From WXXI news.

This is connections.

I'm Evan Dawson.

Our connection this hour was made in the year 1900.

Do you know what the life expectancy for Americans was in the year 1900?

It was 48 years.

That was a full lifetime.

In 1925, exactly 100 years ago, life expectancy had risen to 58 years.

It hit 68 years in 1955, and now it stands around 78 years.

A little more in some data, a little less than others.

I bring this up because I'm trying to envision what the Monroe County office for the aging might have looked like in 1900.

I'm 45.

They'd been talking to me like, well, you're in your sunset years.

It's amazing what changes.

And that's a good thing.

It's a population gets older.

That should mean that more of us have access to health insurance, health care services.

It should at least.

But it doesn't mean it's always easy.

Do aging adults have health care?

Do they have somewhere to live?

What if they can't live alone?

What if they feel shut out by advances in technology or isolated or lonely?

What if they still want to work and are having trouble finding a place to work for the first time in history?

25% of Monroe County's population is 60 or older.

Nationally, more than 11,000 people a day turned 65.

A lot of the coverage makes the aging population sound like a dangerous trend.

And I you know, we were getting in touch with our friends from lifespan, and they were telling us about this.

I was looking at headlines.

And the terms you do see a lot is a wave.

You do see that or tsunami, a tsunami of aging that's not a pop, a positive term.

Lifespan wants us to view it differently, and older population means we are living longer and with the right approach and resources, we can live well.

What's the opposite of tsunami?

I don't know, we're going.

Let's talk about it with our guests here.

Anne-Marie Cooke, president and CEO of lifespan.

Thank you for helping direct us to to this conversation.

Great to have you back here.

Well, thank you very much.

I'm happy to be here.

Not a tsunami, not a tsunami.

It's a change in demographic change in demographics.

Okay.

Welcome to Assembly member Sarah Clark from district number 136. Who's with us?

Thank you for being with us.

Absolutely.

Thanks for having me.

And next to Sarah is Leanne Warrick, who is a board member for the Greater Rochester Area Partnership for the elderly.

Known as Grape, an aging services administrator for the Monroe County Office for the aging.

Thank you for being here.

Thanks for having me, Evan, and welcome to Bibiana Silveira Portillo, who's a local caregiver.

Welcome.

Thank you for being with us.

Thank you for having me.

Maybe you are listening on on terrestrial radio.

Maybe you are listening on the stream website.

news.org on the mobile app iOS, Finger Lakes Public Radio.

Maybe you're watching on YouTube on the 60 news YouTube channel, a lot of different ways to interact with the program, and we'll welcome your feedback as we go throughout the hour.

But I want to start with this, Anne-Marie, you guys reached out recently and that what caught my attention was 25% or more 60 or older for the first time ever.

We saw when I looked at the age expectancy trend, it's up, up, up.

It went down a little bit from the pandemic.

We certainly saw the impact of Covid, but over time it's a it's a huge difference.

What is what is the headline mean to you.

What does it mean that more of us are are older?

I think that's a good thing.

It's a very good thing.

It means that we are embracing sort of medical advances.

It means that people are embracing older adulthood and honestly, that one statistic doesn't even tell the whole story.

Because if you make it to age 65, you'll probably live another 20 years.

So we're really talking about folks living in their 80s.

Of course, the fastest growing segment of the population is the 85 plus.

We were just talking at lifespan this morning because we have a client still living in the community that we're supporting.

That's 103.

We wouldn't have talked about that even 20 years ago.

But it's not just her.

It's multiple people living well into their 90s, actively living actively, actively.

And we see it in our volunteer numbers.

We see in a whole lot of ways.

And in four, you know, I don't think people talk about it a lot, but older adults are an economic powerhouse, too, in terms of taxes.

They pay services they provide through volunteerism, and of course, their spending in general.

So I think we focus on the negative aspects of older adults.

And at lifespan, we're trying to say reimagine aging and the benefits that older adults bring to our community.

There's a lot of talk recently about the passing of President Carter, who lived to 100 and was building houses with his bare hands until his late 90s.

you know, certainly an inspiration, but not an outlier, necessarily.

And what are the Andy Rooney once said?

Look at me.

I'm old.

If you're lucky, it will happen to you, to what's happening tomorrow.

That's right.

That is absolutely right.

And I think we have to change our mindset about aging.

And we also have to use older adults differently.

Encourage people to work.

I do want to say one statistic I just read the other day, it was from AARP, that 90% of people over the age of 50 have felt the sting of ageism.

And, you know, if we can encourage more people to work longer, we already have workforce shortage issues.

We'll have that problem.

We already know that people volunteer when they're older, in greater numbers.

What would our community be without these wonderful volunteers?

And ultimately, at lifespan, there's always about 20 to 25% of older adults who need support.

We have to look at the state budget.

We have to look at other budgets and say, are we giving enough support to the multiple individuals who need a little bit of support to stay in the community longer?

And you work with a lot of people like Bibiana.

Tell me a little bit about your story.

I know you're a local caregiver.

Tell me about your family.

Yes.

So right around the pandemic, a couple things happened.

My my dad passed away, and then all of a sudden, we started noticing certain behaviors and certain things about my mom.

