Gateway to the New World of Aging Conference in San Francisco by Noëlle Merrill, Executive Director

Imagine having an inexpensive device that speaks up and reminds you to take your medication or that alerts an emergency response team if your cane hits the floor? These are some of the innovations that were predicted in San Francisco at last month’s National Association of Area Agencies on Aging Conference. San Francisco and its surrounding area is the birthplace of many incredible computer related innovations, so none of the attendees had a difficult time imagining that there were people working on ways to help keep us all at home in the future - safely and effectively.

In regards to housing, I attended a workshop that covered how to discuss housing options with seniors. Look for Eastern Agency on Aging to offer some informational sessions on how to make choices about your housing needs. I have always been baffled at the variety of housing options, that while different from one another, use the same description. This accounts for why many people give up soon after starting to research assisted living, residential care, retirement communities, continuum of care communities and nursing homes. As I mentioned in last month’s article, making decisions for long-term living arrangements is an extremely important task that many people put off until it’s too late. If you need to start that search, be sure to call us at Eastern Agency on Aging. We are here to help you sort through the options.

The conference key note speaker, Josefina G. Carbonell, the U.S. Assistant Secretary for Aging, spoke about the modernizing of the Older Americans Act by discussing “Choices for Independence.” While currently a demonstration project, Choices aims to strengthen the nation’s capacity to promote the dignity and independence of older people and meet the challenges associated with the aging of the very large baby boomer generation. It also aims to supplement the President’s New Freedom Initiative and Administration's policy for modernizing Medicare and Medicaid by strengthening the Act’s role in promoting consumer choice, control and independence in long-term care. You can see examples of change in Medicare by looking at the new preventive care checklist now available for consumers.

Eastern Agency is already involved in the Choices program as the pilot for the first Aging and Disability Resource Center - locally known as the DASH (Disability and Aging Services Helpline) Network - in the State of Maine. DASH is one stop shopping for service needs in Eastern Maine. The Choices concept hopes to help individuals make informed decisions about their long-term support options, provide more choices for people at high risk of nursing home placement and enable older people to make behavioral changes that will reduce their risk of disease, disability and injury as they age. Josefina received a standing ovation for her advocacy work in the effort to re-authorize the Older Americans Act this year.

While in San Francisco, I visited the famous International Hotel where in 1977, the city of San Francisco used “eminent domain” to evict all the elderly Asian Americans living there in order to make room for more high rise hotels and office buildings. It was hard for many of us on this tour to imagine that city officials could be so cold hearted towards the elderly! Because of the tragic circumstances of the eviction, no corporation ever built on that site.

Eventually a Chinatown Community Development Center was formed and with help from the city and other governmental entities, it was able to rebuild low income elderly housing in the same location 28 years later. Housing in San Francisco is very scarce and expensive with the average home costing about $700,000. Because of the high cost of housing, there is a waiting list of at least 500 people for a room or apartment in any low-income housing setting in the San Francisco area.

Eastern Agency on Aging was in the spotlight during this national conference as well, winning three achievement awards for Vest Dressed for Safety, Senior Talk, a half-hour radio show hosted by Carol Higgins that airs on WVOM, 103.9 at 6:30 a.m. on Saturdays and on WABI AM910 at 8 a.m. on Saturdays and 9 a.m. on Sundays, and for The Editorial Page, an interactive page where people can comment on our editorials. See home page of our website for the Editorial Page and please share your thoughts with us.

I was very proud to be able to represent our agency in receiving accolades for these innovative programs.