Dear friends,

As we enter into the new year, I am filled with gratitude for the accomplishments of my team and look forward to achieving our goals for 2025 and beyond through collaboration, hard work, and innovation.

We are guided by a vision that all Marylanders can lead lives that are healthy, financially secure, socially connected, and purposeful as we address the concerns and promote the contributions of one of the largest populations in Maryland. Adults age 65 and older will soon make up more than a quarter of our state’s population, providing a critical economic and social resource to Maryland through our wisdom, experience, talents, and strengths.

Since January 2024 when the Department first secured an executive order supporting the development of a multisector plan for aging, we have made substantial progress in creating Longevity Ready Maryland (LRM). This ten-year plan brings together state and local government, the private sector, community organizations, and philanthropy to better serve older adults today while planning for the needs and opportunities of a growing population of older adults in the years to come.

Gov. Moore signs the first executive order of 2024 supporting a multisector plan for aging as MDOA Deputy Sec. Jenna Crawley and Sec. Carmel Roques look on. Photo credit: Office of Gov. Moore

Throughout the past year, we have engaged a diverse group of community members through local town halls, events, task forces, and committees to gain valuable input on how to advance the role of older people in health equity, affordable housing, caregiving, service, and a robust economy. Subject matter experts and persons with lived and professional experience from public and private sectors, aging networks, advocacy organizations, philanthropies, and health and technology sectors took part in work groups to help develop LRM's objectives and strategies for implementation.

Sec. Roques joins home care and nursing home caregivers, care recipients and loved ones, representatives from AARP, the Alzheimer's Association, Disability Rights MD, National Direct Workers Association, and Healthcare For All, along with local legislators, at the Caring Across Maryland's Care Can't Wait Summit in Columbia.

While LRM is a long-term plan, the Department has begun addressing the formidable obstacles around equity and inclusion currently facing older people in our society. Though largely invisible, age-related bias and discrimination are pervasive and have profound negative consequences on the health and well-being of older adults. This creates significant barriers to the development of policies and programs supporting all of us as we age. 

Throughout 2024, we have collaborated with the National Center to Reframe Aging to provide educational workshops, webinars, consultation, and technical assistance to 650 leaders, communicators, policymakers, and others across the state to improve the way we communicate about aging and recognize the contributions older people bring to society. 

To understand the value older people bring to our diverse Maryland landscape and highlight the economic and social contributions of older adults through employment, caregiving, and volunteering, the Department is developing an innovative data dashboard in partnership with the Department of Planning to track demographics that impact aging and longevity and create a more accurate picture of future needs.

The LRM Data Dashboard, set to launch this spring, will serve as a trusted resource for collecting and sharing emerging data and research-based findings on demographic shifts, gaps in services, and the needs of historically marginalized populations. It will also provide ongoing benchmarks to measure progress and guide development of future initiatives, programs, and services for older adults.

The LRM Data Dashboard, to be launched this spring, will be updated regularly as new data is collected.

In an effort to modernize current programs that support older people at home, we are introducing two bills during the upcoming legislative session that will redesign four state-funded programs.

The Supporting Older Adults with Resources (SOAR) Bill (HB36/SB212) will consolidate and rename three programs–Senior Care, Senior Assisted Living Subsidy, and Congregate Housing Services–under a single umbrella to better support older adults where they live and expand the number of people served across the state. 

The Social Connections/Senior Call Check Bill (HB158/SB223) proposes to expand the current Senior Call Check phone call service to include live and virtual web- and text-based communications to better address participants’ personal welfare and reduce social isolation. The revised program will also be accessible to people with sight and hearing impairments and those with limited English proficiency.

Sec. Roques visits with Howard County residents at the East Columbia 50+ Center ribbon cutting ceremony after presenting opening remarks on Longevity Ready Maryland. Photo credit: Howard County Government

We recognize there is more to be done to make Maryland a desirable place to live and age well and have big plans for 2025. In addition to our legislative and advocacy efforts, we will work to effectively and efficiently use our federal, state, and in-kind funding to serve more Marylanders as we implement the LRM multisector plan for aging. At the same time, we will continue our ongoing efforts to support aging-in-place, caregivers, equitable access to health care, an inclusive view of aging, and safe, secure, and affordable housing.

I invite you to sign up for news on the Department at aging.maryland.gov and LRM updates at LRM.maryland.gov. The LRM draft plan will be open for public review and comment this spring before being submitted to the Governor for approval in July.

With optimism and hope, wishing you a Happy New Year,

Carmel