The Age Guide: Perspectives on the Aging Journey

The Great Reconnection: Equity in Action

• Age Guide • Season 3 • Episode 5

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Although people are living longer than ever, how long we live is significantly impacted by demographic factors like where we live, our race, and our socio-economic status. In this episode, we highlight one of the panels from AgeGuide’s 2nd Annual Aging Summit. Together with thought leaders in the Aging field, participants delved into the question, “How can we make longevity equitable for all?” 

The Equity in Action panel featured Ian Hartman-O’Connell, Director of Policy Integration at AARP; Professor Brian Kaskie from the University of Iowa; Paula Basta, former Director of IDoA, and AgeGuide CEO, Marla Fronczak. The panel candid conversation about how we can all impact equity in longevity. 

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SPEAKER_01:

Hello, and welcome to The Age Guide, perspectives on the aging journey. We are here to be your personal age guide and enhance your quality of life on the road ahead. Although people are living longer than ever, how long we live is significantly impacted by demographic factors like where we live, our race, and our socioeconomic status. This episode is a replay of a live panel from Age Guide's second annual Aging Summit, which brought together some of the smartest and most inspirational people in the field of aging. Over 200 attendees immersed themselves in a full day of conversations around the theme of building equity in longevity. This panel discussion was a culmination of the day's events. featuring Ian Hartman O'Connell, Senior Director of Policy at AARP, Professor Brian Caskey from the University of Iowa, Paula Basta, former Director of IDOA, and AgeGuide's own CEO, Marla Franczak, candidly exploring what we can all do to build more equity into longevity. Let's listen in.

SPEAKER_03:

Let's start out with an easy one for everybody. Sure, sure. So, and we'll start this way and we'll go around. So Brian, give me one adjective that describes how you're feeling today, either personally or professionally.

SPEAKER_02:

Gathering. That's a verb.

SPEAKER_03:

You're feeling gathering?

SPEAKER_02:

I feel we're

SPEAKER_03:

gathering. All right, I'll take the professor's word for that.

SPEAKER_06:

All right, Paula. You're gonna get an A for sure now. I'm feeling hopeful.

SPEAKER_05:

Nice. Paula, you stole my word.

SPEAKER_04:

How

SPEAKER_03:

about

SPEAKER_04:

we say idealistic?

SPEAKER_05:

Idealistic? Yeah, let's do that.

SPEAKER_03:

These are very good words for today. I think we've done our work. I'm very, very excited. So I'm going to ask this of all of you, and I think I'll start this way, Ian. So what progress do you think we have made? So

SPEAKER_05:

I think you have a room in Naperville, Illinois, with 200 people interested in this topic. I would call that progress. We have a lot of work to do. Everyone today spoke about the work we have to do. There are solutions out there right now that we have to come together and collectively take a step forward together. But I think we're making progress. We're talking about it. We're talking about intersectionality. We're talking about the longevity gap. We're talking about the need of the multigenerational workforce. And so when we walk out of here, the next word is action. What are we going to do with all of this information, this enlightenment, and this stimulation, and this optimism, cautious or not?

SPEAKER_03:

Optimistically. I like that. Paula, what would

SPEAKER_06:

you say? She's ready for me. Well, what does success look like? It looks like this room. That's exactly what I want to tell you. And then, of course, the other piece in my mind that I will not forget for a very long time is over 200 of us doing Tina Turner and Mary Jane helping us guide us through a quickie Zumba class together to get energized to spend the rest of the day together. But what an amazing room this is. And so please, all of you, too, take a look at... all of who is around you here today, because this is the hope and also, for me, the success of the Aging Network in Illinois. And so continue to rely on each other, but I see success in all kinds of other ways. Obviously, we can get into the weeds about the waiver program that the Illinois Department on Aging does oversee. We're seeing improvements. We're seeing ways in which we know that we have tried to support, especially during the years of the pandemic, to get through and support and grow the aging network to be stronger because of something we've just experienced for three years. And believe me, it was because of all of you and the work that you've done that the Illinois Department on Aging continues to be your strong partner.

SPEAKER_03:

Brian, what does progress look like?

SPEAKER_02:

Rectangles.

SPEAKER_04:

Oh,

SPEAKER_02:

you wanted more. So, I guess I already gave away my age. Back in the day, when I started in this field, we used to see this thing called the population pyramid. So whether you have done anything or not, which most of us haven't, but to your acknowledgement, there's more of us who have now. And more importantly, and the reason why I say rectangles, is the pyramid was something we'd talk about. Oh, right, there's these old people out there, and there's more of us Gen Xers and millennials and all that than them, and they're living longer, but whatever. Right? I don't see TV shows where my mom's watching about other older women hanging out in bars. I didn't see that when I was in college. I do now. I don't see Clint Eastwood or other directors over 90. I do now. So whether you want to call it progress or not, it's here. And that rectangle means is that we have more older persons now relative to younger persons. That's demographic progress or population progress. And we've got to deal with it now. It's no longer just fantasy. It's here.

