BRATTLEBORO-Windham is no county for old men. Or for old women, either.
Windham County’s birth rate is the lowest in Vermont, while its median age is still a relatively young 48. But while data on aging abounds, what is lacking for our elders as they reach retirement age is housing, transportation, food, medical care, caretakers, broadband access, social life, and — surprisingly for a rural population — air uncontaminated by particulate matter.
What is not lacking: state, regional and local agencies and organizations trying to create better situations for elders.
So while Windham is no good county for older people now, things might be better by 2040.
The Windham Aging Collaborative, composed of more than 35 nonprofit, religious, state, and local agencies and organizations, is working to make the future of aging easier and better.
On Jan. 30, Windham Aging called its collaborators together at the Retreat Farm for an all-day conference, “Pathway to 2040: Collectively Preparing for Our Region’s Aging Future,” with more than 50 people representing 35 organizations.
“2040 is our mantra,” shouted Windham Aging’s co-founder, Dr. Carolyn Taylor-Olson, with a fist bump as she welcomed people to the conference.
‘That’s where it’s at! Collaboration!’
Windham Aging began in 2021, when the Windham Regional Commission began to compile and analyze aging data in Windham County and Vermont. Then it began projecting where the county might be in 10 and 20 years.
Three retired medical professionals — Dr. David Neumeister, a dentist in Brattleboro; Taylor-Olson, then a hospitalist at Brattleboro Memorial Hospital; and Roger Allbee, then the CEO of Grace Cottage Hospital in Townshend — were all serving at the time on the board of Thompson House, an assisted living facility in Brattleboro. And they were paying attention.
They noticed trends, started asking questions, and began organizing. Slowly, their idea picked up steam.
“David, Roger, and I talked about this concept of where are we going to be in 2040,” Taylor-Olson told The Commons at the conference. “We actually had not forecasted that it would evolve to this level. And I think the key point is that as we talked about inviting Senior Solutions and [Center for Solace] to join our conversations, we discovered so many other social service organizations in town were also thinking about this.”
Before Windham Aging, every agency was in its own silo, Taylor-Olson said.
“Then Brattleboro Memorial Hospital, with the Brattleboro Retreat and with Rescue, and some legal aspect, developed their collaboration for Groundworks,” Taylor-Olson said. “And we realized, ‘Yeah, that’s where it’s at! Collaboration!’ But it was just the three of us. We didn’t really have the infrastructure.”
They created a strategic plan and hired a strong program coordinator. Windham Aging began to grow.
Today, the collaborative consists of organizations ranging from Rescue Inc. to Windham Regional Commission, from the Vermont Agency of Transportation to Grace Cottage Family Health and Hospital, from the Windham & Windsor Housing Trust to Groundworks Collaborative, from Senior Solutions to the Vermont Department of Health, from the Leahy Institute for Rural Partnerships to St. Michael’s Episcopal Church.
Isolation and lack of socialization
“We need to make Windham County a happy place,” said co-founder Neumeister, who also spoke at the conference.
Ageism is systemic in American culture, according to the Vermont Department of Disabilities, Aging and Independent Living (DAIL). Some of the many problems seniors face are difficult and take political will, time, and money to solve, such as building more senior housing and staffing it.
But some are as simple as redesigning supermarkets to assist seniors, adding more accessible parking, grab bars and lower shelves throughout the store, and wider aisles for motorized shopping carts.
Other help seniors might need? Assistance with downsizing. Bus or cab transportation that can reach homes in the backwoods. Financial help. Assistance for those who want to live with relatives or share their homes with compatible strangers. Age-specific housing built on one level. More residential care homes. More skilled nurses and caretakers.
According to DAIL, Vermont has the second largest population of adults 60 or older in the nation — 30%, or 194,000 oldsters. And here in Windham County, 26.1% of the population is over 65, making it the third-oldest county in Vermont.
“The greatest health concern for seniors is isolation and the lack of socialization,” said Dr. Rudy Fedrizzi, Brattleboro Public Health Services district director of the Vermont Department of Health.
“Social isolation and loneliness are significant public health problems and are clear risks for death, depression, anxiety, and major cognitive impairment, including dementia,” Fedrizzi said. “According to a Harvard Study of Adult Development, the No. 1 factor to happiness is the quality of relationship and social connection.”
The state cares
The Windham Aging Collaborative is leading the way in Vermont, Angela Smith-Dieng, DAIL deputy commissioner, told the conference.
“Our mission is to make Vermont the best state to grow old in or to live with a disability, dignity, respect, and independence,” Smith-Dieng said. “We do that in collaboration with organizations across the state. We need this type of planning in every community, in every region of the state, and you are showing the way of how to do this at the local level, in collaboration, pulling together resources and taking action for your communities.
“We use Windham Aging as an example when we talk in other parts of the state about what you can do to support aging well,” she said.
Seniors already have some important benefits, Smith-Dieng said. These include Meals on Wheels, Medicaid, and adult day care centers, plus some senior housing, case management, caregiver support, and dementia respite grants.
“These are just a few of the services that people are receiving now and again,” Smith-Dieng said. “It’s really just a small portion of the need that we see in the community.”
