The New Old Age | Aging Matters | NPT Reports

[Music] coming up on Aging matters people are staying active in their social lives in their work lives much more so than when my grandparents were in the retirement age I seem to have a lot of younger friends and they say to me Miss how did you know that you're so smart and I'll say no I'm not that smart I'm that old people are afraid of losing their place in society when they can't perform and that makes them fear age and aging geriatrics requires that you think a lot the reimbursement system reimburses more for procedures than

it does for thinking there a whole bunch of issues coming down the pipe affordable housing Transportation livable communities healthy aging really need to make sure that people understand what we're facing in Tennessee so we don't really have the choice to walk away but we also don't yet have the will to take it on [Music] major funding for npt reports aging matters is provided by siga healthspring lead sponsor of npt reports aging matters the West End home Foundation support in the care of seniors through many organizations in Middle Tennessee the Janette Travis Foundation dedicated to improving

the health and well-being of the Middle Tennessee community and by members of npt thank you it happens to all of us one day you look in the mirror and notice a wrinkle or a gray hair and realize that time does not stop for you aging will happen whether we want it to or not hi I'm Kathy Mata what it means to age in America has changed a lot since my grandparents day for the most part we are living longer and healthier lives what is this longevity boom mean for us our families and the communities we

live in in this aging matters overview episode Nashville Public Television takes a look at how aging impacts all of us whether we're 20 60 or 80 years old how will our needs change as we get older and are the supports and systems currently in place meeting the needs of older citizens and as a member of the baby boom generation I have to ask are these systems ready for us from the way in which Medical Care is delivered to how seniors can stay in their homes for as long as possible to how employers handle a Workforce

increasingly stressed by caregiving these systems will certainly feel the effect of an older population that is getting bigger and bigger join me as we explore the answers to these questions there has never been a better time to grow old if you are 65 now you are much less likely to live in poverty than in 1959 you are probably better educated than in 1965 being three times more likely to have a high school diploma you are much less likely to die of heart disease and stroke than your grandparents and you'll live more of your senior years

without disability if you are 65 now you can expect to live an average of 19 more years 5 years longer than in 196 but your long life will bring more [Music] challenges you will have 6 to 10 years during which you no longer drive if you are 65 now there's a 70% chance that you will eventually need long-term care services for an average of 3 years if you're a woman you would likely need these services longer you will most likely rely on family to provide your care but you will also have far fewer family members

who can help than your grandparents did and there will be fewer younger workers to support you if you live in Tennessee there's a good chance your health is worse than seniors in 40 other states and you are much more likely to face the threat of [Music] hunger living longer in frailer health also means that you will spend more money on Health Care in your last 5 years of life on average over $38,000 if you must live in a nursing home these out-of-pocket expenses could average $112,000 to $163,000 if you are 65 now you are not

alone your baby boom generation will more than double the number of seniors from 2012 to 20160 if you are younger than 65 your life will undoubtedly feel the impact of an aging population whether in the workplace the home or in the community are you ready for the new old age [Music] I never gave a thought as to when I would retire or how I would retire my husband was 10 years older than myself and I always thought that we would love to travel travel always had interested me interested us and uh those were the things

that we had talked about I think 65 was somewhere in my mind but that was the future that was not what I was doing at that particular point in time when Sandy Ray's company closed down its Nashville Office Ry found herself at retirement age but not interested in staying home I thought well I'll take the summer off we' been through a really traumatic period at work there I'll take the summer off and see what's going on in the fall when the fall came I realized that I was having such a wonderful time in retirement that

