(Spirit Lake)– The head of an agency that provides services to those 60 and over in 29 counties of northern and northwest Iowa, including Dickinson, says the demand for their services only continues to grow. Meanwhile, Stacia Timmer, CEO of Elderbridge, says at the same time, their funding sources continue to shrivel…
“I can tell you since the pandemic we have had almost a 1.5 million dollar decrease over the years. I do not foresee us every getting back to pre-pandemic funding. That’s a wish, but I don’t think that’s going to happen. So we have been quite creative, we write grants, we don’t just solely try to focus and depend on our state and federal funding, it’s not reliable all the time and so we do what we can. We do a lot with our state and federal funding.”
She says one of their largest spending areas is with the Dinner Date program…
“Fy ’24 to fy ’25 the number of congregate meals has increased, so has the cost. We see a small increase in the units that we provided as well as the cost of that service.”
Timmer says they provide a number of other services and resources as well…
“We work a lot with caregivers, we provide case management not just for caregivers but for individuals that need long term support in their home. Our main mission is to keep people where they want to be and most people, 99 percent, say I want to stay in my house, so that is what we do. Everything we do is driven to keeping people as healthy and safe and independent as they can be in their home.”
And while most of the folks Elderbridge serves are 60 and over, Timmer says that isn’t always the case…
“We have a lot of individuals that come in that are aging that are taking care of aging parents, friends, family, that don’t know what services are out there and our staff are really well versed and I would like to say are experts in all things aging. What you don’t know, we may. We work with a lot of providers, we work with a lot of programs around the area. We contract with a lot of direct providers as well and so instead of individuals trying to figure out and maneuver this complicated system, they’re much better off calling us and we will provide that information and direction as well.”
Timmer says in Dickinson county alone in fiscal year 2025, Elderbridge provided more than $238,000 in services. She adds nearly 36 percent of Dickinson county’s population in fiscal year 2025 was age 60 and over, according to census figures.
