During the past decade two new models emerged for how seniors can have a better quality of life as they age. First on the scene was "Aging in Place" that focused on bringing more services into seniors' homes. It led to efforts to "rebalance" Medicaid-funded long-term care away from a bias toward nursing home care and towards home and community-based services. In Rhode Island the enactment of Perry-Sullivan legislation mandated state agencies to work toward this goal, and provided for earmarked funding for aging in place services.
However, a number of consumers and experts on aging have said that there was a problem with the "Aging in Place" approach. As Dr. William H. Thomas noted, "the three major plagues of nursing homes, loneliness, boredom and helplessness, are found far more often than people will admit to in the private homes of elders aging in place in their own homes."
From this critique has emerged the notion of "Aging in Community". This approach seeks to create supportive neighborhoods and networks of relationships not only to enhance seniors' well-being and quality of life at but also to keep them engaged as an integral part of the community rather than being isolated. It promotes development of informal voluntary and reciprocal relationships between community members.
The Senior Agenda Coalition of Rhode Island will sponsor a Statewide Action Conference on "Aging in an Elder-Friendly Community" on October 16, 2008 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Newport . The Conference's keynote speaker will be Janice Blanchard, former Director of Senior Affairs for the City of Denver . Her talk will be entitled "It Takes a Village for Seniors to Thrive". Also speaking about "What This Means for Rhode Island " will be Lieutenant Governor Elizabeth Roberts.
Conference workshop topics will include: Housing Options, Livable Communities for Seniors, and How Government Programs can Promote Aging in Community. The Conference's afternoon session will feature presentations from three local and regional "Aging in Community" projects: Boston's Beacon Hill Village, a nationally-known model of a "village without walls", Southern Rhode Island at Home, an all volunteer group whose members exchange services and share an information bank on supportive services, and Warwick-based "At Your Service" that uses paid volunteers to help keep seniors in the community.
Anyone interested can learn more at the Senior Agenda Coalition Website, www.senioragendari.org . Persons wishing to receive a conference invitation by mail should call the Coalition at 274-6900, extension 205 or send an e-mail to senioragendari@yahoo.com .