I just let that go inhale and exhale my lovelies inhale and exhale wonderful again but travel and Leisure weren't on her agenda Ray found a new career career when she was asked to teach senior Fitness classes at her gym and how about some squats down and up I said yeah sure that sounds like fun do what I like to do and get paid that lovely idea so I went and I took the course that was back in I believe it was 2004 when I began and it's hard to believe that I'm in my 10th year

of doing this it doesn't seem like that at all at 76 Ry doesn't plan to retire from her second career anytime soon she is not unlike many of her generation changing what it means to retire and to grow older what we're seeing now is that uh people are staying active in their social lives in their work lives much more so than when my grandparents were in the retirement age most people are pretty healthy as they go into their mid uh older years and that wasn't true back in the early part of this century and so

as we get to be into our mid 7s early 80s a lot of people function as well at that age as they do in their 50s up cross open and forward as a lifelong Fitness fanatic Ray continues to function quite well into her 70s but she is also very aware of how aging has affected her physical abilities my knees are just not what they used to be I don't think I have any cartilage left basically but I have adapted to that I'm a lot more careful today than I ever was to to make sure that

I am they not doing anything Reckless you definitely have to do that one of my favorite things is to say you may not be who you used to be but who will you be that I think is a very important thing for people as we age to really understand that while Ray could be described as aging successfully her story represents just one person's Journey lifestyle choices geogy graphy culture and the luck of the genetic draw means everyone's aging process is unique there really isn't a single state of Aging in America because there are so many

different communities and such diverse backgrounds and people see aging so differently based on where they come from this diversity of experiences is not necessarily reflected in dominant cultural perceptions what our culture believes is that old people are slow uh they're backward they're weak they're dependent on the real part of society which is the younger stronger part of society the assumption is in middle class culture and in mass culture um that's perpetuated by consumer culture that physiological aging is a bad thing rather than assuming that growing older physiologically is a natural thing it has some negative

consequences it has some positive consequences but the assumption is that it's bad and needs to be staved off in the United States the media believes in something I call the doctrine of youth's perfection in other words that very very brief moment in somewhere in your 20s when you were perfect and ever since then you've been going downhill that's the media narrative and so our society holds up very young inexperienced people as being the paragons of virtue and strength and idealizes them while setting aside real Elders with real lived experience making them virtually invisible in the

media we function off a philosophy that being young is the uh place to be as we are getting older We Fear what that's going to do to our status in life to how people view us to how people think we're competent or not I think there's a great fear that comes with getting older and it starts pretty young we split the negative and positive parts of Aging culturally in our minds you know we think aging is either good or it's bad so to make it good we'll take all that supplements all the testosterone all the

plastic surgery all the workout gym time that we can possibly get so that we can be at our best there's nothing wrong with that that's fine and wonderful what's really problematic is the fear that's underneath it if you live in a society where you are measured by judged by elevated by or diminished by your performance and your productivity you you live in fear of the day you can't run fast enough people are afraid of losing their place in society when they can't perform and that makes them fear age and aging the fear of Aging causes

us not to plan and that means not planning for our financial future not planning for our health care future and not planning for our kind of social psychological future on a community level we definitely are not planning our service support system is not adequate now we're doing things in very traditional ways still when the landscape of Aging is changing critically honey what what do you want to fix for lunch I don't know that's up to you in 2009 Cindy and Robin Roberts began looking for a new home we wanted to down size or as Cindy

refers to it right size to get our house in something that we can maintain when we're older we wanted to be able to have a house that was easy to get in and out of easy to maintain and we've moved a whole lot in our lifetime because of jobs and different situations and this was our 23rd move I think actually and we wanted it to be our last move the Roberts like the vast majority of Americans want to age in play face that is stay in their home as they get older in fact a recent

survey found that those aged 65 and older feared their loss of Independence or having to move into a nursing home more than they feared death but as Americans live to older ages what they need in a home can change the Roberts are trying to plan for that future by building a home with features that will allow them to stay even if their physical abilities change when we were building the home we wanted certain features like grab bars in the shower and tubs we wanted wood floors so we wouldn't have the upkeep of carpet extra lighting

put in in different places and we raised the cabinets in the bathroom one of the biggest things was it has no steps we don't have any steps to get in or out of the home it's all one level and he just recently put in bottom cabinet slides so we have easy access to our pots and pans and stuff what we see often are people who moved into a house when their kids were small and they've just lived there as they grow older and sometimes those accommodations are not amable to the changes we face as we

