Aging forum provides insight for planning

The N.C. Governor’s Advisory Council on Aging (GAC) sponsored a pre-White House Conference on Aging Forum at the Holiday Inn Brownstone Hotel on May 18.

“The forum was designed to reflect input from North Carolina's diverse groups who are concerned with aging issues,” said Ann Johnson, GAC chair. “In addition, it will help prepare this state's delegates to the national conference to address such national policy as is needed to prepare for the huge increase in the number of older adults."

The information gathered at the forum will help prepare North Carolina’s delegates for the upcoming national White House Conference on Aging (WHCoA) being held in Washington, D.C. The 2005 White House conference is intended to produce policy recommendations to guide national aging policy through 2015.

Groups representing aging North Carolinians presented priorities to be shared at the national level. Most held their own events over the past months to gather the views of many seniors, aging baby boomers, service providers, elected officials, educators, and other interested citizens. Each was provided 126 policy issues and asked to identify and share their top three priorities.

This will be the fifth White House conference held and the first of the new century. Others were held in 1961, 1971, 1981 and 1995. The White House conference is held periodically as a vehicle to make aging policy recommendations to the president and Congress and to assist the public and private sectors in promoting dignity, health, independence and economic security of older generations.

This year Dorcas Hardy, the WHCoA Policy Committee chair, urged the national conference policy committee to look at aging in terms of both “today and tomorrow” and to “identify emerging trends….to help our nation prepare for the changes anticipated over the next decade [the aging of the baby boomers].” For more information about the conference, please visit http://www.whcoa.gov .

The GAC makes recommendations to the governor and secretary of DHHS on how to improve the quality of life of older North Carolinians. For a list of current members, please see www.dhhs.state.nc.us/aging/gaclist.htm.

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Last Modified: June 1, 2005