News Print Coverage
Conference on aging a worthwhile initiative
Workshops address mix of relevant issues
Editorial Staff
Ann Arbor News
November 9, 2006
© 2006, The Ann Arbor News. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission.
Our population is aging - we know that.
We also know that infrastructure isn't in place to adequately handle the needs of older Americans, at least not with the kind of quality of life we'd like to have.
A conference this week, hosted by the University of Michigan Health System's Housing Bureau for Seniors, is addressing some of those issues at a practical level. Free workshops for the "Aging in Place'' conference cover everything from estate planning and reverse mortgages to transportation and home-share programs, providing the kind of detail that helps guide decision-making. Part of an initiative by the National Aging in Place Council, a Washington group, this is the conference's second year locally. It's a thoughtful approach that brings together the kinds of resources we need to deal with immediate concerns, and organizers should be congratulated for pulling it off.
More entrenched structural problems in our society, from health insurance reform to laws governing drugmakers, will be harder to address. We need our nation's leaders to find the political will to deal with them.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, one in five of us will be 65 or older by 2030. In Washtenaw County, 18 percent of our population will fall into that category by 2030, compared to 8 percent in 2000, according to projections by U-M economists George Fulton and Don Grimes.
Washtenaw County has made clear strides toward helping all of us find the support we need while we age. One great example is the Blueprint for Aging, a coalition of more than 40 public, private and nonprofit organizations and community members formed in 2001. The group, which co-sponsored this week's conference, was one of only eight communities to receive funding this year from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Community Partnerships for Older Adults, a $750,000, four-year award for developing plans to improve support services for the elderly.
If you aren't yet dealing with these issues, you will be. Now's the time to make them a priority.
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