UMaine researcher presents 'solo aging' findings; urges more local data and provider resources

Chealsea, a researcher with the Center on Aging at the University of Maine, presented a new study on "solo aging" to a Bangor City audience, summarizing focus-group findings, a multi-state provider survey and an accompanying website of curated resources.

The project, funded in part through an HRSA-supported grant administered by MCD Global and carried out in collaboration with the Cutler Institute, combined 34 focus-group participants, four key informant interviews, about 200 provider-survey invitations (roughly 50 usable responses) and an 11-person website pilot, the presenter said. "Solo aging is the new and more inclusive term," she said, explaining why the research team avoided the older label "elder orphan."

Why it matters: the presenter said current data are limited by inconsistent definitions but nonetheless show substantial prevalence: "25.8% of older adults 65 plus live alone" nationally, and in Bangor she read a city-specific rate of "36.1%," underscoring local relevance. She also flagged gender disparities: "43% of women 75 plus live alone versus only 24% of men."

The provider survey suggested demand for practical tools. According to the presenter, about two-thirds of respondents had heard the term "solo aging," but "less than a third reported asking specifically either their clients or their patients about living alone," and approximately 85% of providers indicated they would be "extremely or very interested" in resources to better support solo agers.

Policy implications and tools: the researcher urged jurisdictions to gather more nuanced data and to consider practical interventions. She raised surrogate decision-making as a policy gap, saying, "To my knowledge, there is no state in the country that allows an entity to be named as a surrogate decision-maker," and suggested that policy analysts and higher-education partners explore the liabilities and benefits of institutional or entity-based proxies.

The team launched a website, soloagingresourcecenter.org, as a publicly accessible hub of research summaries, curated articles and a conversation guide intended for clinicians and social-service workers to identify risks across three domains: network size, network engagement and network support. "We bought that name, soloagingresourcecenter.org, and just built a free site on Google," she said, noting limited ongoing funding to maintain it.

Participants raised local concerns during Q&A, including transportation for medical appointments, winter isolation in rural areas, and the practical challenge of asking older patients about living alone in clinical settings. The presenter suggested neighborhood-level pilots, volunteer "champions" to organize local support, and embedding brief screening questions into existing state planning tools; she said her team plans to propose adding questions about solo agers in the statewide needs assessment for aging due in 2027.

The session closed with the presenter offering follow-up and an invitation for local feedback; no formal vote or regulatory action was taken.

Ending: The project leader encouraged Bangor-area providers and community groups to review the website and consider local pilots to test conversation guides and support models for residents aging without reliable close supports.