Many Vermonters want to age in place, she said.
“What that means is be able to live in their own home as long as possible, or live in their community as long as possible,” Smith-Dieng said. “So we try to ensure that people can receive services in their own home, if that is their choice.”
The problem is there is far too little assistance available.
“We have residential care homes and assisted living residences,” Smith-Dieng said. “And then, if folks need a higher level of care, then we also have skilled nursing facilities which are a 24/7 option for people.
“We have adult family care options. And at the sort of highest level of care for those who need a nursing home but also have really complex needs, like mental health needs and or substance use needs or significant behaviors, we have a specialized skilled nursing facility in Bennington.
“We are working really hard across the state, with all of our partners, to build capacity across this continuum of care,” she said.
As of 2025, Vermont had 33 skilled nursing facilities across the state and 81 residential care and assisted living facilities that accept Medicaid, Smith-Dieng said.
“There are almost 2,900 skilled nursing facility beds across the state,” she said. “They’re at 88% occupancy, which means we’ve seen a continual increase since the pandemic. So we know we need to build capacity in that setting. Nursing homes, where people can receive care and support, is another area where we need to build capacity.”
The state alone cannot solve all the problems, build all the necessary housing, and provide all the services that seniors need, Smith-Dieng said.
“It really takes significant collaboration and partnership to make this work,” she said.
“It’s not that state government is leading everything or is doing all of this work,” Smith-Dieng added. “We really rely on our community partners, many of whom are here in this room, to be doing the direct care and direct support of older adults and the communities that provide services for them across Vermont.”
The aging landscape
Fedrizzi said that while Vermont usually scores high in the health of its citizens, the statistics change when you look at the data about seniors.
“There’s a variety of measures where we’re actually in the lowest half of all states in the U.S.,” he said —specifically, motor vehicle deaths, cancer screenings, the number of geriatric providers, vaccination rates, excessive alcohol drinking, falls, hospice care, and suicides.
“So there’s a lot of work to do,” Fedrizzi said.
Seniors also clearly need more financial support.
“A significant percentage of Vermonters live at or below the poverty line, are food insecure and unaware of programs and services,” Fedrizzi said.
Demographics are also against the aged.
“A 2030 estimate is that every other population cohort is losing population, except for the 65 and older in our county,” Fedrizzi said. “And you can see a dramatic increase in the growth of that age cohort of 65 and older.”
What will that mean?
“It’ll mean fewer young Windham County residents to be working, to be paying taxes, to be available for caregiving,” Fedrizzi said. “So it’s a real stressor to our future.”
At all levels, there are ways to improve seniors’s lives, he said.
“At the individual level, there’s providing wholesome food and medically tailored meals to individuals,” he said. “There’s things we can do at sort of the family and social level, like providing support for caregivers.”
Fedrizzi also listed “things we can do organizationally, like turning libraries into hubs of service delivery, things we can do for the entire community, like the community cares model, and things we should be doing societally, like improving the laws and policies that support us.”
“We all need to be rowing in the same direction and in the same boat,” he said.
Some help is available
Senior Solutions, the area agency on aging in southeastern Vermont, has a major role to play in this arena, retiring Executive Director Mark Boutwell told the conference.
“We have a contract with Vermont Legal Aid to provide legal services,” Boutwell said. “We help provide nutrition services. The federal government provides funding that we pass through to senior centers and meal sites to provide nutritional services. This covers good meals, home-delivered meals, nutrition education and nutritional counseling.”
The organization also offers attention to senior health.
“We promote things like Tai Chi,”Boutwell said. “We have a program that helps caregivers take care of themselves, which is a home medication reconciliation program.”
The agency also provides “critical”services for caregivers, including education, respite care, and access to information. Senior Solutions, working with Vermont Legal Aid, also provides services for prevention of abuse and neglect.”
Every three years, the state develops a state plan on aging, Boutwell said. In conjunction, Senior Solutions develops its own plan.
One of the most critical needs of elders today, and related to housing, is income.
“Vermont has the 10th highest cost of living in the country,” Boutwell said. “When you think about the population of older Vermonters who are challenged to live here and meet their expenses, that’s a heavy lift.”
The state is also one of the most rural in the country, making it “a challenging state to live in and give services to,” he said.
“And, if you think about it, it’s not a very big state compared to places like Wyoming or Alaska,” Boutwell said. “This designation of rural means that most of the population lives outside of municipal centers.”
Boutwell observed that from the details of its Meals on Wheels deliveries, the agency is aware “that so many Vermonters live out in the hills, out on dirt roads.”
“We know it’s a challenge to get into town, especially on snowy January days,” he said.
To make things even more difficult, Vermont ranks 18th highest state in the nation in falling incidents, Boutwell said. “So we’re above the average on fall incidents in Vermont, also on caregiver support and respite.”
In addition, Senior Services provides fraud and scam prevention. “We hear this more and more every day, about different ways our seniors are targeted,” he said.
Boutwell pointed out that almost 30,000 caregivers live in Vermont.
