Blog 9 Chapter review

Chapter 15

     This chapter covers politics, policies, and programs and the roles that the elderly have played in helping to implement and bring about change for their generation.  There were elderly uprisings with the development of the Townsend Plan.  There were social and political movements with organizations such as the Gray Panthers, Senior Power, the Ham and Egg Movement, and the National Organization for Women (NOW).  There was the creation of political associations that represent older Americans which included:  the American Association of Homes for the Aging, the American Nursing Home Association, the National Council of Health Care Services, and the National Association of State Units on the Aging, the American Association of Retired People, and many others.  “The Older Americans Act (OAA) is designed to alter state and local priorities to ensure that older people’s needs are represented in social services allocations and was adopted by Congress in 1965” (Hillier & Barrow, 2011).  

     The OAA provides funding (some limited) for meals and nutrition, volunteer community services, community services for work opportunities, and adult day care centers.  Although the OAA provides many services, it still requires the participation of more than the elderly, advocating ensuring continuation of these services and other organizations.  “Advocacy involves using one’s resources and power for the benefit of a special-interest group, such as the elderly” (Hillier & Barrow, 2011).  With improvements in technology and medicine, Hillier and Barrow state that “elders are living longer and healthier lives, and they are becoming more visible not only in numbers but also in political activism” (2011).  It is time to take notice of the elderly and become a part of the movement to create better programs for better services so we do not have to worry about services being available when we reach that stage in our lives.