get older in that there might be many stairs to get into the house it might be a two-story house often door are small not wide enough to accommodate assisted devices bathrooms and bathtubs are often unsafe for people as they get older so as we're thinking about planning to age in place it's important to take a hard look at what are our [Music] accommodations for many seniors living on fixed incomes finding the funds to maintain their homes let alone to remodel can be challenging John Hirsch knows firsthand the need in Middle Tennessee he works with agencies

such as Tennessee's emergency repair program to make basic repairs in seniors homes this lady here bless her heart the unit she had had a cracked heat exchanger here and she just didn't have enough money to get it you know get it replaced with that single digit weather we had that's all she had for this whole house just the just the fireplace here they gave me an estimate how much one would cost and I was really down in my spirit because I didn't know when I would ever be able to to to do that and I

didn't want to take on any payment the emergency repair program is intended to assist low low-income elderly homeowners with home repairs without which they could not continue to live in their house the two highest priority projects for us since our money is pretty limited are roofs roof leak roof Replacements and heating and air conditioning units I cried when it happened to to the heating air and I cried when I knew they were about to do the work with joy and it just it means everything to know that as long as I'm able to take care

of myself or have Home Health that I can stay right here in my home that I love where my husband and I lived the greater Nashville Regional Council emergency repair program serves 30 counties with about $100,000 a year they can repair about 30 homes a year but maintain a waiting list largest sheer number of elderly lowincome people in our region is in Davidson county in Nashville well we serve 13 counties so we try to uh spread this money out as best we can the Nashville need is the one that just is is always baffling me

I just can't D it I just cannot yeah a lot of people need help there a whole lot of people need help you would be amazed and and the sad part about it the funds come and then the funds go and then the list gets larger and then when the funds come back then the The Log Jam breaks and then the funds stop and then the list grows again and it goes on and on and on you know and when the funds do come we try to get to as many people as we can you

know and some of them we just can't get to and that's heartbreaking when maintaining a home is beyond a person's means or desire finding an affordable alternative in the same neighborhood offers the chance to age in place while maintaining vital Community connections a successful aging in place neighborhood would have various different housing types from Apartments uh various sizes of single family homes to even the garage units in the back of a single family home so you have all of these different types of housing in the same neighborhood so that when you decide say your kids

go to college and and you want to have a smaller home and not maintenance for your yard anymore you can decide that you want to to move into a smaller house or even an apartment unit maybe it's in the town center of the neighborhood where the restaurant's just across the street so you can walk downstairs or or just walk out your front door and have access to a coffee shop or a part space in Nashville this kind of walkable neighborhood with a variety of housing options is not typical historically housing growth happened in the suburbs

with little integration between housing types you'll have the single family community that is not connected to the apartment community what we do have and what we've really started to focus on is looking at our back to our Urban neighborhoods and that's where we do have some of the diversity of housing what's starting to happen is there's not a diversity of affordability having a safe and affordable place to live does not guarantee the ability to stay in your home as you age it's not just a question of housing but having access to the food to Transportation

open spaces so that someone can have a full quality of life and they're not isolated in their home people often need to have Services brought to their homes perhaps they're having trouble cooking and need to have somebody to help them do that or Meals on Wheels brought in sometimes they have a hard time taking care of their daily needs such as bathing or doing their laundry and need to have somebody to come in that could be a paid person or perhaps a family member or several family members or even [Music] Neighbors in 2008 Walter claybrooks

suffered a stroke that dramatically changed his life after intensive Rehabilitation clay Brooks moved into a nursing home to continue relearning learning basic motor skills they had therapy there every day I had to take steps sometimes I had 500 or th000 steps I walk cuz I don't want to get out of there I wanted to be home mainly because of me he's out of there I told him he didn't come here to stay once he came back home his condition improved tremendously clay Brook still has significant impairment from the stroke requiring help with basic activities of

