White House Conference on Aging

The recent White House Conference on Aging (WHCoA)—the conference charged with making aging policy recommendations to the President and Congress—provided both reason to celebrate and cause for concern.

The four-day conference, which convened in Washington in mid-December, helped spotlight pressing concerns among older adults. Its 1,200 delegates raised key issues affecting the nation’s growing population of elders—issues surrounding health and access to health care, Medicare, Social Security, employment, housing, and the end of life.

Toward the close of the conference, the delegates, who were appointed primarily by their representatives in Congress and their governors, adopted 50 resolutions from a field of 73, to send to the White House and Capitol Hill. Of the 50, nearly one-half concerned health, health care, and long-term care, and had been identified as high-priority resolutions by the American Geriatrics Society. More than three dozen of the conference delegates were members of the AGS, and, clearly, AGS’s priorities were shared by members and nonmembers alike.

Among other things, the delegates’ top resolutions called for:

• Exploring ways to better coordinate care, across the continuum of care, for older adults with multiple chronic health problems
• Enhancing programs focused on disease management and chronic care coordination
• Addressing the growing shortage of geriatrics healthcare workers by supporting geriatric education and training for physicians, advanced practice nurses, social workers, registered dieticians and others
• Recruiting, training, and retaining health care professionals, in all disciplines, who can care for older adults with diverse values, beliefs, behaviors and needs
• Promoting innovative evidence-based and practice-based medical and aging research that investigates and disseminates data on the changing health characteristics of Americans, and the prevention of disease, disability and injury in older adults

First convened in 1961, the White House conferences have long been viewed as key sources of ideas for policy and programs concerning older adults. Past conferences helped provide the impetus for establishing the Medicare and Medicaid programs and expanding Social Security,and for legislation such as the Older Americans Act of 1965, which created the federal Administration on Aging. The focus of the December conference was preparing for the impending, and dramatic, upswing in the number of older adults in this country. Just weeks after the meeting, the oldest of the nation’s 75 million baby boomers were to turn 60, adding to the sense of urgency surrounding the conference.

Despite that urgency, however, the conference went largely unnoticed by the national press. President Bush failed to make an appearance at the event, becoming the first President ever to neglect to attend a White House Conference on Aging. Finally, in a particularly painful blow, Congress voted to eliminate Title VII funding for geriatrics professions programs, just days after the conference concluded.

What now? Disappointed but undeterred, delegates plan to send a final report on the 50 resolutions, including specific recommendations for their implementation, to Congress and the President by June. Just as important, they plan to continue lobbying to make those resolutions realities. We urge you to do the same.

For more information about the WHCoA, visit www. whcoa.gov and the AGS website, www.americangeriatrics.org.