White House Conference on Aging is July 13

This is a monumental year for older adults and the issues, policies, and programs that affect them. 2015 marks the 50th anniversary of Medicare, Medicaid, and the Older Americans Act as well as the 80th anniversary of Social Security. On July 13, 2015 the White House Conference on Aging, a once-a-decade conference sponsored by the Executive Office of the President of the United States, will be held.

The White House Conference on Aging Conference (WHCoA) is an opportunity to recognize the importance of these key programs as well as to look ahead to the issues that will help shape the landscape for older Americans for the next decade. The Conference makes policy recommendations to the president and Congress regarding older adults.

This year’s conference will examine four important issues (listed below from the WHCoA website.) The briefs define and frame each issue area and reflect the most current evidence-based information on the issues, and will be the topics of discussion at the Conference.

• Retirement security is a vitally important issue. Financial security in retirement provides essential peace of mind for older Americans, but requires attention during our working lives to ensure that we are well prepared for retirement.
• Healthy Aging will be all the more important as the number of older Americans continues to rise. As medical advances progress, the opportunities for older Americans to maintain their health and vitality should progress as well and community supports, including housing, are important tools to promote this vitality.
• Long-term services and supports remain a priority. Older Americans overwhelmingly prefer to remain independent in the community as they age. They need supports to do so, including a caregiving network and well-supported workforce. The long-term services and supports policy brief reviews five topic areas important to the aging community: informal caregiving, formal services and supports, direct care workers; access to information and services, and financing long-term services and supports.
• Elder justice is important given that seniors, particularly the oldest older Americans, can be vulnerable to financial exploitation, abuse, and neglect. The Elder Justice Act was enacted as part of the Affordable Care Act, and we need to realize its vision of protecting seniors from scam artists and others seeking to take advantage of them.

A tentative agenda for the Conference is:

9:00 to 11:20 a.m. Welcome, President Obama’s Remarks, and Panel Discussions on Caregiving and Financial Security

11:20 a.m. to 12:20 p.m. Break for Lunch

12:20 to 3:20 p.m. Panel Discussions on Healthy Aging, Elder Justice and Technology

3:20 to 3:30 p.m. Closing

The White House Conference on Aging will be streamed live on the internet from 9am to 3:30 pm Central time on Monday, July 13. You can view the Conference in its entirety at North Shore Senior Center in our Atrium. For more information, contact 847.784.6030 or LifelongLearning@nssc.org.