And then I ended up taking her to a whole lot of medical appointments, bloodwork, MRIs, etc.

and they were very concerned about whether she had a stroke or anything like that.

So in the end, as she was diagnosed with Alzheimer's dementia, and when I heard that diagnosis, I just felt like my world, like like like I fell into a into a hole and I was like, feeling so overwhelmed, like, what do I even do?

And I think I reached out to our HR department.

I work at Rochester Works, and I said, hey, where do I go?

And they send me the lifespan.

And I'm telling you, I am incredibly grateful.

I am eternally grateful to lifespan.

Thank you so much, lifespan and all the staff there, because I was able to immediately enroll in the Powerful Caregivers course.

And I'm telling you, just when I walked in and I looked around and I saw other people, I thought, oh, I'm not the only one because it was just so overwhelming.

I had no idea.

I just felt like I was drowning and I had no idea how to even grasp it.

It was it was just like I was just like.

So, overwhelmed, I guess is the word.

And and that cause was the beginning for me to take advantage of all the educational training programs that they offered.

They recently had the author, Joy, and she's a caregiver, and she wrote a book, and they had a book club I participated in that.

They've had other workshops of if something were to happen to me, have I created an emergency plan for other want for someone behind me to take care of my mom and other workshops like that?

We even at Saint John's, they're building and, they're trying to build a, a wing for dementia.

So I'm telling you, just overall, I have been in touch with several people.

They're back and forth and they're like my lifeline.

I'm just so grateful.

So grateful.

I'm even going to reach out to them today about another question that I have.

So I'm just eternally grateful for anything.

If you're out there and you're noticing changes in your parent, your loved one, please reach out to lifespan.

They're there for you.

They I'm telling you, the best thing about lifespan are the people.

They're warm, caring professionals.

They will.

You're not on this journey by yourself.

They'll walk with you in the path.

They'll answer questions.

They're just, wonderful.

So for me, it's a real honor and a privilege to even be invited to be part of this discussion today.

So.

So thank you.

Lifespan.

I'm sorry.

I probably went overboard.

I mean, you're sitting next to the CEO.

What would you say if they weren't in the room?

I know you're obviously genuine here.

And you can see how much it's moved you and how it's helped your family.

So you talk about we're in a moment.

I'll ask a little bit more about how people can take some of these classes and, and learn what you've learned.

Maybe.

But let me just ask you, in the last 48 hours, what's an example of of a way that you think you're doing things better because of what you have learned through these kind of programs at the beginning, for example, the idea of, you know, if my mom would ask me about her, her parents that are deceased, I would feel guilty about line and saying that they were alive.

So at the beginning, just that some of these courses of, you know, you just have to you just have to go with the flow.

And just the idea that if you try to bring that up, you're only going to retraumatize them and they're just going to feel that grief all over again.

Just knowing that gives me comfort that whoever she asked me about, she asked me about her sisters, her mom, her dad, where where's mom, where's dad?

And I'll just say they went to the store and then she's relaxed.

I've her worries and she's fine.

Just that is a perfect example of of one of the key learnings.

But I won't sugarcoat it.

Sometimes there's good days and sometimes there's challenging days.

I mean, just for example, last night she turned on the light in my room several times when I was sleeping.

And so, you know, you just you just have to go with the flow.

You adapt, you you flex.

And, you know, there's some funny moments through the whole journey of Alzheimer's.

She couldn't, she wasn't sure which were her sneakers.

And she showed these sneakers to me.

She said, are these mine last night?

And I said, I.

Yes, they are.

And all of a sudden she said, these are way too big.

And then I realized she had grabbed my brother's sneakers and she said, these are way too big.

And I'm like, oh, no, no, no, those are those are my brother's sneakers.

Let me get you.

Yours is things like that.

Just, you know, there's just sometimes the issue of of loss, you know, just knowing what she was before and what she is now.

The other day, she was asking me where was the where were the forks and knives?

And there they were, like, literally almost in front of her and she couldn't remember where they were.

It's things like that.

You're just you're constantly adjusting.

You have some funny moments, like the one I just shared and, and other times when it's really challenging.

You know, sometimes she doesn't want to lay down in her bed.

She doesn't.

And she'll sleep in a chair and I feel so guilty, you know, like, what can I do so that she'll she'll listen to me in and know that please lay down, be comfortable.

So I say all of this so as not to sugarcoat, sugarcoat, I should say the diagnosis of Alzheimer's dementia.

For anyone out there that may be experiencing these issues, there's going to be some really funny days, happy days, and then there's going to be some other days that are so challenging that you just you just gotta have your support system.

Number one God prayer and lifespan in Alzheimer's Association and other caring adults to kind of carry you through those challenging times.

That's a beautiful endorsement of what you do and what the team does there.

How do more people in the community get access to to learning in the way that Bibiana has learned?

Well, I mean, she's she's she's great, isn't she?

And, you can call lifespan five, eight, 524, 480, 400 and we'd be happy to help.

But I think, you know, she brings up such a beautiful point.

You know, there's about 4 million, almost 5 million older adults in the state, but there's 4 million family caregivers supporting those, individuals.

And her job that she's doing, not only supports her family, but even supports other taxpayers.

Because when you look at their work of these family caregivers doing what she's doing every day, if we costed that out, it would be a cost of about $39 billion.

