News (April 2006)

Dr. Jon Pynoos Reports to USC faculty and students on the 2005 White House Conference on Aging

By Athan Bezaitis

On Thursday, April 6, at the University of Southern California’s Hamovitch Research Center, The California Social Welfare Archives presented a synopsis of the 2005 White House Conference on Aging (WHCoA).  Held every ten years, the WHCoA took place from December 11 -14th in Washington D.C. 

Representing the USC Ethel Percy Andrus Gerontology Center was Dr. Jon Pynoos, one of the three speakers at Thursday’s presentation who attended the Conference.  Dr. Monika White, president and CEO of the Center for Healthy Aging and Community Activist Marvin Schacter were the other two panelists.  The Hamovitch Center was crammed with about 50 people, composed mainly of concerned seniors from the community, faculty members and students eager to learn the details of the Conference.

Speakers (from left to right) Dr. John Pynoos, Mr. Marvin Schacter and Dr. Monika White.

Entitled, “The Booming Dynamics of Aging,” the main theme of the WHCoA was the coming of age of the baby boomer generation.  An American now turns 60 years-old at a rate of 330 people per hour and 50 years-old every seven seconds.  According to Dr. White, those numbers represent a huge demographic shift that will greatly impact future policy. 

In her presentation, Dr. White highlighted a handful of the 73 resolutions developed at the Conference that will be revealed to the president and Congress this June.  A few of the top ten recommendations were to reauthorize the Older Americans Act, to develop a coordinated long-term health care policy and to improve transportation for the elderly.

Dr. Pynoos, UPS Foundation Professor of Gerontology, Policy, Planning and Development, discussed the most pressing issues in housing for older Americans.  He stressed that close to eight million elderly citizens in the United States are unable to afford ideal living accommodations.  Some cannot pay for the necessary alterations to their homes that would allow them to ‘age in place.’  Part of the problem, he said, is the prevalence of “Peter Pan” housing, a term alluding to the fact that people cannot stay young forever.  Too often, Dr. Pynoos asserted, households are designed without consideration for the changing needs of residents as they age.  To counter this problem, he highlighted several universal design strategies that can be affordably implemented into households such as grab bars, anti-scalding water regulating devices and non-slip tiles. 

According to Dr. Pynoos, another significant concern about housing was that it was left out of the top ten resolutions.  The issue was dealt a symbolic blow by its division into three separate categories: affordability, availability and housing design.  Traditionally, the top ten issues are given the most priority when presented to lawmakers and this was the first year that housing was separated in such a way. 

According to Marvin Schacter, the Conference as a whole was marginalized.  The long-time community activist asserted that because the elderly were largely responsible for the derailing of President Bush’s Social Security reform, the president ensured that the WHCoA would receive very little press coverage.  Neither President Bush nor Vice President Cheney nor any cabinet secretaries attended the event.  Mr. Schacter also took issue with the structure and organization of the Conference claiming that it was controlled procedurally and in its agenda by the Bush Administration.  He claimed this was a microcosm of the challenges that the elderly community face in the current political climate. 

On the flip side, all three speakers agreed that the need for change is too great to be ignored and that the resolutions represented some positive buzz at the Conference’s conclusion. “All’s well that end’s well,” Dr. Pynoos said, describing how the conference ultimately energized those who attended.  This June, when the 73 recommendations drafted by delegates are presented, there is hope that their proposals can help dictate national aging policies for the next ten years and beyond.