“And if you do the math in Windham County, that means there are 2,000 Vermonters in Windham County providing care to a loved one with dementia or Alzheimer’s disease,” he said.
“We need to reach out to those people. We need to provide services and supports. We all know what a challenge it is to provide care to a loved one. It’s 24/7. There’s hardly any respite, and so that’s a huge priority for me and Senior Solutions, to expand our caregiver services and supports in Windham County.”
Senior Solutions needs to do more outreach, Boutwell said.
“We’ve seen the population figures and we know that, in Windham County, the poverty rate is about 11%,” he said. “That means that 1,200 older Vermonters in Windham County are living at or below the federal poverty level.”
The federal poverty level for a couple is $1,600 a month.
“That’s less than $20,000 a year,” Boutwell said. “We have to reach those people. That’s always been my goal as executive director, to reach those people who are in need of our services.”
Seniors in trouble
Becky Best, Groundworks Collaborative’s director of shelters, amplified Boutwell’s remarks about elders falling into poverty.
“From 2020, to 2025, our data demonstrated a really significant and concerning increase in aging adults over 55 that are utilizing our drop-in center and overnight shelter services,” Best said.
In 2020, Groundworks served 24 clients in this age group, which represented 21% of the organization’s total client population, Best said.
By 2025, this number has more than doubled, to 56 clients, now compromising 30% of its total clientele. The most dramatic surge occurred between 2024 and 2025, with a 40% year over year increase, from 40 to 56 clients.
This upward trajectory in desperation may be terrifying and heartbreaking in itself, but it is also significant because as these older individuals experience higher levels of medical needs, substance use challenges, and mental health disorders, many become unable to maintain stability even within the shelter environment.
“When this occurs, they frequently do transition to unsheltered homelessness, at which point they require intensive intervention and support from our street outreach team, EMS services in Brattleboro, the police department, and Brattleboro Memorial Hospital,” Best said.
She added that the pattern “creates a cascading service demand, where our growing 55-plus population not only represents our current clients, but also provides a snapshot of Windham County’s overall aging population who will need continued support and care as their various conditions become increasingly complex.”
Groundworks’ street outreach team confirms the worst, Best said.
Their data showed, in 2025, that “we connected with 74 unique individuals over the age of 55 who are experiencing literal homelessness,” Best said. “Thirty-four of those were living with chronic conditions such as COPD, arthritis, and diabetes. Thirty-one suffered from mobility issues ranging from limping to being wheelchair-bound.
“Additionally, 19 individuals reported struggling with active substance use disorder involving alcohol, drugs, or both,” she said. “And 46 reported suffering from mental health disorders. Twenty-two were living with developmental disabilities.”
These overlapping and compounding health challenges “underscore the critical need for this coordination and collaboration, and we hope to be able to work together,” she said.
Drew Hazelton, the chief of operations at Rescue Inc., described the mobile integrated health program his organization runs in conjunction with Brattleboro Memorial Hospital. In this program, Rescue visits people in their homes after such serious illnesses that include surgery, as well as ailments such as congestive heart failure, COPD, and chronic pulmonary disease.
The visits save trips to hospital emergency departments and is helpful for patients and their families.
But the program is not funded, according to the hospital. It initially had some grant funding, but BMH, already strapped for cash, has been paying for it since the grant ran out.
Hazelton said that his responders, when they visit people at home, first ask if the patients have advanced directives for end-of-life care.
“In my professional experience, being at the bedside of patients in their homes who may have an unexpected medical condition,” Hazelton said, “is that the family may not know what the patient’s wishes are, or have conflicting understandings of what those wishes are. Conversations around advanced directives are extremely important. We are arriving at your home, but we are following the wishes of the patient.
“It’s important that the family understands,” Hazelton continued, noting “near-domestic disputes over whether care should be withheld or not during some very challenging times.”
“So our advice is about family planning and discussion and making sure that your wishes are known,” he said. “I think it’s really, really important.”
For the future
Chris Campany, the executive director of the Windham Regional Commission, emphasized the need for more planning for the elderly that includes input from younger people.
“I’m 59, and oftentimes when I’m meeting with town selectboards and planning commissions, I’m still the youngest person in the room,” Campany said.
“As part of our preparedness, we need to build a larger kind of can-do coalition between our aging population, oftentimes engaging with older people who are decision-makers,” he said.
“But then, frankly, we need to bring in younger people who also have the very same needs, like health care needs, housing needs, mobility needs, being able to better address the cost of living,” he continued. “These are shared needs.”
Campany urged Windham Aging and its partners to meld the wisdom and knowledge of the elders with the needs of younger adults.
“When I’m working with different planning commissions and electors, often I’m hearing that because of the aging population, all the things that are needed can’t be done because of fixed incomes,” he said.
“But if we continue to divest and not invest in new things — just the basic infrastructure support, the basic things that we need — we’re going to continue to lose ground as we continue to have an aging population,” he added.
Campany framed some questions.
“How do we go from talking about things to doing things? Is there a broader coalition? How can we go beyond talking about things and doing things by using intergenerational wisdom?” he said.
This News item by Joyce Marcel was written for The Commons.