daily living his sister provides most of his care during the day and they hire caregivers to stay with Clay Brooks overnight to help me you know with my bath and all of my what I need hygiene and everything like breakfast like she fix they do that you know and she comes like she said she washes now and it's it's good if you didn't have your sister where would you be that's a good question I might be still in a nursing home nationally when you look at where caregiving takes place most of it is community based

those numbers play out to families and friends represent about 87% of the Cure that's actually being delivered um paid individuals or provider organizations that you pay only represent about 133% of the Cure that's actually being delivered across the US the role of family in caregiving is quite important it often falls on the daughters or daughters-in-law uh to be caregivers now in the past when women weren't as involved in the workforce as they are now then that kind of traditional role uh kind of fit into society but now that most families are two income families what

we're seeing is that there's a lot of economic cost to care giving a recent study estimated that family caregiving costs the US economy up to$ 28 billion a year in Lost productivity for Joanne Ford the economic costs are only one part of the burden I can't do a lot of things that I'd like to do I can't go a lot of places I'd like to go it's been trying um hard at times but we managed to make it people say that I empathize and sympathize with you but if you have not had to deal with

a person on the that level you can't say that you don't really understand I myself have to pray for patience it takes a lot of patience so I ask God every day for patience and wisdom good morning Mr Clay Brook how are you this morning three days a week clay Brooks go goes to a local Senior Center his weekly trips provide a necessary social outlet for him and much needed respit for his sister but without the ability to Drive Clay Brooks relies on Nashville's access ride program to pick him up and drop him off if

you didn't have access ride would you be able to get out I guess I asked my sister to well not like he does because the access ride provides services for the chair and all of the things that he need he can't go without them so it would be he would get to go some but it wouldn't be as much as as he does now how y'all doing this we're doing fine senior Transportation always shows up as one of the main issues for seniors we're fortunate in Tennessee to have public transportation in all 95 counties but

it doesn't necessarily mean that seniors get transported sometimes you need to actually help somebody from the door of their facility to help them into the van and then go with them to the doctor make sure they can get out stay with them and then get them back into the van and get them back to their house the problem is is that we don't have enough of it and it can be expensive in different places and if they can't get public transportation to take them then you're looking at further Health consequences if you got chronic disease

which most seniors have at least one getting to the doctor is important to manage that condition getting to the pharmacy to get your medications filled is critical getting to the grocery store to buy fresh produce is important all of that plays in to agent in place safely and effectively and I think for a long time we've ignored the fact that some of those basic simple basic needs are key to the healthc care delivery system cost that we incur in the United States access ride is the largest public transit services Tennessee for people with disabilities many

of them seniors in Nashville there are few other affordable door-to-door transport options for seniors without qualifying disabilities for clay Brooks access ride allows him to at least partly rejoin the life he had prior to his stroke it's very important that I get to leave home it's nice for my exercise and uh a piece of mind I I enjoy the program a combination of family and paid caregivers and access to Community Services allows clay Brooks to remain and Thrive at home but many seniors do not have the resources they need to age in place for many

years my medical practice was engaged by the county to do adult protective investigations in the home and I can tell you that there are more terrible things happening to Elders in their own homes than in all the nurs n in homes of America Aging in place is not some perfect Utopia it's often very difficult dangerous isolating hungry frightening experience for many older people Aging in place is probably what most people want to do and that works out well if you have planned for it you have the ccial stability and you have a good support system

lots of people don't have that often their peers have passed away their children may not be around their neighbors may have moved out so then what it's very easy for people who are isolated to go without things they need the basic things like having utilities turned on to having enough food to keep the place clean all of those kinds of supports have to be there for Aging in place to be successful you want something to drink yeah and your regular cup please I've been working with Miss deise about 14 years what I usually do is

vacuum uh sweep mop uh clean her bathroom dust go get her medicines pick up her medicines uh do her laundry for many years Margaret deis just needed a few few hours of help each week to be able to stay in her home something she's always wanted I'm want to wait on myself do for myself but sometimes it comes to a point you're going to have to let somebody help you you have to ask for help for deise that moment came after a Health crisis she qualified for inhome care as part of the 10 care choices

