Celebrating Older Americans Month Especially Important This Year

Palos Heights, IL - In 1963, when President John F. Kennedy designated May as Senior Citizens Month, there were 17 million people over 65 living in America.

Today, over 58 million Americans over the age of 65 are celebrating what is now Older Americans Month – and the older adult population continues to grow.

Diane Slezak, CEO and President of AgeOptions, says, “The older adult population is growing by leaps and bounds, faster than any other segment of our population. When I began working in aging back in the 70’s, we looked at a pyramid, where the largest portion, the foundation, was young people - and the point of the pyramid, the smallest part, was the oldest. Now, we’re really looking at a pillar, where there’s a closer-to-equal number of people at every age level stratification.”

Populations projections show that by 2039, the amount of older adults in America will meet or exceed, for the first time in history, those under the age of 18.

For Elaine Grande, Executive Director of Pathlights, this means it’s especially important to acknowledge Older Americans Month this May. “It’s not just to recognize and thank older adults for the foundation they have built for all of us, but to highlight their needs – and how those needs change. We value their contributions, their wisdom, their history and their experience, so it’s an honor really to support older adults as they age.”

Rebecca Lerfelt was hired by PLOWS Council on Aging, now Pathlights, as a Social Worker when the agency was founded in 1975, one of only three employees at the time. She agrees with Grande. Now retired, Lerfelt says, “We need to keep the needs of older adults in the spotlight. They are an important resource to the community; most volunteers are older adults. It’s important to realize the contributions older adults have made and continue to make.”

Pathlights is marking its 50th anniversary this year, in conjunction with the anniversary of federal funding for the Older Americans Act. The organization provides resources and supports to older adults in their aging journey, helping with in-home services, financial relief, in-home meal delivery, advocacy, investigation and prevention of abuse, and care choice selection. They also provide education to older adults and caregiver support.

This year’s Older Americans Month theme is “Flip The Script on Aging.” To Grande, this means looking at aging in a new light. “Aging shouldn’t be seen as a decline. As we age, we grow in our knowledge and in our experience. Aging should be embraced as a new chapter with new experiences. It should be approached more positively.”

Lerfelt says, “Aging has really changed. When I first started working, if you were in your mid-70’s, you were old. A lot of people had medical problems. I saw a lot of people with debilitating strokes. Over the years, we saw fewer and fewer, because of preventative medicines, healthier lifestyles. People are living much longer. There are other things too – when I look at pictures of my grandmother – she was in her early 60’s, yet she looks like she was 80. The clothes she wore, her hairstyle, she wore no makeup. Now, we don’t throw up our hands and give up. And that’s a better attitude to have.”

The overall attitude about aging still needs a flip, however. “There have been changes in societal views on aging, but we still have to keep challenging those stereotypes, promoting opportunities and embracing how we look and feel as we age,” says Grande.

“We need to think more about caregiving, continue to do all the outreach and education we can, and incorporate aging into every field, like medicine and public health,” says Lerfelt.

“It’s about trying to create an anti-ageist society,” says Slezak. “We do have super-agers in our population, those who are able to work or run marathons at the age of 80, 90 years old. We also have older adults who are just in the middle of the road, able to continue life without critical illness.”

“But there are also people who haven’t aged well, and many of them haven’t aged well because of the lack of services, or because of inequities like living in a food desert, unable to get to programs, or see a doctor,” she notes.

To Slezak, recognizing this year’s Older Americans Month is especially urgent. “The Older Americans Act is now under a serious threat. There are currently plans afoot that would separate the Administration for Community Living, meal programs, the Administration for Aging and other services, moving them into other departments and making a tremendous impact on Pathlights and other agencies who service and support older adults. But this isn’t just about one agency. It’s about the threat of not being able to keep a focal point, not making a consolidated effort to serve older adults under one act, an act that was created to provide for the dignity and support of older adults across all programs. This reorganization would take away the backbone of support to these organizations and programs and be a detriment to the safety and well-being of older adults – and really to the existence of all the services, under a structure that’s been in place for 50 years.”

“The political situation makes me nervous,” concurs Lerfelt. “The focus on any kind of help for anybody is just not there; there is totally something else going on. Some people think that private and community funding can just pick it up, but they can’t. While the State of Illinois has been very good about putting money into older adult programs, the federal government has to step in and step up.”

Statistics back up her statement. In 1963, nearly a third of the 17 million older adults were living in poverty. Today, mostly because of federal programs that support and service those over 65, just about 8.2 million are in serious financial constraints. While that number is still, of course, too high, it is just about 14% of older adults.

Slezak stresses the importance of getting older adults involved in their own future. On May 28, AgeOptions will be holding public statewide advocacy sessions across the state of Illinois. “From Carbondale to Chicago, we want to get as much participation as possible, to help older adults understand the services that many of our local agencies such as Pathlights provide are actually funded by the Older Americans Act - for five decades now. These agencies would not exist without the Older Americans Act – and the people they serve would not be getting the help they need.”

To find out more about these services, resources and advocacy in the southwest and south suburbs of Chicago, visit pathlights.org. To attend a public advocacy session and celebrate Older Americans Month by supporting the services that help everyone along the journey of aging, visit ageoptions.org.

“Older adults are very influential in our society and can shape the future for us – and for the generations to come behind us,” says Grande. “I’m very hopeful. There’s a very strong network of people that work every day to advocate for older adults, to make sure they have the support, services and education they need.”