2015 White House Conference On Aging
2015 White House Conference On Aging:
Final Report Released
The 2015 White House Conference on Aging recently released its final report from a year-long dialogue with older Americans, families, caregivers, and advocates that resulted in a July 13, 2015 conference highlighting key issues for seniors, families, caregivers and communities. Four common themes emerged as particularly important to older Americans: retirement security, healthy aging, long-term services and supports, and elder justice, according to the White House.
The White House has held a Conference on Aging every decade, beginning in 1961, to identify and advance actions to improve the quality of life of older Americans. In 2015, the United States marked the 50th anniversaries of Medicare, Medicaid, and the Older Americans Act, as well as the 80th anniversary of Social Security. The 2015 White House Conference on Aging (WHCOA) provided an opportunity to recognize the importance of these key programs as well as to look ahead to the next decade.
On July 13, 2015, President Obama hosted the sixth White House Conference on Aging, joining older Americans and their families, caregivers, and advocates at the White House and virtually through hundreds of watch parties across the country. The July event built on a year-long dialogue; the White House Conference on Aging launched a website to share regular updates on our work and solicit public input; engaged with stakeholders in Washington, D.C. and listening sessions throughout the country; developed policy briefs on the emerging themes for the conference and invited public comment and input on them; and hosted regional forums with community leaders and older Americans in Tampa, Florida; Phoenix, Arizona; Seattle, Washington; Cleveland, Ohio; and Boston, Massachusetts.
These forums and engagements provided the opportunity for older Americans and their families to highlight the issues most important to them, in order to help inform the changing aging landscape in America for the coming decade. The 2015 White House Conference on Aging was truly a national conversation. In addition to the older adults, caregivers, and leaders in the aging field who were in attendance at the White House, this year’s conference took advantage of communication channels that were not available for past conferences. Individuals and groups participated via live webcast in watch parties held in every State and were able to ask questions of panelists and others via Twitter and Facebook.
The conference was informed by a year of pre-conference activities and conversations that allowed a broad range of stakeholders to provide substantial input. Additional feedback from the general public and policy experts was received on the conference website. As input was gathered, four common themes emerged as particularly important to older Americans: Retirement Security, Healthy Aging, Long-Term Services and Supports, and Elder Justice. These themes provided the focus for discussions at the July conference.
At the conference, the Administration announced an extraordinary number of new public actions and initiatives across the government and across the country to help ensure that Americans have increased opportunity and ability to live in retirement with dignity; that older adults can enjoy full physical, mental, and social well-being; that older adults can maximize their independence and ability to age in place; and that elder abuse and financial exploitation are more fully recognized as a serious public health challenge and addressed accordingly and effectively.
Key Federal announcements included the release of a new “Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services” proposed rule to thoroughly update, for the first time in nearly 25 years, the quality and safety requirements for more than 15,000 nursing homes and skilled nursing facilities. These updates will improve quality of life, enhance person-centered care and services for residents in nursing homes, improve resident safety, and bring these regulatory requirements into closer alignment with current professional standards; the Department of Labor’s initiative to facilitate State creation of retirement savings programs; a new proposed rule from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to increase accessibility to critical nutrition for homebound, older Americans and people with disabilities by enabling Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits to be used for services that purchase and deliver food to these households; and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) guidance confirming that its Equal Access rule applies to all HUD assisted and HUD-insured multifamily housing, including Section 202 Supportive Housing for the Elderly, and that such housing be made available without regard to actual or perceived sexual orientation, gender identity, or marital status.
In conclusion, regardless of where White House Conference on Aging traveled this past year, and irrespective of the group it visited, they found one idea continually arose. Everyone agreed that it’s time to shift the conversation from one that assumes that the coming age wave will overwhelm us to one that recognizes it can help lift everyone’s boat by tapping the power of experience to improve our families, our communities and our society.
Changing the perception of aging is our ultimate challenge and charge as we go forward into the next decade. By changing Americans’ attitudes about aging, we can help every American enjoy a longer, better, more active, and more independent life, and effectively engage the challenges and embrace the possibilities that are inherent in our aging population.
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