Of course, the state couldn't care for that.

We're supporting not only older adults in the community and so many other organizations like lifespan, but also these family caregivers who are doing extraordinary work every single day.

Who you heard from her just need a little bit of support to do their jobs.

Well, let me turn to your co-panelists across the table, and Assembly Member Sarah Clarke from district number 136. you know, I mentioned off the top here, it's the first time ever that 25% of Monroe County's population is 60 or older.

A lot of them in that category are your constituents.

What what do you hear most often from what people need?

So I'm going to, say a few things and then definitely answer your question, but I'm going to brain dump a little.

All that's been said already first is Anne-Marie gave the general number to lifespan.

And I have to tell you that we so many people want to come into our office as we refer them to lifespan.

And they're like, well, now, who particularly can I call and what exact number?

And I'm like, no, actually, if you call their general number that you will get an answer to your question.

Like you don't need a super secret number or a super secret person, you could just call that number and they will.

They have heard everything.

They know everything.

There is just a wealth of a knowledge around, aging in our in our community and what the needs are and how to meet them.

And so I just can't say enough that call the general number if you need anything.

Any question?

second, as we were talking about older New Yorkers, I was reminded.

So I have Aquinas in my, my, district.

It's actually right around the corner from where I live.

And, they had come to me last spring to do a proclamation for their oldest living alumni who was celebrating his 90th, year from graduation.

He was 107 years old, and they had gone to visit him to because they wanted to honor him at graduation last year.

And they asked me to do a proclamation, which, of course I did.

But, you know, I think what was amazing is they expected someone frail, someone sort of like in their bed.

And he was still spry.

He just talked about, you know, just having giving up, mowing the lawn and all these different things.

And he was 107.

I mean, it just seems like an age we wouldn't even, consider as someone who's still just who living life and, and contributing still in so many ways.

so we definitely need to re trigger our brains a bit to think about how people live and how much longer they're living and what and how we should enjoy that.

more.

and then the third is, you know, I also have, you know, my father was also just diagnosed with Alzheimer's as well.

And it is my mother is still here and is his main caregiver.

But I also think of people like me who are still raising children, still working full time and figuring out how to support both my dad and and my mom who really needs the support.

My mom.

so it is, there's so much more to it than just the person, and just the person who's aging and having different issues.

And so we always have to think, I think I talk a lot about the Caring Academy.

I do a lot in childcare, as you know, but I think there's this other piece too.

And it's not just caring for those who need health issues or those who have health issues.

It's caring for the people who care.

and Emery's number on the billions of dollars we save by having family caregivers, we really need to make sure that we as a state are addressing that in our budget.

But I also hear, you know, we have with the defined pension has not been something that's existed for many years.

And so when we talk about the 25%, demographic of older new Yorkers in our community, many that's also the largest growing that are, entering poverty or feeling poverty.

so and that's a lot because of the lost defined pensions and people living on Social Security and that's it.

No savings, no nothing else.

And so as a state, we know we you know, a lot of what I hear about these days is every town, every city went through a reassessment.

And people who've been living in their house for 50, 60 years are all of a sudden getting a huge tax bill that they've never had before.

Having done nothing other than live in their house and and keep it up.

and, and yet they don't have a way to have more money, you know, and, and so those kinds of struggles as costs go up and we don't think about how people are living anymore financially, and what they're living on.

So there is some to working longer.

But then there's also just like, what are we doing to protect from things that are beyond their control, to ensure that they can live wherever they want.

So my in the state budget, we do a lot of different things to help.

not nearly enough.

we do support lifespan and a lot of the great work they do.

We do the, we give money to, for people in Medicaid to get at home services if they choose to stay at home.

We don't fund that enough.

We do a long term care ombudsman program to ensure people who are in nursing facilities, nursing home facilities and long term care facilities have an advocate for them.

But we don't fund that enough.

you know, we do, we do the elder abuse and other, you know, trying to look at ways that we can, do more with lifespan to protect people financially.

And then you know, to health care how we can support the caring economy, how we can to support the those who, when at home, like, paid care is needed, what we can do to ensure those wages are enough, that we have people who are willing to do those jobs.

I mean, the workforce issue is, is is a big one.

and so there's just so many things that we do in the state budget, but I don't think we're doing it enough.

I don't think we're looking at the demographics, the way we should be as a state to, really invest in that generation as it continues to age.

and health care is one of them.

And, you know, I know Anne-Marie will talk a lot about her great programs, but the biggest key is, I think, is choice, letting people choose where they live and supporting them in that way.

So whether they want to stay home, want to go to a facility, have a paid caregiver, have a family, caregiver, whatever it is we need to ensure those choices, that that person can have, to live how they want to live the rest of their lives.

And we're not doing that very well.

Let me just follow up a couple of the actual impact life impacting policy ideas.

So first of all, you talk about the active 107 year old.

And with a 90th high school like, I mean, I unfortunately probably a lot of my high school reunion, my classmates probably passed by then.

But I mean, I had to organize our ten year reunion years ago, and I'm like, I don't want to do this anymore.

But now you think at least we are expecting to live longer.

We are thinking about our lives in terms of what does a career of work look like?

When does it end?

How long you expect to work, how long do you want to work?

