Summit addresses concerns of elderly

“One day,” said Ann Palmer Moss of the Elant Foundation, “it will be us.” That is why Elant Inc. and 130 members of the senior health-care provider community came together May 11 in Tarrytown for what was billed as the first elder-care summit in the Hudson Valley.
The region has compelling reasons to focus on the needs of the aging: According to statistics, there is an unusually high percentage of seniors living within the seven mid-Hudson counties, with Westchester leading the way with nearly 190,000 residents above age 60 living in the county.
The rest of the Hudson Valley”™s counties are in the same predicament, attendees learned, with a higher ratio of seniors living within their borders than there should be statistically. Meanwhile the baby boomers are beginning to show their ages and at the same time, the young professionals needed to fill their jobs are not in place.
Several speakers, including Steve Maun, president of Leyland Alliance in Warwick; Dan Sisto, president of the Healthcare Association of New York State (HANYS); Carl Young, president of the New York Association of Homes and Services for the Aging; and Westchester County Executive Andrew Spano joined the outreach forum, which addressed problems of housing needs, health care and the regional economic impact of the aging population.
All agree more needs to be done to meet the increasing needs of current seniors, as well as to prepare for the inevitable: the day when they themselves will be in need of such services, including home health care, hospice and other key challenges faced by the senior population. How to meet those needs, and to deal with the current health-care crisis New York state is beset by, are more hurdles for these business and health care leaders to tackle.
Keynote speaker William “Larry” Minnix Jr., president and CEO of the American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging (AAHSA) in Washington, D.C., said, “This (summit) should be happening all across America. We should start a ”˜Hudson Valley phenomena”™ when it comes to better care for our elders ”“ we are all getting there!”
Minnix credited Mae Carpenter, commissioner of the Westchester County Public/Private Partnership for Aging, with the ability to “energize the room ”“ she gives us energy to move forward.”
Minnix said his organization”™s own research using concept scenario planning not only looked at trends but uncertainties as well. “In 2002, the big uncertainties were technology and finance ”¦ in 2006, they are consumer behavior and talent availability ”“ I don”™t like to use the word, “work force” when it comes to the talent we need to replace workers.”
The biggest reason they were there, said the AAHSA president, was the dysfunction and the lack of cooperation between health-care providers. He hoped the Elant summit would be a turning point, not just for the hundreds of health care providers in the region but for the policymakers as well.
He pointed out some political ignorance of the plight of the health-care crisis when one asked before going before the podium what the difference was between Medicare and Medicaid (this happened in another state).
Minnix also declared the current Medicaid program a failure: “We can”™t throw enough money at the existing Medicaid program and make it work.” It is up to the people, the providers and the seniors, he said, to prod their legislators into meaningful action. He also urged health-care providers to hold their board meetings “on Saturday nights through Sunday morning, where they would find the true grit of the health-care industry hard at work, putting in hours and giving care when others would rather be somewhere else.”
Minnix offered some rules for the group and for the public at large ”“ rules, he said, that help make aging and just plain living more bearable:
*Genetics: “Chose your parents wisely!”
*Lifestyle: “Chose your lifestyle, eating habits, disease management just as wisely. Not eating right, not exercising and not taking care of yourself are not healthy choices.”
*Attitude: “Treating older people as if they are unable to care for themselves is not very helpful. Try to change your view of elders and aging”
*Relationships: “The average age of widowhood is 58 and most do not remarry. Churches, synagogues and community centers are underutilized resources. People need to relate. One nursing home resident told me, ”˜No one touches me anymore; they change me, but they don”™t touch me.”™ Meaningful relationships ”“ sexual or not ”“ are needed to keep us healthy.”
*Work: “Do what you love.”
*Planning: “Not just financial planning or planning what happens to you””in the intensive care units today, people are staying alive because their kids can”™t say goodbye. Make it easy-leave instructions. A durable power of attorney for health care.”
*Laughing and crying: “Both come from the same place. They have a cleansing effect.”
*Faith and hope: “Those that have it have done better than those who don”™t, no matter what their faith is.”
*Saying goodbye: “We are the only culture that treats death as an option.”
Minnix, who is also a United Methodist Church minister, said he has married many people in his pastoral capacity: “Sixty percent of them get divorced. On the other hand, I”™ve buried many people and all of them have stayed buried.” Comments like this brought the crowd to a mix of tears and laughter throughout his address.
Minnix urged his audience to learn from the elder-care summit, to keep the momentum going and to work for health-care reform: “If we can take these concepts and incorporate them into our lives, we will truly teach our children well.”