UNKNOWN:

Got that.

SPEAKER_03:

I want to see more older women in bar shows. I don't know. I'd be watching that.

SPEAKER_02:

Frankie, I think, is the show.

SPEAKER_03:

All right. I'm going to circle back to you again, Brian, since I've got you. But looking ahead. What changes do you see coming, and what changes do we need to make? And you kind of alluded a little bit to that, but I don't know if you want to

SPEAKER_02:

add a little something. The big academic-y concept here, and it's come up, this term called structural lag, okay? The demographics, the demands placed on our society are a function of people. So the analogy I use a lot is when you boomers, and I'm talking about you because I'm Gen X. You boomers transformed the American education system simply because there was so many of you, right? So out in Iowa, we had one school, K through 12, up until about 1952. And then all of a sudden, we had to start building elementary schools. Then we started building junior highs. Then we started building alternative high schools and preschools. And all these structures were created for only one reason. There were so many of you. And guess what? Now, fast forward 60 years, you're still all here. But we got to create structures for you because you don't want to go to the nursing facilities

SPEAKER_04:

anymore, right?

SPEAKER_02:

We have to create structure for you in cities so you can go hang out and not feel like the kids are going to come out of the bars on you. You want to feel safe. Structures need to be put into place to meet this demand that you're creating simply because you're getting older.

SPEAKER_06:

Talks a lot about bars. So I don't know. Is that just Iowa? I don't know what's going on in Iowa. You know, I mean. I love that. All right. Older women in bars. All right. But I, you know, so it's a theme. So those could be some of the changes. But I also think that one thing we heard a lot about too today, which was really hopeful, and also things I know you all are working on, and we're trying to work on at the Department on Aging, is technology. And that truly the changes technology have made and the technological advances we have seen and also will continue to see as we all age well is going to be using more technology, making it more accessible because those communities that we know need more technology, need broadband expansion, need those things happening throughout the state. We're hopefully addressing through our broadband programs We have a whole unit of broadband for the state of Illinois, which has been incredibly big. It's getting millions of dollars. So I'm hopeful that some of you, or at least we can continue to educate our aging network as to how to leverage those broadband dollars that are being brought into the state to really help our older adults and their caregivers, those who are caring for them, to utilize that technology and also utilize getting access to the tablets, to the phones, to the things that will help them stay healthy in their homes. Because, as Marla likes to point out, raise your hands if you want to age at home. Okay, this is it.

SPEAKER_03:

We're ready to go. What are we building? We've got the technology infrastructure. That's where we're building. That's absolutely it. We've got structure. We've got the technology infrastructure. That's where we're building. That's absolutely it. What do you have

SPEAKER_05:

there? I have a couple things, but can I build on what Paula was

SPEAKER_03:

talking about? You can. We're building structure.

SPEAKER_05:

When I hear conversations about technological advancements, people talk about older adults as a monolith. And we're not, whether we're Gen X or baby boomers. And I think people are talking about technology products supporting caregivers. And they're going to say, well, we're going to monitor your parents' bank account. We're going to monitor when the refrigerator door opens. We're going to monitor when you go to the bathroom. Well, I can tell you two people in Brooklyn, New York who don't want to know when that that don't want to know when they go to the bathroom. They're named Gretchen Hartman and Jack O'Connell.

SPEAKER_04:

They don't want me in their bank account.

SPEAKER_05:

And so I think we have to think about the nuance and complexity of there may be some who want that monitoring and want that, and there may be some people who say, no way, I don't want my kids in my TD bank. So I think that's one thing about technology as this conversation evolves, is to kind of think about how do we address those complexities as leaders in the aging world. The second thing that I want to say is, We seem to be having a lot of isolated conversations in this country. And I feel like to build collective solutions, it's what Mr. Judson talked about at the beginning. We can't just go to our separate corners and say, well, I want to do it over here and I'm going to do it over there. We have to come together. And I think it's hard right now. And on a personal level, you know, I feel hopeful and optimistic on a professional level, but on a personal level, it's unsettling 2023 still. You know, the COVID pandemic, 19 pandemic is behind us, but is it? And so I think it's about how do we kind of bring together to have conversations like today. We can have gatherings in person, we can see each other. I have a little bit of Zoom fatigue personally. And so I think it's about how do we kind of get these conversations started and that's how we can start to see the change. Because I still feel like we're still kind of people that have their own way of doing it and they don't want to get out of that, not the people in this room, but people across in different sectors.