And so, so much of what you're describing when you talk about people who've lived in their house for 50 or 60 years and they've done great and they're still doing well, but all of a sudden, bang, a tax bill changes and their maybe their income isn't able to cover them.

Is there a policy mechanism to do anything about that?

I mean, we've done enhanced our we've done different ways to sort of rebate some of that money back.

So if you are, older, over the age of 65, you don't not just get a star rebate, you'll get what's called the enhanced star, but it doesn't cover enough.

You know, we've been it actually came up as we started to talk about the budget this year.

to, to continue.

I mean, we we do have property taxes here, and they're high.

But when you compare them to Long Island to Westchester, I mean, there are people who are living in, like, two bedroom ranches that are, you know, getting close to $1 million in value on Long Island.

because of housing shortages, we can do more to lower the, the cost of housing and make it more affordable.

But we the property tax issue, I think we really need to create a better mechanism that's protecting people in those situations better.

I do hear about it actually a lot.

And I know organizations even like AARP are starting to, weigh in new Jersey capped or doesn't raise over a certain if you're an income level, and a certain age, they won't let your property taxes go up by, by much.

I don't know if they completely stop them, but, there are states that are doing more to protect in those situations.

And I figured you'd want to talk about the new presidential administration.

So, I was at a recent legislative breakfast that the chamber threw in.

You were up on the desk talking about some of the possible impacts.

Your colleagues were talking about it.

The question of Medicaid came up, the question of what could be changing anything that we that you are looking at from the federal government that could affect this particular conversation today, always.

So the biggest thing that we say is 40% of our state budget is federal dollars, right?

So any impact there that reduces that is an impact on us as a state.

I think we've a lot of had have a lot of in in, house conversations in the state government about what we're going to do to protect if cuts happen.

I mean, it's egregious, particularly in New York, because we are already a donors state.

We are already giving more in federal taxes than we get back.

And now there's this chance we're going to get even less back.

so I do think there is, some worry around that.

particularly, you know, we did get our, this MCO tax approved, which is a sort of a rebate program that will allow us to actually get money, more money into Medicaid from the feds.

But you're always worrying at any moment that that could, could end.

so I do think as we look at, you know, all our nursing homes are, you know, sort of operating, when they have Medicaid patients, they're getting reimbursed, under the value of the cost of care.

And so that whole it it's just getting deeper.

And if we don't sort of fix that, we know we're already losing beds.

We have way less beds.

And we've had years ago, and yet an older population.

So it's just not the math is not adding up.

And we need to, figure out what we're going to do.

But at the same time, our state can only do so much.

I mean, I do think there's going to be things that happen that we just don't have the resources to compensate for.

and you, you're worried about what's coming.

Yeah.

I mean, there's going to be consequences to having an administration who who's already signed executive orders to end the prescription drug.

prices that were put in under the Biden administration to make sure people have had better access and lower prices for their prescription drugs.

I mean, that already has happened.

and by the way, for listeners, we're going to be talking to Assemblymember Clark and her colleagues at the state level about how they see the this relationship between the federal government, the state government, executive orders, changes that are coming, good, bad in the other way.

So that's, those are conversations coming in in the days and weeks to come.

Let me turn to your colleague on, and the farthest mike for me, Leanne Rourke, who is, aging services administrator for the Monroe County office for the aging.

So.

And the county level, what's the role that your office plays?

And how are you seeing this change of demographic?

Yeah.

Thanks, Evan.

So our our office depends primarily on, some of those funds from the state that you just heard Assemblyman Clark say they're we're talking about.

And, you know, our job is to combine those with any federal dollars that come in, and really deploy them in a way that's the most meaningful in our community.

we seem to prioritize those services that help folks to remain at home if they choose to remain at home.

Services like the expanded In-Home Services for the elderly program, which has a, pretty large waitlist.

Unfortunately, across the state right now, we know that over 75% at the minimum and that there are a lot of studies, but about 75% or more people in every community want to remain at home.

Yet many of them can't afford some of those extraordinary health care services to, to to support them.

So without family caregivers, it becomes an issue.

And we, we prioritize funding for some of those types of issues.

you know, our, our county executive, Adam Barlow, since the beginning of his administration has really prioritized, h an h friendly community.

So, our local Monroe County Aging Alliance with partners like lifespan and a variety of other aging partners and academic partners, and city and county work together to create a plan.

And we have a plan.

But quite honestly, much of that plan needs funding.

So, we are relying upon state and federal.

yeah.

Yeah, state and federal, mostly state budgets.

but but, you know, a lot of that money comes from the federal, buckets that are, that are that come in to our New York State Office for the aging.

So it becomes a matter of both.

Okay.

and is there a short list that you have, Leanne, that said, unlimited funds don't exist, but if the if the situation were easier, a little more flexible, we would be doing immediately 1 to 3.

This is what we'd be able to do more of.

Yeah.

I'm not sure that that it's easy to to hold that down to three.

Evan.

but, prioritizing services that keep people in their homes, prioritizing services for people that can't already afford those services, which is another, great charge of ours and supporting caregiver, in the most meaningful way so that they have experiences, like us and have those accesses to that access to resource and education.

those would be definitely priorities.

Tell the listeners and the viewers what grape is if they don't know.

Sure, sure.

