall Valley Public Library. All seniors 55 and older are encouraged to attend.

Feedback will help set priorities for the next State Plan for Senior Services, the commission's notice says. "We need to hear your opinions and experiences," the notice said. The commission writes the plan every four years to meet a requirement of the federal Older Americans Act, which helps pay for state senior programs, and a state law calling for a statewide plan on older Alaskans' needs. The next plan covers federal fiscal years 2028 to 2031.

The commission's 2026 guidance asks participants what went well in the past year, their challenges and what help they got, then which topics matter most locally. The list includes caregiver support, housing, the cost of assisted living, transportation, help with Medicare, a loved one with dementia, food insecurity and mental health treatment.

The current plan drew on more than 40 listening sessions from 2021 to 2023, with more than 500 participants, and 5,943 responses to a 2022 senior survey, 887 of them from Southeast Alaska.

Juneau's own Commission on Aging, the city's advisory body, has spent months on Capital AKcess, the paratransit service for ADA-eligible seniors and people with disabilities. Chair Deborah Craig told the Assembly on July 27 that "the new provider has struggled to provide services as required in the contract for nine months," and that the contract was renewed in June. A draft letter in the commission's Oct. 20 packet proposes a phone survey of riders, a risk assessment similar to an ADA audit, or returning the contract to Catholic Community Services.