Gov. Wes Moore appointed Carmel Roques to lead the Maryland Department of Aging this week. For the past decade, Roques led Keswick Multi-Care as CEO, which is a nearly 140-year-old organization that runs a short-term rehabilitation facility and continuing care retirement community in Baltimore.
In April 2021, Roques told The Daily Record newspaper that one lesson learned during the coronavirus pandemic which has now lingered for nearly three years, was that ‘major reform’ and not just new laws was needed to improve the life of older people in Maryland.
“Long-term care supports and services — in particular nursing home care — is in need of major policy and funding reform,” Roques said. “New regulations will not fix the complex systemic and structural problems we are facing as our nation ages.”
Roques has a master’s degree in social service administration, a bachelor’s degree in sociology, philosophy and religion. She’s a licensed clinical social worker and nursing home administrator. Keswick Multi-Care is a Baltimore short-term rehabilitation facility and continuing care retirement community with 242 beds. It participates in Medicare, the federal health insurance for older adults and Medicaid, a state administered program for low-income eligible residents.
Roques is now tasked to improve housing, health and community services for older adults across Maryland.
The statewide chapter of a national lobbying group, LeadingAge, “had encouraged the Governor-elect to appoint a Secretary who will clearly and consistently serve as a voice for older Marylanders, in partnership with others,” according to the new CEO of Keswick, Aileen McShea Tinney. “LeadingAge Maryland is ready. Keswick is ready.”
LeadingAge Maryland is just one chapter of a national association of 6,000 not-for-profit organizations that serve older adults which lobby governments to change laws.
Allison Roenigk Ciborowski president and CEO of LeadingAge Maryland said that Roque’s appointment in the Moore-Miller administration is “incredibly promising.”
She's knowledgeable and engaged with the broader community, and she will be poised to bring together the right stakeholders to address the complex issues that are facing older Marylanders,” Roenigk Ciborowski said. “Her firsthand experience and understanding of these complexities facing older adults and organizations who serve them will be invaluable.”
Advocacy group leaders lauded the Moore-Miller administration’s choice by tapping Roques.
“I've seen firsthand what an innovative thinker and visionary she is and how collaborative she is in tackling complex challenges,” said David McShea, executive director of the Greater Maryland Alzheimer's Association. “I'm grateful to know that Carmel has deep firsthand experience working with people with dementia as she previously served as the executive director of Copper Ridge, the first memory care facility in the state.”
The population of residents Roques will oversee is only getting larger in Maryland, according to the AARP.
There are already more than 1 million Maryland residents older than 60 years old. By the end of this decade, about 25% of the state population will be older than 60 years old.
“We are particularly pleased that Ms. Roques comes with a background in both aging and mental health, issues that are priorities for AARP,” said Hank Greenberg, AARP director for Maryland.
Roques will work in tandem with Dr. Laura Herrera Scott, who will serve as the state secretary of health.
There were five other new appointments to the Moore-Miller administration: Salisbury Mayor Jake Day as housing and community development secretary, Serena McIlwain as environment secretary, Kevin Atticks as agriculture secretary, Josh Kurtz as secretary of natural resources and Carol Beatty as secretary of disabilities.
