since i think that's absolutely the case that experience transformation  it's it's not a consciousness raising group but it grows out of the same idea rooted in the sixty's that a group of people should be able to gather and learn how to support each other to respect each other and aging is just as much a topic worthy of such a function as as any other a than double from forty six million today to over ninety eight million twenty six to that means that the sixty five and older age group will rise to nearly twenty four percent of fifteen percent which it is now in this country and the consequences of course are all over the place it shapes the job market it means  today what i'd like to do is talk about how we have to pay attention to and understand what it means to each of us as individuals to have something like thirty years  feeling feel the same way about that so what this means is that we have to start understanding how we perceive aging is it a few years of disability before we die are those over sixty necessarily passive media pretty much of able to be helped as opposed to active contributors that realistic no it isn't it's not fair it's not realistic someone who is confused maybe perhaps didn't have enough sleep last night or perhaps they got lost in the community where they've never been the for so we are forced to ask over and over again what does it mean to be an older adult how can we what can we expect what can we but we've been still be in the minority in this country in terms of how we would like to see a shift in the understanding of what it means to be an older a with such a large percentage of people over the age of six and with that growing one bastard one critical element element is what we call ages them what do we mean by this aside from the fact that it's a quite a little bird i think age is a move is one of the ugliest words i have ever heard it has an ugly meaning as well like racism or sexism enters a you could say it is a view of the last third of life as a loss of the ability and hope rather than a third stage of growth filled with opportunity with an attitude like that the result is destructive and affects not only moral but health itself and there are surprising statistics around this issue for example  despite the extreme demographics that we're facing do charitable donations represent only two percent of giving to older adult needs do you suppose that is a masterpiece living things that we have a long way to go in understanding effects of ages and she points pointed me to some research indicating that age is  has a negative impact on health for example in it she cited a twenty three year study of older adults who reported  that i'm sorry given twenty three year old study over adults who reported more positive self perceptions of aging lived seven years longer surround in an environment that discourages you your health generally may well not be as good as if you are in an environment that encourages you as a full member of your community who's the chief executive officer of meeting age minnesota and said her organization is part of a grand design to change the conversation around aging from a bird to be shoulder to   sponsibility and opportunity that we all embrace so in other words it's not talking about what old people or what the stuff of a retirement community to do she's talking about all of us those of us who are residents those of us who are older a whole community of people understanding and focusing on what it means today and how to make that a little experience as the transformation occurs roger landry who founded masterpiece living says he things our languages our language memory of being with my father in western north in western new york and we were driving down a country road we turned left and there in the distance was a building a brick building an your poverty and in your old age and then my dad also said he was planning to move out of here with my mother and he died quite suddenly and so never did but and my father was very quite ironic in between captured in those words i think a sense that we tend to have about where we're heading at a certain point and rather stage of growth instead of marginalizing older adults or sending them out to paster instead of thinking them of them as something that has to be paid for or as children who get to play tell me that i have to go live in the almshouse that i have no interest in that i'm going to stay home or i'm going to choose a place where i can live a real life for as long as i'm alive so this is a group that now in retirement tends to have little patience with ages since the industrial revolution in our culture we have lost the belief which i think we are beginning to read in that older adults are highly valuable senses simply because of their age and the baby boomer generation is beginning to counteract this there is a national geographic project which has identified countries where people live to be very old and very vital a cultural treasure populations in communities and their larger society one aspect infuse changes and growth is a growing interest in community service by residents for example to schools and families there there of retirement centers that are very vigorous in their support of the needs of local public schools for example and become very much involved in tutoring or in  spending just spending time with younger children after school care and it's not something that the organisation set up and then tells the residents that it's available it tends to be the residents themselves who say ok this is valuable work needs to be done and we would like to use the center to support it so that it might for example make a day room available for a cafeteria baleful and then mind share the cost of that as with the city or the town where the schools are closed gated so there are that there is a number of the possibilities and the number of opportunities  and it's up to the residents to build build the program and make it and make it happen and overall the goal for senior community communities is the creation of an environment where the physical mental social and spiritual aspects of life are closely nurtured and older adults are viewed as having the potential to grow as an on as they  us a consultant named karen no i'm sure mum has been involved in the challenges of senior care for forty two years she says that as early as the nineteen eighties there was a growing interest in changing a culture that represented patients as objects through is institutionalized terminology for example prefer them to a resident as a bed the bed in room fifty two or referring to a resident as and that the diabetic down the hall she says you have to change your culture more of a community you have to wave to how you are treating each other junior braunches a teen and professor at the university of maryland of more community he also makes the case for a shift in perception what all that means as an identity is really changing he said our job is to focus on the attitudes of retirement communities staff toward aging and their assumptions about the provide so here's an example there's an organisation that returning community called presbyterian senior living and i wouldn't be surprised if they were going to change their in every aspect of their operations in hiring for example interviewers look for candidates who understand the value of relationships and empathy and residents need  to troll of their life and these standards are part of the annual reviews as well so that rather than feeling yourself to be an object carted around from place to place  have you know that you can choose that you direct your life in this particular community and you will not be treated as a piece of furniture on wheels i talked a little bit about language  the community is always affected by the culture of the running and i mean that's a very good example but it's also an example of stressed and angry because of the stress probably need that kind of support that the organisation may or may not be able to give them a program on around the possibilities people are thinking about their parents as objects in a place they have to be taken care of they're not as giving anything or there's nothing is is to encourage a sense that they're giving that they they have to have much to offer for example if you initiated an oral history program where the older parents the residents were invited to explore their own life and to do this in the company of other residents with their answers would you like to say something about your experience with i and with health and energy and wisdom combined with activity and activism so this continuing health makes it possible to make choices nnel or get used to the word