program an initiative started in 2009 to reign in Medicaid nursing home cost and allow people to live where they want at home they're real important because I didn't have them I'd be in a nursing home cuz I just come out the therapy and everything I stayed two months and I don't want to go back they were good to me but it's not home you don't have any privacy because sometimes I wake up at 1 or 2:00 in the morning I can get up and come in here and turn the TV on do what I want

to I think it's very important to her to be in her space I mean that's where her comfort zone is she enjoys her home she loves her home and I think that keeps her going conventional long-term care requires the person to change themselves to fit the institution and never demands that the institution change itself to fit the person that's the one thing that institutional long-term care just can't do and why people still hate it and why people fear [Music] it having been a nursing home administrator and I will share with you that we are very

patient centered now I could say client centered but at the end of the day the transition into a nursing home long term represents loss it represents loss of Independence it loss of what I had I don't think any human being wants to make that Journey prematurely so when you start stripping us of our independence I think that's what begins to strip the life out of us so I think it's very important that as long as possible that it's safe and we can afford it that you should be allowed to stay in your home or the

home of your choice outside of a nursing home since since 1995 the number of seniors living in nursing homes has declined dramatically in large part as States redirected their Medicaid spending from institutional to home-based care Tennessee lagged behind other states in shifting its Medicaid funding the 10 care choices program which pays for home-based care did not launch until 2010 since then however the amount of Tin Care long-term care funding spent on homebased care has increased increased instead of always depending on new dollars to be able to provide Home and Community Based Services we began to

look at long-term care funding holistically and really allowing preferences and needs to drive how that money was spent so that was important a second piece was really trying to provide um better coordination of care so that people understood their options and can really make meaningful choices about where they're receiving their services in 2014 we now have 40% of the population receiving their services in the Home and Community Based setting and a little under 60% in nursing homes with the shift towards providing more cost-efficient inhome services the tenare choices program has cleared its waiting list but

for tennesseans who don't qualify for Medicaid affordable long-term care support may be difficult to find what we have in Tennessee is a long-term services and support system that I would say very adequately meets the need of the very affluent and then at the other end of the spectrum are the lowest income folks who qualify for Medicaid tentin care where the greatest need is has been and continues to be uh since the launch of the choices program is the middle inome group so you have this large metal class that I believe and others believe are underserved

if you're an older person in our community and you need assistance our system is already over capacity we don't have enough of the support services sometimes I like to say that our services are a mile long and an inch deep so that lots of services have waiting lists already we have a tremendous need for inhome care services options is the program for basically non-medicaid eligible folks we can serve just under 3,000 people on our current program our waiting list right now is We Believe over 9,000 people trying to get into those Services there's just not

a sufficient answer at least from our program and from some other programs out there to try to address that need in Tennessee there are more than 100 public agencies that offer services for older adults as well as hundreds of nonprofit and for-profit organizations however finding and accessing all these options can be difficult one of the areas that I struggle with because I'm a daughter of Aging parents is the complexity of the system and navigating it and I'm in the business and I often times find it very comp complex and challenging so for someone not in

the business who is a caretaker I just can't imagine so I strongly believe that that cure coordination piece has to be there with some sh responsibility for the cost everybody I want you to be aware of your dominant hand so show me your do everybody hold up your dominant arm at Vanderbilt school of nursing students get a chance to explore how their future patients may experience the world so this is going to simulate having cataracts oh my gosh we used some glasses that would simulate either cataracts or the loss of half of a visual field

due to a stroke we use earplugs to simulate hearing loss we used some kernels on the tips of the fingers to simulate the loss of feeling that can be associated with neuropathy we also use tape on fingers to simulate loss of dexterity of smaller joints and wraps on some of the larger joints to simulate stiffness of those on Monday Wednesday Friday you're going to do 5 milligrams the rest of those pills just put one per day I had glasses on that simulated cataracts which was amazing to see how poorly it would make your sight so