SPEAKER_03:

And I'm sure in D.C.

UNKNOWN:

it's even more.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah. Well, Washington, D.C., we're really good at talking. And less so listening. And action. No, and listening. But you didn't hear that from me. But that's why I love coming out here and visiting with all of you, because you guys are doing the work, and you're having the conversations, and you are the action, you are the change.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah. So I'm going to do one more here. So given what we learned today about equity... How do we get to that tipping point where we could show real impact?

SPEAKER_06:

Well, I think that we need to and continue to reflect who we serve, which are the incredible diverse face of older adults as to how it is that we provide our services. I'm 67. I work for myself now. That's what I say, right? But I'm also LGBT in the community. You know, living in Rogers Park, you know, I mean, it's like we are what we should be focusing on is what we know we need as we age. But we look very diverse. We don't look like we looked 30 years ago. I mean, everything is just much more, I think, culturally rich and yet very, very diverse. We have to get prepared differently. as an aging network to sustain the older adults as diverse as they are, but as we all grow older, make sure that we include and are inclusive of and culturally both competent and humble around providing the services that we deliver to all of those who should be accessing our services. I always said, and I was about 14 years a senior center director, where are my senior center directors today in the room? Give them a shout. I got to hire all my senior center directors. I love them. They're my peeps. But I always said I love when we were able to see the seniors who come to the senior center, but it always worries me the ones who don't come. And that, to me, is also our challenge. And so today I challenge us all to get those who we have not seen yet to come out and to really be able to access our services. I think about that a lot.

SPEAKER_05:

Can I build on that quickly? The other word that comes to my mind is empathy.

SPEAKER_06:

Got

SPEAKER_05:

to have some empathy. I think about that personally and professionally, about our work. But I think it's about being humble. Oh, I love that. Sorry, Brian, I went ahead.

SPEAKER_03:

Oh,

SPEAKER_02:

there's an order here. There was no

SPEAKER_03:

order. We've lost order a long time ago.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, I threw it out a while ago. Jumping in, two things come to mind. One is aging can be really boring, and that's actually to our advantage. Because back to the public policy and aging report, My first issue is I brought the former directors of state departments on aging together who are both Republican and Democrat. This is not partisan. Get away from this. Stop hating the other party for other stuff that only makes it on the Fox News because people or CNBC because they watch it. Nobody watches meetings like this because it's, no offense, it's kind of boring, right, to talk about senior centers. But that's what's good about it. We all identify. It doesn't matter if you're Republican or MAGA or whatever. left, way left, super far left. We're all getting older and we all see a value in trying to do something because we're doing so little right now. So stop it. Stop watching those feeds and thinking it's us versus them. That's the biggest thing I saw when I was on the Hill. It's like, what are you doing? You're ruining this. And that's the second part. Remember why Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid were established. Back then, it was common, it was universal that older adults had a hard time. Right now, we have a lot of older adults who are doing okay. We have a lot of youngsters who have no idea what it's like to have a dad experienced PTSD and beat his kids out of no reason, only because they find out when he's older that shit he had to see in World War II blew off his head psychologically. We don't have that connection to that generation anymore. When I talk to students now, it's fantasy. Why these programs were established, they have no connection to, so therefore they're going after them, and they see them as vulnerable. I was just talking to a county in Wisconsin. They can either continue to support their nursing home, which was publicly funded there for the greatest generation, et cetera, et cetera, versus the young kid who's in charge of their transportation who wants to build a shed so they can keep the trucks warm during winter. That's the choice this county's in front of right now, and the older folks in the county are just blown away. This guy has no attachment to aging people. We need to help bring the reason for them to protect our programs into fold. Otherwise, it's vulcanization for us.

SPEAKER_06:

But I would also say that then some of the challenges are the intergenerational programming that really does break down those silos. So many of you are doing those intergenerational programs throughout the state, and they're really well done. And I think we only need to enhance them, continue to grow them, because that's where it will change when we start talking to one another. And not about politics, but about experiences, and about what makes us human. So I agree with you. Thank you.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, I have a totally different tangent. Do you mind? I

SPEAKER_03:

do not. We had Mountain Dew. We're

SPEAKER_05:

good. Yeah, we had Mountain Dew. Diet Mountain Dew, for the record. I have to say, in working in this space for a number of years, and then before that public health policy for the former mayor of New York, we had so much data. And I was, to be really blunt with all of you, overloaded by the data. And I think we have to figure out how we start to sift through that and get to the key data points that show us that we are making impact. I mean, we are all no shortage of numbers. I have a number for everything that we can do, right? I mean, you can put a number at this point on anything. Management consulting or economic efficiency or your workforce health. You can put a number on anything. We have so much data. So we have to kind of sift through that and get to the key indicators in your community that indicate, yes, we are making impact. And it takes a lot of work. Because now, unlike a decade ago, we actually have too much data, it feels like sometimes to me, as opposed to we're trying to get to the right data points.

