Wake up call for Baby Boomers! Time is urgent!

Happy Easter! In Response to “Baby Boomers Not Savi...

Wake up call for Baby Boomers! Time is urgent!

As I wrote an article for Dorland Health today, and researched statistics I found a report from the Families and Work Institute which is from their 2008 survey, The Elder Care Study: Everyday Realities and Wishes for Change. Even though this report is a bit outdated it contains some great information and a bit of light into why Baby Boomers are ignoring their aging future.

An actual excerpt from the report on working family caregivers states;

In terms of their own aging, the caregivers present a bleak picture. Having experienced the elders’ aging and ailments, family caregivers tend to be both more aware of the challenges of growing old and more discouraged about it. Many seem to find it too difficult, too depressing to imagine themselves as being in the care recipient’s shoes. Their wishes are more about what they do not want to happen to themselves, than what they do want.

These are:

• not to be a “burden” to others, especially to their children;

• not to burden themselves or others with unaffordable expenses; and
• not to end up in a nursing home.

Among hopes for their own aging, family caregivers most often cite being able to live in their own homes, maintaining good health and remaining independent for as long as they can. Yet, ultimately, far too many wish to escape from aging as it now plays out in America:

I don’t even want to think about it. I want to pass in my sleep of old age. It’s an ugly time of life—the last few years of suffering.

I would rather die in a car wreck than put anyone through what I had to go through taking care of my mother.

These statements are very common according to my experience yet what are we doing to put a rest to our fears. I’ve personally said “I am not living in a nursing home.” Who wants to burden anyone with care of care costs, but unless we do something in the next 5 years to remove those fears they will become our reality. To better understand our current and future care costs Genworth Financial has an excellent cost comparison by State. Once you click on your state go under the map to calculate future care costs to find a drop down menu to choose between 10 and 30 years from now. I know you will find future care costs as shocking as I have! Understand that you may not need care for 40 years, but the costs for us Baby Boomers, even 20 years from now are so high that it will affect you as well, because it will be an economic crisis for the country, business and individual families.

I know we can create a better aging future for us all that will be positive, supportive, values seniors, community, and living at home, without exhausting every penny we have on care costs. We only need to combine our education, experience, skills and resources to create something we will look forward to rather than dread.

There is a vision for senior living and care I present in my book Behind the Old Face: Aging in America and the Coming Elder Boom I don’t propose to have all the answers to every problem by any means but the inter-generational cooperative community model I present is a very viable option for millions of seniors if we just act on it. We can hide our heads in the sand and enter into one of the biggest crisis’ this country has ever seen and regret our inaction or we can take our fears and turn them into creative action and advocacy to create the kind of aging future we all would happily look forward to and accept. The countdown has begun. Whether we act or not, the next 5 years will pass and the Elder Boom will be met with devastation or peace, our choice!