I had to visually identify the pills put them in the right day by the right dosage and it was extremely difficult my hand was also wrapped up to stimulate arthritis and neuropathy so it had very little Piner grasp and hand strength really the only way I could do it was by color and um I could distinguish a little bit of size but had they not been very very distinct colors it probably would have been impossible When We're Young we take a lot for granted and I think that we have a tendency to assume that our

patients can do everything we can do and doing activities like this give us A New Perspective and a new awareness of where our patients are really coming from and what their realistic life is like and I think that that assists Us in tailoring our care and our interventions to their unique needs these future geriatric nurse practitioners will enter a medical system serving the unique needs of older adults who span a 40-year age range and a vast array of medical conditions the system that cares for these adults reflects a century of medical Innovation that has dramatically

changed the landscape of life for older [Music] Americans by the end of the 19th century uh you have a much more scientific culture you have the rise of biomedicine you have the discovery of microorganisms you have new theories of infectious disease you have the rise of hospitals so the system that was put in place is filled with optimism that science will eventually be able to find the cure for all diseases and this was based on the experience with the infectious diseases although that optimism has not proven to be accurate you also have a new medical

attention to old age and it's negative it's an assumption that old age equals sickness there's a shift in the culture from primarily religious ways of thinking to primarily scientific ways of thinking and aging began to fall under the rubric of Scientific Management they just took that whole model over from the Infectious Disease model and so they're spending time trying to find the cause of chronic diseases and the cure for chronic diseases and so old age starts to be seen as a kind of chronic [Music] illness if you're in the mindset that all of these processes

are ones that we should think of as medical problems or pathologies then your entire approach is going to be one of um not accepting what is a normal um life process but it's something that needs to be fixed one two we haven't really faced that we can't cure chronic diseases and that that is the model that has stayed in place and so this leads to the treatment of conditions that are really not [Music] diseases the best nursery rhyme that actually captures the traditional approach to Medicine in aging is Humpty Dumpty and what happens is Humpty

Dumpty sits on the wall has a great fall and then all the kings armies and All the King's Men try to put Humpty back together again that's the driving ideal of conventional medicine in the field of Aging this is the old argument of if some is good more must always be better I think people who take that view uh really unfortunately don't account for how much death damage overuse of medications overuse of treatments overuse of hospitalizations overuse of surgical techniques that does an enormous amount of damage to people The Institute of medicine estimates that overtreatment

takes a costly toll in both emotional and physical pain as well as Financial costing the nation's Health Care system and unnecessary $210 billion a year as a geriatrician I can tell you numerous stories of people who came into my practice admitted to the nursing home terminal going to die one of the first things I do I go to the med sheet I discontinue 18 or 20 medications they're dying why you know why they I don't need all these medicines 3 days later they wake up they're like where am I I want something to eat they

start walking around and I discharged them home they were actually literally being killed by the medicines that uh they were taking it's you know that road that's paved with good intentions that's the problem everybody wants more care everybody equates more care with more treatment and more treatment is a very dangerous thing especially for older people the medical model that encourages overt treatment is reinforced by the system that pays for that care Medicare Medicare is the primary health insurance for the vast majority of Americans over AG 65 it was set up at least in terms of

doctor's reimbursement as fee for service and that means that it rewards um the number of services that are provided so volume is what matters quantity is what matters and it doesn't favor prevention which is much less expensive uh it's not well reimbursed and this is not peculiar to Medicare this is true of our whole healthare system geriatrics requires that you think a lot the reimbursement system reimburses more for procedures than it does for thinking so thinking about how to coordinate care for a patient who has a complex medical history a lot of medical conditions coordinating

with the social worker and and other health providers the psychiatrist all of those things that require really that you pay a lot of attention and connect the dots they incentives to do that and tell me about your hobbies what kind of hobbies do you have if you want to take care of older adults and you want to do it well then you need to make sure that you have time and if I get reimbursed the same for a 45 minute visit with an older adult as I do for a 20 minute visit with an older

adult then there's something missing there and that's actually one of the challenges with getting more Physicians to go into geriatrics because can actually make less as a geriatrician as a subspecialist than as a general internist so it's hard for me to go to U the the residents and say don't you want to go into geriatrics and and do more training and make less money one study estimates that 177,000 geriatricians are needed nationally to care for the current older adult population but in fact there are only 7500 certified geriatricians future numbers don't look any better in

