WELLS — Maine’s population is old and getting older. How to care for an aging population is a concern for many.

Several local communities have formed aging committees, and state legislators are also taking an interest – including House Speaker Mark Eves, D-North Berwick, who has been conducting a listening tour around the state regarding aging.

Starting this fall, York County Community College will be doing its part to address the issue. In September, it will offer a gerontology program to prepare students to deal with the “graying” of the state.

Students will learn about issues related specifically to senior citizens, and can earn an associate’s degree and/or gerontology certificate. The school and those consulted by the school while developing the program are confident that graduates will have no difficulty finding jobs.

Based on statistics, this program couldn’t come at a better time.

At 44.2, Maine’s median age is the oldest in the country, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Also according to the Census Bureau, Maine – second only to Florida – has the highest percentage (18.3 percent ) of residents ages 65 and older.

And the number of senior citizens will grow for the foreseeable future.

Maine has the highest number of baby boomers – those born between 1946 and 1964 – per capita in the nation, said Marilyn Gugliucci, Ph.D., director of Geriatrics Education and Research at the University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine. She said 18,000 people in the state turn 65 each year.

To help deal with this population, enter York County Community College.

YCCC’s program is “the only associate degree in gerontology in the state of Maine,” said Lisa Murphy, the community college’s chair of the Department of Gerontology and Social Sciences.

“We have an aging population in Maine,” said Murphy, and “we’re trying to help students develop careers in aging.”

Some of the courses in the program include Psychology of Aging, Sociology of Aging, and Death and Dying.

Because all the courses can be taken online, those already working in the field – or in another field but planning to move into a career in gerontology – will have easy access.

For those who enroll in the program, there are a number of careers to which they will be suited, said Murphy, such as elderly companions, personal care aides, recreation planners, wellness coaches and more.

In addition, graduates with associate’s degrees will be able to transfer to a four-year school to pursue a bachelor’s degree in a related field.

In creating the program, which took about a year to develop, the college consulted business leaders in the field. One of them was Angela Hunt, CEO of The Cedars, a retirement community in Portland.

YCCC’s gerontology program is needed, Hunt said, because “we’re very concerned about the health care shortage in the state of Maine. We need to get young people interested in health care, and interested in geriatrics.”

Courses that focus specifically on gerontology when training those who will work with an older population are important, said Hunt. “As you age, your whole physiology changes.”

There are different types of diseases that seniors contract. They become frail, they have more mental health issues like dementia, and there are other health concerns specific to them.

“Just like pediatrics is specialty, gerontology is a specialty,” Hunt said.

Studying gerontology “gives a person a background as to what the aging process is like. It gives a person a little more understanding of our residents, and gives them more sensitivity.”

Gugliucci was also consulted by YCCC in creating its program. An expert in the field, she is on the recently formed Accreditation for Gerontology Education Council, which accredits associate’s, baccalaureate and master’s degree programs worldwide.

“We clearly need people trained in gerontology, and the YCCC associate degree in gerontology is a very important program for our state,” she wrote in an email. “Anyone graduating from this program will have a firm foundation from which to contribute to Maine’s high number of aging initiatives, plus graduates can build on their associate’s degree in a number of areas such as health care, social services, business, marketing, theology, law, etc.

“Aging is universal, so preparation in this field is a great foundation from which to build professional and personal lifelong structures.”

In addition to the gerontology program, YCCC is also starting a tourism and hospitality program that will be offered in October.

— Associate Editor Dina Mendros can be contacted at 282-1535, ext. 324 or dmendros@journaltribune.com.