Once every ten years, a White House Conference on Aging is held in Washington DC. The delegates attending this conference develop recommendations on aging issues for the President and Congress, setting the government’s position and focus on aging for the next decade. Last week, from December 11th to December 14th, twelve hundred delegates gathered in Washington DC from around the country to participate in the 2005 White House Conference on Aging, the fifth such conference in our nation’s history. Twelve of these delegates represented Oklahoma.
Past White House Conferences on Aging, occurring in 1961, 1971, 1981 and 1995, made strides in the area of aging by contributing to the establishment of key programs such as Medicare and Medicaid, the Older Americans Act, and the establishment of the National Institute on Aging. Because this 2005 Conference occurs as nearly 78 million baby boomers prepare to turn 60 years old in 2006, it has a unique opportunity to implement improvements that will affect the lives of more seniors than any of these former conferences.
In the months preceding last week’s historical conference, over 125,000 people participated in 400 mini-conferences across America. The discussions and debates occurring at these mini-conferences resulted in the development of numerous resolutions on aging issues, such as retirement finances, senior employment, elder health, long-term care, and technology. These resolutions were then presented to at the 2005 White House Conference. After much discussion, the 2005 Conference delegates reduced the number of proposed resolutions to the 50 resolutions they found to be most important for current and future generations of senior citizens.
Additionally, these delegates developed action plans, identifying strategies to be executed by the Federal, State, and local governments for the implementation of each resolution. Some resolutions adopted by this 2005 Conference include:
- Provide Financial Incentives and Policy Changes to Encourage and Facilitate Increased Retirement Savings – by creating stronger incentives for saving early in one’s life; creating savings-related policies while taking into account those unable to accumulate adequate savings;
- Encourage Community Designs to Promote Livable Communities that Enable Aging in Place – by creating policies and incentives for newly-constructed housing to be designed for populations who have or will have functional limitations;
- Promote Incentives for Older Workers to Continue Working and Improve Employment Training and Retraining Programs to Better Serve Older Workers – by expanding programs like phased retirement and flexible working hours.
A complete listing of the 50 resolutions and detailed explanations of them can be found at www.whcoa.gov or by writing 2005 White House Conference on Aging, 4350 East-West Highway, Bethesda, MD 20814.
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