The Greater Rochester Area Partnership for the elderly is an organization, primarily of of professional partners.

it started in 1994 as a professional organization.

it provides education, networking and advocacy for issues surrounding older people and about older people.

And, the group, with that advocacy charge, hosts and legislative breakfast every single year to kind of highlight some of those issues that are really important to some of our members.

The two things that kind of rose to the top this year.

Again, there were there were a list of 11 things that that our members, really said, these are important to us, but they agreed on two big issues.

The first, was something that, Assemblywoman Carr Cardi mentioned, which was the nursing home, Medicaid, rates or actually just investing in nursing homes, period.

We don't tend to think of nursing homes as as anything we want to think about.

People often say they don't want to go in a nursing home.

but what we don't realize is that we, any of us at any age, might find ourselves needing the services, particularly rehabilitation services that are available in a nursing home.

So this becomes not an issue about older people or about aging, an aging population.

It becomes an issue that collectively, we all need to really look at why nursing homes are not funded properly, and figure out a way to make sure that nursing homes can stay in business.

you know, we we heard one of our, one of our, neighboring communities lost a really great nursing home, with pretty good quality metrics.

That's concerning.

we know some of our local nursing homes have had to shut down units, neighborhoods, in beds in their homes because they simply can't afford the cost of operating.

And we need to invest in the health care workforce that that can keep those beds open.

And also the Medicaid reimbursement rate that makes budgets balance.

They are businesses.

So I want to ask a little bit more about nursing homes.

And with the caveat that this is a whole other conversation that needs to be had, I understand that, but it's come up so let me just briefly ask here.

We're describing a population that's gotten older over time.

That's that is a positive sign that, that we are successfully dealing with disease and all the problems of life that would end our lives sooner.

So we're getting older.

the average lifespan is now.

I've got 78, 79.

What do you is that about?

Right?

Yeah.

That's right.

Okay.

So, you know, that's that's unheard of 100 years ago.

That's unheard of 50 years ago for an average.

But that's where we are.

It's probably going to go even more with technology and change, which probably means, liane, that we need more nursing homes, I think.

But we have we could end up with fewer if we see this trend go the way it's going to.

Something says to me that this market doesn't really the way it's set up does not work here.

There's something inefficient or a problem to make this successful for everybody.

Yeah, yeah.

And I'll, I'll add one more societal trend to that is we're seeing more and more older people that don't have a family caregiver available to them, either they didn't have children or they don't have a loved one, or someone that can really invest in the type of caregiving that Lianna, has invested in.

Is that because we're moving farther away?

I mean, like, we're more mobile as well, or, and, and people are choosing not to have children.

People are choosing to have less children.

Yeah.

It's very you know, it's costly to have a lot of children.

So people, people basically, are may not have that informal.

So they need that structure as far as the actual nursing home, will that work?

Will that model be something that that works?

I mean, I like to think of it this way.

It's also a rehabilitation option.

It's not just the place where older people go to stay, which is the way that we all thought of it.

Back when our grandmothers were in nursing homes, it was the place that older people went in their later years.

That's not really what nursing homes today are designed to provide.

It's that rehabilitation service that's so important.

And yes, some people need to stay there because they don't have a family caregiver or someone that can provide that care at home.

So we need to invest in those community based services that can keep people at home in affordable housing that they can go to when they transfer from that nursing home and want to leave and go back into the community, there simply aren't enough affordable places for people to go that are supportive, that are age friendly, that are accessible.

you know, we, we see a huge need for accessible a affordable homes for people.

So.

Oh, I was just going to add, I mean, well, I think it's we've mentioned it a bunch of different times.

I mean, there have already been wings, units, beds closed that if, if, if we were to able to straighten up this Medicaid rate and get it to the true cost of care that they could open, I mean, they are closing because they're in deficits and they need to cut down on expenses, and not continue with that hole, get any bigger because they're using other services to sort of plug it right now.

But I, I do think the trend to want to age at home is increasing.

So even though we are getting older, you know, larger and larger demographics of older new Yorkers, I do think more and more are would choose to want to stay at home and age there if possible.

so how do we do that?

I even no nursing homes in my district who are creating sort of mobile units so that instead of always thinking of us being a nursing home, we take people in.

Well, we can also create a mobile unit that has a mechanism to be funded through, whether it's through Medicaid reimbursement or not, to go into people's homes and care for them as much as needed so that they can stay there, knowing that it's less expensive to do that.

and it's also what that person and that wants and chooses.

Okay, to work rethinking it too.

It's not just traditional.

I again, it's hard to sum this up, but briefly before I turn to your colleagues across the table, is does the financial model make sense for nursing homes in 2025?

I think there's a population that we're always going to need them.

I mean, that's the issue.

I think there's just so many people that maybe either have complex needs or don't have a caregiver or don't have a place to live anymore or whatever.

I don't think we can ever say just no, like, let's just move in a new direction.

but I think we need to be ready to, to change the model or look at how we can do this better.

The Medicaid reimbursement is not working, and we need to figure that piece out, whether it's a structural change or just continuing to look at the reimbursement way I'm thinking about.

I'm thinking about what Leanne said about what we used to think about nursing homes.

And this is a big oversimplification, and it's probably it is not everyone's experience.

