IPR News-Summer 1999-Cook Sets GSA Aging Agenda for Twenty-First Century

Institute for Policy Reserach News, Northwestern University

Cook Sets GSA Aging Agenda for Twenty-First Century

Summer 1999, Volume 20, Number 1

"In the 20th century, the study of aging really came of age," says IPR Director Fay Lomax Cook, who assumes the presidency of the Gerontological Society of America in November 1999 with an ambitious agenda for the new millennium. "We learned so much about the aging process and instituted such important new policies as Social Security, Medicare, and the Older Americans Act that we have a strong base on which to stand as we enter the next century."

Longevity has increased dramatically over the course of the 20th century with average life expectancy today 76 years, compared to 47 years in 1900. "Research has taught us a tremendous amount about the aging process as well as about the factors that can increase our physical, mental, social, and financial well-being," she says.

Cook has chosen the theme of "Linking Research to Policy and Practice: Lessons Learned, Task Ahead" for the GSA annual meeting in November 2000, the nation's largest interdisciplinary scientific meeting on aging research. At the conference, she plans to emphasize how much has been learned through research and the ways it has affected the nation's programs, policies, and practices. But she will also challenge its 5,500 members to address some lingering research questions about the elderly.

Chief among them is the issue of women's poverty. Though the poverty rate among the elderly has decreased dramatically from 33% in 1960 to just over 10% today, it disproportionately affects women, many of whom have interrupted careers for childraising and receive less in pensions or Social Security. Cook says other central issues emerging from the waning years of the century include conquering age-related diseases such as Alzheimer's, long-term care for the elderly, intergenerational programming, and public education to encourage healthy lifestyles and successful aging.

With the aging of baby boomers, she predicts the next century will see much healthier, more active older persons. Yet there is still no national long-term care policy. "We need to address how we can better enable people to age with dignity and grace in their homes and communities," she says.

Cook also wants the nation to consider older people as a national resource, a concept that is beginning to surface on the public agenda. Expanding intergenerational programs would help achieve this goal, she believes.