Coastal Enterprises has won $40,000 to help find ways for people with chronic health conditions to keep living at home.

The money is coming from the Maine Health Access Foundation; it awarded $320,000 in grants to the Wiscasset nonprofit and seven other organizations, according to a foundation press release.

The “Thriving in Place” project aims to pinpoint services and policies that support people at risk of being hospitalized or institutionalized, the release states.

Coastal Enterprises will be working with groups including Spectrum Generations, MaineHealth, Lincoln County Healthcare, Kno-Wal-Lin, Full Circle America, Coastal Trans, Lincoln County Eldercare Network, Boothbay Region Health & Wellness Foundation, Bingham Program and the Maine Long-Term Care Ombudsman program, a Coastal Enterprises spokeswoman said.

Former Maine lawmaker Les Fossel of Alna is a partner in the project.

“We will also be adding two people representing a consumer and family caregiver,” spokeswoman Elizabeth Rogers writes in a November 25 email to the Wiscasset Newspaper.

“Community engagement is a key part of the strategy development process,” Rogers writes. “CEI and partners intend to conduct a series of stakeholder interviews and conversations to understand barriers and opportunities for Lincoln County residents who are aging at home, but are vulnerable to hospitalization or institutionalization.”

The grant will cover one year's work, and allow Coastal Enterprises and its partners on the project to seek more funding from the foundation, Rogers' email states.

Maine has the oldest population and one of the highest disability rates in the nation, according to the foundation's press release. “(T)here’s a pressing need to plan now for strategies that can help people, particularly those who are older, stay healthy and receive needed care and support at home,” foundation president Wendy Wolf states in the release.

“It’s no surprise that older and disabled Mainers overwhelmingly say that they want to remain in their homes and communities; yet our current resources are not up to the task of meeting their expectations,” Wolf continues. “Through the Thriving in Place initiative, organizations will work together with local residents to determine how we can keep people out of the hospital or nursing home so they can stay in their community.”

Coastal Enterprises began working to address issues of aging in Lincoln County in 2012.