But I agree, when I was younger, I thought of nursing homes as a place that, you know, we may have a grandparent end up or we may end up, and it's largely pleasant.

I think that it is mostly the reputational idea of a nursing home is gone downhill and not everybody.

This is not a blanket statement.

I mean, no one needs to email me and tell me that, like, there's there are definitely good ones.

There definitely are.

And I've also volunteered in places that break your heart, that you look around and say, I can't believe this is what we're doing.

So I think that change has changed the way people think about their future.

But if we're living longer, we need a range of options.

You might be able to live to 107 mowing the lawn, and you may need a nursing home much earlier.

Yeah, the destigmatize that we need to destigmatize nursing homes, but we also need to destigmatize aging.

You know, we we tend to not want to plan, not want to think about.

I don't want to deal with.

It's scary to think about what's going to happen in later life when disability creeps in.

But older life doesn't always mean disability.

But I think we culturally think that.

So we stigmatize aging itself.

And I think I think sometimes it's also stigmatized in, you know, the funding allocations and how much how much we really think of this as an important, an important topic that needs to be elevated and not just, oh, wow, that's you know, that's a lot that's a burden.

We're going to push it away.

so to Anne-Marie's point, there's a lot of value in what older people bring to our community, and we don't think about that enough.

Let me turn to Anne Marie.

I just want to say to our team, we're going to break a little bit later than normal this hour, because then we're going to let Assemblymember Clark go, who is on a tight schedule and very generous with your time.

We appreciate you being here.

but you've heard a lot there.

Anne Marie Cook, president CEO of Lifespan.

So what do you think?

Well, there's so many things to talk about.

One, you know, the nursing home situation.

I'll start there.

We're all linked.

So in nursing homes, as the assembly member said, are can't fill beds because they don't have the workforce or the financial plan doesn't work.

That puts in tremendous stress and organization since like life span is, we're trying to support people who really need more support in the community because they can't get a nursing home bed.

We also know the problem in hospitals here, we have the fewest per capita hospital beds are for anywhere else in the state because years ago, no one I'll remember may be but me.

We close to two hospitals.

We close Genesee.

We closed Saint Mary's hospital.

We've never made up those beds.

And today, at any given time, I bet if you called over to strong or called over to our garage, they are at full capacity because they cannot move some of those older adults who need the rehab.

Leanne talked about to those beds.

They're not there and trying to bring some of those folks home.

And of course we support them when we can, is also a tremendous amount of work.

We're all linked.

So I mean, this is a huge issue once again, that I feel like we're ignoring in a state level, maybe at a federal level two, that where we have a changing demographics and there's positives to that, but a little.

But we have to think about the support people need to stay in the community longer and, support them that way.

If I could give you just one, I have a million stats, so I might I don't want to bore you, but when you look at New Yorkers age 50 and older, they represent 39% of the state population.

So 50 and older, 30 and almost 40% of the state population.

The New York State Office for aging budget is less than 1%, and it has not kept pace at all with the kind of supports that Bibiana talked about and what older adults need.

And I'm going to say from being at lifespan 29 years, people call us for a little bit of support, some information, not a lot.

It's wonderful working with older adults, but when we can't supply that support or information, they end up in higher and more expensive levels of care.

So I you know, I am a broken record about we have got to look at this differently.

And one other stat I'll throw in while I'm talking in 2030.

So five years from now, for the first time ever in U.S. history, there will be more people 65 and older than children, first time in U.S. history.

And those budget numbers are changing.

So I just have a plea.

you know, that we have to look at this differently and support people differently.

And the demographics are changing that last number one, I'm boring about those stats.

I mean, that's and that goes to a number of things.

Birth rates have gone down.

Yes.

We've talked about, you know, people are having fewer children by choice.

People are living longer.

So the baby boomers, yeah, all these things are happening coalescing around, you know, this big societal demographic change.

And then there's cultural issues that are, again, every one of these is its own hour, which we'll just come back and have to do.

But, I mean, I think about the fact that the tech curve I was reading Tim Urban's book, one of my favorite writers, and he and he has this graph, a very informal graph on human technological progress over time.

And it's here, here, here, here.

And it says, you are here and you're at the start of this.

I mean, it goes straight up.

It is long, flat, and then all of a sudden a very sharp upward curve, and we're right at the base of that moving upward, which just means in five, ten years, the technological change is so different than the way life is lived now.

So if you're 50 and you're working and you want to work when you're 60 and 70, you have to be able to adjust, probably to tech that doesn't even exist yet.

Whether you want to or not.

That's right.

In ways that you know.

My mother, who reluctantly got an iPhone after years but was able to, has been able to work most of her career with that much tech changed and really like it, doesn't really want it.

It's happening so fast and we are not really accounting for what it means culturally.

When we push people out of a workforce where people don't adjust.

So anyway, that's the end of my Ted talk.

We'll come back on a different day for that.

But, I mean, I'm thinking about the way that all the different ways that these demographic changes are going to hit us.

It's not just one thing is no question about it.

You know, some of that, you know, in my spare time, I guess I read a lot of aging articles, and a lot of times I read things of what's happening in Japan and even Europe because their demographics changed sooner than ours in terms of changing demographics and some of the things that Japan's using in terms of robots, you know, you almost think of the Jetsons kind of thing that they're doing.