SPEAKER_03:

We're data people. We collect data. No, I agree with you. It's how do we tell the story? How do we tell the story, what the statistics are telling us, and how do we put a face to the story? And I think just to piggyback on what you were saying, Brian, when I do a lot of talks to older adults who are financially, for the most part and a lot of times, are okay because they have Medicare. because they have social security, because they were fortunate enough to have jobs with pensions. The next generation coming up, they don't understand the value of those programs. And I tell those older adults, I go, you're fighting for your grandchildren here. These safety net programs will go away unless you tell them the value. You're going to be okay. They're not going to make change on the backs of you. To your point, even with, it's what you value. And that's what I think we saw through the pandemic too. when we saw so many people dying in long-term care, because they didn't value how these people were cared for. So we have to start really, and I think you're right, it is baby boomers. I'll own it too, I'm the younger end of them, but we are the change agents, and we are tasked with that. So I really... Truly appreciate that. Maybe the boomers have a tipping point.

SPEAKER_06:

Well, I think in my mind, there's three things that I continually come back to. And I just want to make sure that I say it out loud again. And that is education, outreach, and training. And those three are the pillars that we have to continually hammer away at. as to how we educate what we do. Because I hear from legislators, we don't know you exist. We didn't know that you existed. And again, I would like to challenge all of us to talk to our legislators. I wish they were here in this room today to have seen and understand what all of you do. And so I'm grateful for I see a couple of legislative staffers here. We're grateful for all of you because they need to be with us in partnership. to get the word out. And I just think it's really important to continue to hammer away at that and say, we do a lot of good work. You may not know about us. Let us tell you what we do. And then the outreach, the outreach is key. And that's really how are we going to make sure people can access our services everywhere, that everyone knows about us and they know that they are welcome. And then the training. Oh my gosh, training both internally within our own agencies, within my own agency, and then externally to train and to be able to talk with all of you to say, how can we be better? I hear you. I know we can do a better job. So please be our partner and help us as a state agency do better training. So I just think those are the three pillars for me. They're great pillars. Thank you. No, they're absolutely. Marla says they're great. I'm good. Wow.

SPEAKER_03:

My work is done. We're going to take this on the road here. All right.

SPEAKER_05:

Okay. This is the most sarcastic panel I've

SPEAKER_06:

been on in quite some time. I'm going to be crying in a bar tonight at about 10. Just kidding.

SPEAKER_01:

Hello and welcome to your Medicare Minute. We are here with Val Guzman, our benefit access specialist here at AgeGuide. Today, we have a question from Anima from Kendall County. She asked, my Medicare Advantage plan isn't working with my doctors anymore. When can I change my plan again? The

SPEAKER_00:

Medicare Advantage open enrollment period runs from January 1st to March 31st. So you still have time to enroll in a new plan. This open enrollment period is a little less known, mainly because it applies only to people that are enrolled in an Advantage plan as of January 1st. So you can either change to a different plan or you can switch to Original Medicare. A good way to compare these plans is by checking with your doctors to see which plans they do accept so you know which plans to focus on just because there are so many plan choices for you. Then you can compare how much the plans cost and the extra benefits that they offer. If you enroll in a new plan, it'll take effect the following month and it'll cover you for the rest of the year. But feel free to ask a SHIP counselor about your plan options.

SPEAKER_01:

Thank you for listening to The Age Guide, Perspectives on the Aging Journey. We hope you learned something new on this podcast because we all have a stake in promoting a high quality of life for people on their aging journey. Age Guide coordinates and administers many services for older adults in Northeastern Illinois. We serve DuPage, Grundy, Kane, Kankakee, Kendall, Lake, McHenry, and Will Counties. Our specially trained professionals are available to answer questions and connect you with local service providers and resources. If you are interested in these services or want to learn more, go to our website at hguide.org. Call our offices at 630-293-5990. Please follow our podcasts so when we post our monthly podcast, you are notified on your streaming account. Thank you, and we will see you next time on The Age Guide, Perspectives on the Aging Journey.