States aging population focus of 2-day conference
Ken Ritter ASSOCIATED PRESS
Posted: 7/6/2005 11:54 pm
LAS VEGAS Nevadas aging baby boom population might have something to teach the rest of the nation about how older people can live healthy, happy lives.
The trick, officials say, is identifying what works and then sharing.
We have, in many ways, a laboratory, said Nevada resident Tom Gallagher, a member of the White House Conference on Aging policy committee. The most important issue is how we can take advantage of the resources that 78 million baby boomers are going to represent.
Gallagher made his comments Wednesday during the 2005 Nevada Conference on Aging, held at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
Officials including U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Gov. Kenny Guinn urged the 270 conference attendees to find solutions to problems facing seniors. The conference holds a second day of meetings today in Reno.
Reid will be a keynote speaker today at todays conference at the Atlantis Casino Resort in Reno.
Barbara Hirschorn, an assistant sociology professor and director of the UNLV Center on Aging, said Nevada can showcase programs in affordable senior housing, transportation, planning and what she called opportunities for creative and educational growth.
The White House Conference on Aging meets once every decade. This years conference in December will be the last before the baby boom generation born between 1946 and 1964 begins reaching retirement age.
Officials predict social services will be strained in areas such as Nevada, where the U.S. Census expects the senior population to triple by 2030.
Were the frontier, writ large, Hirschorn said.
Conference attendee Dolores Gabay of Boulder City said that as a senior programs volunteer in Henderson, shes seen a rapid evolution of health programs including Medicare and prescription drug plans.
Things are changing everyday, said Gabay, 72, a retired medical secretary who moved to Southern Nevada in 1993. Theyre not really taking care of us.
Gabay said she was surprised when Medicare paid less than 10 percent of her recent knee replacement and wrist operations.
Something has to change, she said.
Guinn, 68, urged the group to work hard to drive home the importance of health care.
Its important for us to start strategizing how were going to handle the care of senior citizens, he said. It may not just be someone you know. It may be you.
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