But, you know, we have to think that way.

We have to think, how will these how will new technologies help us support older adults in the community longer?

How like you said, with changing demographics, are we eliminating older workers from some of their training and technology?

Or because they can learn?

Everybody can learn?

Or do we say we want need older adults in the community longer?

So make sure that they have the training on these very new technologies we can't even envision yet.

Yeah, it's tough.

Assembly member Clark, you didn't know that you had to fund, who was it?

Rosie who was the Jetsons?

So was it Rosie?

A Rosie for everyone, a Rosie.

Can we, I mean, we we pay a lot now for care.

but.

And I would say you look at our children who are so much more intuitive to technology, I'll give them something that's new and they can figure it out in 30s where I'm still like, what?

You know, so we're there at the, you know, tail end of at least being able to adapt quickly.

And so they're good at it.

We were at the front end where we are and our parents generation even more so.

I would say a couple things because I do have to leave, but I, the first is to Emery's point, like when it comes to class, we talk a lot about budgets and numbers.

But like she said, there's some people that just need a light touch every day or a couple hours here.

And that's the thing that I feel like we're not investing enough in because it saves us so much money on the back end.

We know they've already run successful programs.

On whether if you just have someone checking in to make sure you're getting to your medical appointments, taking your prescription drugs, making sure you have food and that you're paying your bills and that people stay out of hospitals.

Right.

And and that's what I mean, I think to go into details of what Emery means is like, if she could somehow have a mechanism where she's funded at this very much lower cost level to do those things, we save millions of dollars on the back end in the health care system, and we just we really don't do enough in the in the government.

Right now to fund that particular piece.

And I do want to tease and we can come back, later and talk about it when it's more, locked in.

But we've been talking about this for a while, but to, to pull together a program or like an event, a day event, that really aims at both people who are aging, but also their children or their caregivers or their family to, to understand more.

I mean, Leanne's right.

People don't talk about it till it's too late.

By the time you're asking questions, it's mostly because someone is in that moment already.

you're not learning about it before.

So what we're really focusing on is how do we bring this, like conference together where people can learn about financial planning as you age, about all the different health care, what is palliative care mean versus hospice versus health care proxy versus, you know, all these different things that you if you know more about and are ready, you're not in the emotional moment, where you have to make those decisions.

And then the last piece being, the, the like the financial health and then legal, like, you know, what do you need for, you know, your legal protections.

So when is this event happening?

We're gonna do it this spring.

And I think it's official.

It is official.

I believe we're going to do it in May during Older Americans Month.

There it is.

And and also having this piece to which I think we talk about a lot doing is instead of having a job fair, having some sort of community volunteer fair, these are the different programs that are out there that if you have time and are interested in in the ombudsman program, the Meals on Wheels, there's so many great programs, that people can get as involved or not.

But we have so much talent and wealth and of knowledge and, love of community out there that we're just not tapping into.

So I think there's so many ways we can really make life better for people who are aging, but also give a sense of peace to them and their family.

When to come back around May or April and we'll talk about it again.

I would love it.

There's so members got to go where this is our only break of the hour and we're going to come back.

And I just refreshed email and we've got to take some of your emails.

We've got a lot of them at connections at Excited to Work.

Thank you.

Member of the Assembly Sarah Clarke.

Short break.

More connections coming up here.

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And if you don't know the story of Constance Mitchell, a new book aims to make sure that you and your children do.

It's called Constance Mitchell Stands up.

We're going to talk to the creators.

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This afternoon at four.

This is connections.

I'm Evan dawson.

Bibiana Silveira Pawtucket is a local caregiver.

So what stands out to you?

What do you want to make sure that the audience understands from the caregiver perspective here, from the caregiver perspective, there's also the cultural element like I'm a Latina, right.

And so in our Latina families, the idea, quite honestly, of putting someone in a nursing home is like a no no.

It just it just will not work.

So that's one of the things that that stood out to me on the previous conversation.

We're talking about age, how we're all getting older.

And I'm thinking to myself, you know, I want to work until I'm 80.

So I'm thinking I'm going to keep track with all those new technological measures because I feel like I don't have enough myself.

Saved for retirement for myself.

Plus, I want to make sure my mom is in a good place.

So touching upon what you were just mentioning on and I just wanted to say thank you, it, tell me your name one more time, I apologize.

I'm liane.

Leanne.

What you mentioned about the nursing homes and the rehabilitative.

I was not aware of that.

So thank you for educating me on that.

So that's basically what I would mention with the caregiving.

There's a cultural element.

Hopefully there's more.

adult children that are willing to take on the caregiver role because sometimes, like our doctor, my, my mom sector said, sometimes it's not so much the care.

Sometimes it's having a caring, a loved one care for you that makes all the difference.

And that's basically what I just wanted to share.

Thank you.

If you want to call lifespan, we'll have it in our show notes.

You should be able to find the number or their website.

Contact for lifespan.

Sarah Clarke says you can get a person, it's 2025 and you can call a phone number and get a person.

You know, it's amazing.

Absolutely.

I, you know, I try every time.

I always say, if you if you get our voicemail, we will call you back.

You will get a live person too.

all right.

Through, through the feedback, we go listener wants to know social security benefits payout was originally set at 62 years, as the life expectancy was lower at the time.

