University community members innovate health solutions for Mainers at UNE-Roux summit

Faculty and students at the University of New England, in partnership with the Roux Institute at Northeastern University, are tackling some of the region’s most critical societal issues: a dearth of affordable housing and the need for older adults to live independently.

Earlier this fall, members of the UNE community convened on the University’s Portland Campus for the Health Sciences for the Healthcare Innovation Start Summit. The topic of the two-day summit was “Opportunities and Challenges with Aging in Place” and included panel discussions and design thinking exercises on promoting healthful aging in Maine and New England.

It was here that Erin McCall, OTD, M.S.O.T., OTR/L, assistant clinical professor of occupational therapy at UNE, met College of Osteopathic Medicine student Gabrielle McGeorge (D.O., ’27). Together, along with two representatives from The Roux Institute, they met with several of UNE’s Legacy Scholars — a group of people 55-and-older who participate in aging research through the University — to hear about challenges older adults are facing today.

Many of the scholars, McCall said, discussed their concerns around remaining in their homes amid increasing physical limitations and the soaring cost of living.

To address these concerns, the group brainstormed a solution to ease life for older adults while confronting Maine’s growing housing crisis. They devised an idea to pair health professions students — who are increasingly flocking to Portland for its health infrastructure — with area older adults for living arrangements that benefit both parties, offering reduced housing costs in exchange for essential support services.

“By facilitating affordable housing that an older adult might have available, like a room for rent, to a health care student who could assist the older adult with basic chores or social opportunities like sharing meals, this program strives to create a mutually beneficial living arrangement,” McCall said. “The older adults will benefit from the companionship and rental income that will allow them to age in place, and the students will benefit from talking with people who are part of a population they very well might work with someday in our health care system.”

Amidst soaring housing prices and a scarcity of affordable accommodations in Portland, this creative solution aims to address the housing crisis while simultaneously catering to the needs of the aging population. Spearheaded members from within Portland's medical community, this initiative is heralded as a prime example of interprofessional collaboration and community-based solutions.

“As an Age Friendly University, UNE is well poised to promote housing solutions for older adults, and we’re also well positioned to facilitate answers for our students amid the housing crunch,” McCall said. “It’s a win-win.”

The group took home $2,000 in seed money to kickstart a plan to put their idea into action. While they are still exploring methods for pairing eligible students and seniors, including development of a potential mobile application, McCall and McGeorge are eager to continue conversations around innovation in the health-care sphere.

“Hearing from community members about the problems they were facing really put it into perspective that, as medical students, we might think we know what our patients need and what they might be facing, but we really don’t unless we start a conversation,” McGeorge commented. “The summit provided me with the valuable experience of getting to form an idea from scratch, workshop it with like-minded peers, and develop a concept to improve people’s lives that we all felt passionate about.”