2011 only 75 medical residents entered geriatric training programs Nationwide down from 112 in 2005 it's very concerning in part because as people live longer they're not just older 40y olds there are physiological changes that occur even in the absence of disease but then add in chronic medical conditions and complex social situations it's very important that we have healthcare providers who understand the differences and the different needs uh of older adults for systems such as Medical Care and long-term services and supports that are straining to meet current demand the future looms large in 2011 the first

wave of baby boomers turned 65 as this generation ages the population of those over 65 is expected to more than double between 2012 and 20160 seven or a nine I got nine we have people turning 65 in this country at a rate of 10,000 people a day Tennessee is dealing with the same type of issue you know we're watching the numbers grow um it's the largest demographic that is changing in the state of Tennessee a recent projection estimated that Tennessee's population aged 65 to 74 would likely grow by 55% from 2010 to 2020 by 2060

the total population over age 65 will likely be two and a half times bigger we have this enormous rise in the numbers of people that are uh coming at us and then we've set up in a sense you know the perfect storm um those people have not save for their own old age so we have many few people who have pensions and those that do have inadequate pensions and every Boomer had only one or two kids what are we going to do in order to have people able to take care of the elderly with fewer

companies offering pensions recessions forcing many out of work and housing values to plummet as well as a personal savings rate that has declined dramatically since 1975 future Generations are not financially prepared for their old age a recent analysis found that nearly half of all fully retired elderon households are economically insecure not having enough income to meet their basic needs in 2011 just as the first baby boomers were turning 65 25% reported having no retirement savings at all and only 55% of current workers pulled are confident they will have enough money to retire comfortably there a

whole bunch of issues coming down the pike affordable housing Transportation livable communities healthy aging again 41st in the country in terms of overall health by our seniors we're last in terms of physical activity we have the second worst rate in terms of seniors losing all their teeth this is the second worst in the country really need to make sure that people understand what we're facing in Tennessee we need to build out a Continuum of services for people who are not able to live alone and may not have families to help them in terms of providing

natural supports but who also don't want to live in a nursing home I think we'd be shortsighted to believe that current resources will meet the demands of an aging population um as more and more people need Services it will require more funding to be able to to meet those needs what then will we do if our services are strained now and we are not planning for a variety of ways for people to age well then it'll be too late so are the congregations preparing to be part of that solution is the government planning to be

part of that solution can educational entities help with that by Preparing People to be trained caregivers they're just a lot of moving parts to this that we need to pull together right now kind we're going to have to figure out a very different structure that involves uh the the housing the transportation the food the Hands-On care and the medical care all put together I think that's going to take a good deal of local management I don't think you can do that system from the state house or from Washington it's going to have to have some

degree of local management so we don't really have the choice to walk away but we also don't yet have the will to take it on morning good good James vanderver is facing the challenge of an aging population headon while working in church ministry and the long-term care industry he saw many families struggle with the aging process in looking for help families turn to the familiar in their lives and if they have a Faith Community Church connection they turn there for help and quite often the church is well-intentioned but had not been called upon traditionally to

be involved at that point in a family's life and so are real equipped to do that when asked to return to Harpeth Hills Church of Christ to start an older Adult Ministry vanderver chose to create a new model one that served more than just the social needs of older congregants the resource center on Aging has a part-time social worker to help amilies navigate the many stages of Aging they also develop collaborative relationships with other resources in the community it might be a good Elder Care attorney or a more diverse medical team or a good realtor