What do you guys think of raising the age to 65?

As many believe Social Security will run out of funds have not adjusted.

Ann-Marie cook there is a lot of different proposals because we are worried about the solvency course of the Social Security fund.

There's a lot of different proposals out there.

Of course you can take it at 62, but full age, even for somebody like me, is 67.

Now for Social Security.

There are proposals to increase that age.

I think it is okay for some, but I think for some laborers in particular, it would be almost impossible in those jobs to keep going.

so hopefully there will be some compromise here or some decision and how we ensure the solvency of Social Security.

I'll say I fear what will happen to older adults, literally and goes, that's above my pay grade, but do you want to weigh in and Social Security?

Yeah, I would actually just, mirror exactly what Anne-Marie said.

I mean, it's it's it's it's very difficult to think about those demographics we just discussed.

Yeah.

And increasing that age.

But, you know, we we need some economists smarter than us, I think, to help solve that one.

We don't really do lightning rounds, but let's be fast with the email because we got a lot.

So we'll try to be quick here.

See why says why not encourage programs that train and utilize the elderly to fill the gap in early childhood daycare?

Maybe they couldn't be individual providers themselves, but perhaps supplement those in the profession.

That's I think that's a hard ask when you're talking about toddlers, I don't know.

What do you think, Anne-Marie?

We do have some, older adults who come to us and want to volunteer with young children and do that.

So, I mean, certainly there's more ways that we can grow that.

And we should think about all ways.

I think for some older adults it would be very, very difficult because of physical limitations.

And some honestly are just as active as those toddlers.

What do you think?

There.

And there used to be more, caregiver opportunities in our community where you could get care for your child by an older person.

My children, years ago, were at the Fairport Baptist home at seasons.

And and most of their most of their connection was with the older people, particularly in the nursing home but also in the community.

And we need more of that.

I agree with the caller.

Good for everybody.

Thank you.

See, Joan says I too have to thank Lifespan and Mara taught a course with her and Sicily, my support, who I worked with during my husband's brain illness and death.

They are an amazing resource for older adults and caregivers in our community.

They become your friends when health curves, throw you a curve ball.

Also, let's stop using terminology and behaviors that support ageism.

That's from Joan.

Yeah, I totally agree.

I mean, we work every single day to stop this ageless kind of thought process in the community.

One of the reasons why we wanted to be here, we partner, of course, with Liliana and all of that, and let's hope we can end ageism.

Really.

The last is, it's still acceptable to laugh at and joke about older people.

listening.

In Vancouver, Canada, David sent a note saying, my ex stepfather turned 100 on January 1st, and he still golfs just a little bit of color, in relation to how we are staying active longer.

David, I hope he, lives a many more years happily.

That's a great story.

Gina says, can you talk about the trends of older friend groups living together, or is there any talk about this becoming the next step of care?

Friend groups living together?

Liam.

Yeah, there's actually a group of people that share your sentiment, right here in the Rochester area.

and they've created a group, of what they call co-housing.

They're trying to figure out how it might work in a model.

do they work with a developer or is it something they should do?

The by themselves?

So that's that is a trend that we have heard about that that is successful in other communities.

But in a lot of different models, it's not just one way to do that.

All right.

90s here, take 30s.

Leanne, what do you want to leave with the audience as they think about getting educated, getting the services and support they need for themselves or family members?

Yeah, I'll just give a shameless plug for the Greater Rochester Area partnership for the elderly.

legislative breakfast.

All are welcome.

it's for elected officials, it's for professionals, but it's also for community people that want to hear what's important, to the professionals.

And it's going to be Friday, February 7th at the program starts at 830 in the morning.

you can register at info at Grape Elder.

Org or the phone number locally (585) 256-4351.

And it's going to be happening at Nazareth University, which has been a great partner of ours.

That's two weeks from tomorrow and two weeks from tomorrow.

So in our show notes, if you want to attend and be there or you know someone who should, we'll get you all hooked up there.

Hope you have a great event there.

Ann Marie Cook what you want to leave with the audience here.

If you have any question about aging or a family caregiver who need support, please call lifespan at 585244 8400.

And we hope not only to support and give people information and supportive services, but also life span is working to eradicate ageism in all of its ugly forms.

And Bibiana Silveira portfolio, you got this big smile.

I know you have deep love for what you've learned from lifespan.

I think you you probably give a lot of hope to your friends and in your age group who may be looking ahead thinking this is going to be a challenge.

Final thoughts from me about 20s.

I would just say, if you're out there and you have a loved one that you're concerned about and you need support, reach out to lifespan.

They're there for you.

Thank you.

Thank you for being here, Bibiana.

Good luck to you and your family.

Thanks for telling your story with us this hour.

Our thanks to Anne-Marie cook, the president and CEO of lifespan.

this was one of those 30,000ft views, but if listeners, if you set notes on specific topics, we're going to hit all of these individually as we go throughout the year.

There's so much here.

Thank you for being here.

Thank you so much.

And our thanks to and Rurik from both grape.

That's the Greater Rochester Area Partnership for the Elderly and Aging services administrator for the Monroe County Office for the aging.

Thank you for being here.

Thank you.

Evan.

More connections coming up in just a moment.

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