The Morning Report

Do you remember that musical piece from The Lion King? I don’t have the talent for making my ‘morning report’ rhyme, but my reading this morning from news articles I get as a member of Leading Age seem to focus on a couple of important concepts around aging and aging services that I want to share here.

First, LeadingAge posted a video which addressed the question: “Should continuing care retirement centers expand into home and community based services (HCBS)?” Along with lots of good business and finance-related information, the speaker made the point that using HCBS allows the older person to remain in his/her own home.  And, the speaker continued, ‘That’s what everybody wants.’ No surprise there! The number of Americans living in nursing homes is not keeping pace with the growing number of Americans 85 and older. It is because there are more options for services outside the nursing home, options that allow the individual to remain at home and receive needed services there!  Additionally, HCBS services are less expensive than skilled nursing home services. That sounds like a win-win doesn't it.

In a way following from that very concept about the primacy of HOME, LeadingAge posted an article about a particular member organization where there is a focused emphasis on language. I’ve written about the impact of the words we use before on this blog.  These are the two articles: “If You ChangeYour Words You can Change the World” and “What’s in a Name

The LeadingAge article spoke to the reality that ageism is alive and well. This executive is quoted at the very end of the article about how our society generally views and thus treats elders: “It’s the last group or class of citizens in this country that we say it’s OK to institutionalize (emphasis mine) and it’s OK to marginalize  (emphasis mine) — in advertisements, movies and popular culture,”

In truth ageism is so embedded in our society that we do not recognize it many times. -How many of us accept without question policies that impact us personally and that are operative at a certain chronological age?  Are you aware of any such policies in your life?  I'd love your comments!

This prejudice of ageism should be rejected and protested with as much sense of outrage as we reject and protest racism or sexism.