to help someone downsize we also are involved uh a great deal in direct Family Care the resource center also hopes to reach beyond the church's membership offering educational opportunities to both professionals and General audience the ministry is not just a Ministry for harpa Hills it's a Ministry of harpa Hills to as broad a community as we can effectively reach so we feel that equipping people with knowledge is very important we try to do that both in our internal program and also in in community opportunities as the baby boom generation ages vanderver believes more churches will

feel the pressure to address the needs of Aging members the very demographic reality of our society is that most churches have an older population people are going to go where their needs are being met in the second place churches need to be at the table the complexity of decision making uh in our entire society as it relates to to life whether it be in healthc care reform or retirement issues or the critical issues of poverty among older people is is ministry as we confront those I think the responsibility of a given church or a faith

community a synagogue a mosque is to develop a program that works for them that carries out the tenants of their faith as their belief dictates good morning Elma how are you on in West Nashville the National Council of Jewish Women Nashville section has been providing a crucial service to older adults since the 1970s I gave up my car 5 six years ago and when I heard about this bus service I had I had to become a member I ride at least four times a week tog rides the buzzbus to his family photography business where he

works most days the service operates in West Nashville and is open to all adults aged 62 and older all righty there we go they have to be totally ambulatory to ride our bus and we take them door too from their home to doctor's office visits grocery stores social events personal reasons Bank you know drugstore that kind of thing I am going today to Belmont University I go on Tuesdays and Thursdays I take a non-credit audit course I do still drive but when I considered the opportunity of taking a course at Belmont and of course that's

more congested and so I take the bus bus I think it's just so important to the Aging population first of all if you can just imagine what it would be like to not be able to get out and to lose that independence of driving the the people that have to give up their cars and they're just lost they need that social interaction they need to be with other people there are some days that they probably don't even talk to anyone and sometimes they call and they just say oh I just wanted to hear your voice

the service to me is and I think a lot of people a Lifeline because it opens up more opportunities to do things within an area where you're not able to drive as you get older they just couldn't be happier than to be associated with a service that cares for the Aging people if you have a community that cares about their aging population you've got a really a nice place to live and a safe place to [Music] live so we need an array of choices in every community and then some really serious honesty about what you

face and then we need supportive communities let's say you know the person who loses out on the lottery and lives 10 years with terrible disability that family shouldn't just be bankrupted with nobody caring but that requires Community groups to become much more active than they've been in the past they've had to be in the past having more resources whether it's Financial or educational is not the complete answer to addressing the Aging issue I don't think our whole mindset about aging is going to have to change we're going to have to view it as a positive

thing it's crucial it's really crucial for older people for their families uh for their employers for institutions that care for them to see that aging is a form of human development that older people grow I wouldn't want to sentimentalize wisdom but wisdom is [Music] possible I seem to have a lot of younger friends and they say to me Miss sand how did you know that you're so smart and I'll say no I'm not that smart I'm that old and that you develop these things develop wisdom and you get you get to know yourself too as

you age too what have you learned from the aging process and the living process you have take the best that you can take from it I think is really what you need to do aging allows you to explore an Undiscovered Country it allows you to explore dimensions of yourself and your experience your knowledge that are hidden to younger people there is no shortcut that gives a younger person the perspective of age one of the greatest Gifts of advanced age is living life without the illusion of immortality and that knowledge can bring Exquisite sweetness and depth

to life because it's being lived with the knowledge that it is limited aging gives you [Music] that everyone's journey to old age is different shaped by where they come from the choices they made along the way and genetics inherited from parents but one thing is common the vast majority of us will need help at some point in this journey what that help is and who gives it will vary tremendously but it's clear our systems are strained or inadequate to meet the current needs with the baby boom generation getting older it's in everyone's interest young and

old to start working on Solutions now thank you for joining me and stay tuned for future programs npt will delve further into some of these complicated issues as the Aging matters series continues [Music] May major funding for npt reports aging matters is provided by siga Health spring lead sponsor of npt reports aging matters the West End home Foundation support in the care of seniors through many organizations in Middle Tennessee the Janette Travis Foundation dedicated to improving the health and well-being of the Middle Tennessee community and by members of npt thank you