- [Narrator] This program is made possible through support from the Pennsylvania Department of Aging, in partnership with AllOne Foundation & Charities.

- Pennsylvania's older adults are active and vital members of our communities.

There are volunteers.

They care for our children, and they lend their experiences and knowledge as mentors and leaders in our communities.

And as many of us know, Pennsylvania's older adult population is growing quickly.

Consider this today, one out of every four Pennsylvanians or seniors, but in just six years by 2030, it'll be one in three.

By then our older adult population will number 3.8 million people and outnumber every other age group.

That's wonderful news because that means we have more grandparents to visit and laugh with more seniors who can share their wisdom with us so we can learn from it.

But it also means we have a greater responsibility to care for them as they age, and to make sure our Commonwealth is prepared with the services that they need.

That's why in my first year as governor, I signed an executive order to create a 10 year master plan for aging.

Under the leadership of our great Secretary Kavulich from the Department of Aging, we held more than 200 listening sessions and received more than 20,000 responses from older adults all across Pennsylvania.

And using your input, we built a 10 year master plan for aging.

It's called Aging Our Way, PA. And that's gonna serve as a roadmap to help us meet the needs of Pennsylvania's growing senior population for years to come.

Look, this is not some government report that took years to write, and then it's just gonna sit up on a shelf.

The Aging Our Way, PA plan is a bold vision of a future where older adults can age with dignity and independence, with the supports they need to succeed.

This plan brings together services and investments from 29 different Commonwealth agencies to meet the real needs of Pennsylvania seniors.

Everything from investing in public transportation to help seniors get where they need to go, to ensuring caregivers have the training support, and compensation they need to do important jobs, to lowering the cost of health insurance and medication seniors need.

To making it easier for seniors to find and understand information about the services they qualify for.

Aging Our Way, PA is a guiding, living document for our administration, and it's a real commitment to building a better future for our seniors who have spent their lives contributing to our communities.

As your governor, I'll do all that I can to help make Pennsylvania the best Commonwealth in the country to grow older, because you've earned that and we owe it to you.

Thank you for supporting our seniors.

(playful music) - [Narrator] From the Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine in downtown Scranton, WVIA, and WITF, present Aging Together in PA, Town Hall, Elder Justice and Dignity.

And now moderator, Julie Sidoni.

- Welcome to Aging Together in PA, A look into the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania's comprehensive 10 year plan called Aging Our Way, PA, a plan for lifelong independence.

My name is Julie Sidoni.

I'm proud to represent both WVIA in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, and WITF in Harrisburg on this project.

Our stations have been working together alongside the Pennsylvania Department of Aging to share with you everything you need to know why this plan was created, what steps are being taken now and planned for the future, and why it is so important that we are all involved from our state government to our local municipalities, to our families.

We could talk about aging topics for hours if we had the time.

This show is not that, but it is the start of a conversation.

You're about to hear from four people who can add insight and expertise to this vast topic.

And I'd like to take a moment to thank each of our panelists and give each panelist a few moments to introduce themselves.

And we will begin with the State Secretary on Aging.

And may I bring up Scranton native Jason Kavulich.

We'll start with you.

Go ahead and tell us a little bit about yourself, Jason.

- Thank you, thank you so much for having us.

My name is Jason Kavulich, I'm the Secretary of Aging for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

I'm so proud to be here tonight serving in this capacity.

I am a Scranton Native.

I was educated in Scranton schools.

I came up in this community and this community helps shape the person that you see before you tonight.

This community also taught me about how we work together to change worlds, how we work together to lift up people's lives and improve them.

And as a 25 year veteran in human services, doing almost every kind of job you can think of, from child welfare, straight through aging, and all in between.

This is important for me to be out here again with all of you bringing Aging Our Way, PA together, bringing the conversations about ageism, bringing the conversations about Elder Justice to the forefront, and really highlighting how we as communities can change that landscape for everyone, for the better, how we can work as partners to make it growing older in Pennsylvania.

Something everyone looks forward to, wants to do and gets to do with dignity and grace.

- Looking forward to speaking with you, Trish D'Antonio.

- Hi, Trish D'Antonio.

I'm Vice President of Policy and Professional Affairs with the Gerontological Society of America.

And I am also Executive director of the National Center to Reframe Aging.

And as Secretary Kavulich mentioned, when we talk about ageism, our work with the National Center is to improve how people understand aging and how people recognize the many contributions of older people in society so that we can counter ageism and improve practice and policy in aging.

And if it's okay to mention, I am a Pennsylvania Native.

I was educated at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh and Temple University in Philadelphia.

And while I am in Washington D.C. now, I'm so excited to be here in Pennsylvania.

- We're glad to have you back, thank you so much.

Velma Carter-Dryer.

- Good evening, and thank you for having me.

I am a licensed social worker and though I'm retired now, I, during my 45 years of working, I worked in the mental health field.

I worked in healthcare and I also spent some time doing a lot of advocacy work over the years.

I am also a Pennsylvania Native.

I'm a Philadelphia Native and also a Penn State graduate, as well as a University of Pennsylvania graduate.

- [Julie] So you hit all the corners.

- So we've got all the corners of the university.

Right now, I'm a retiree.

I've been retired for a few years and I'm using the experience that I've had in healthcare and in mental health to really be more effective advocate as well as a helper and an advisor.

I spend time most of the days serving on a variety of organizations, boards and advisory committees.

I am involved with the American Society on Aging, I'm a member of the Pennsylvania Council on Aging, as well as a member of the Dolphin County Council on Aging.

But I'm also a member of the National Board for Village to Village Network.

Which is another opportunity that we can talk about in the future.

And I'm really, I guess an example of someone who's retired but still very active.

- Alright, we'll talk about that coming up here.

And Kristen Lees Haggerty.

- Thank you, I'm so pleased to be here.

My name's Kristen Lees Haggerty.

I'm a researcher and project director at Education Development Center, a global nonprofit research and development organization.

I also have a courtesy faculty appointment at Weill Cornell Medical College.

And I'm here today in my role as project director for the National Collaboratory to address Elder Mistreatment.

And I'm also the associate director of the National Dementia Care Collaborative.

- Welcome to all of you.

Now, the first thing we're gonna say here is a Jason request.

If it's all right with you, we're going to drop the formality for the night with no disrespect to a PHD or a Secretary of Aging or any other impressive title we might have.

Why did you wanna make this such a conversational discussion?

- Because it's important for it to be a real conversation.

We're trying to solve real problems.

We're trying to change real communities, so we should talk like real people when we're at the table together.

- Alright, well, now that we've set the one ground rule, here we go.

I really wanna talk to start out about the plan itself, the genesis of, I mean, I know it's a very long plan and you can't get into the details right here, but what, tell me a little bit of the highlights of the plan.

What was the genesis of it?

What can we expect to see immediately.

- So we won't go into all 165 tactics?

What we can talk about though is this conversation started with the area agencies on aging and the governor before he, when he, before he became governor, it was something that the area agencies on aging had been pushing a policy to look at building out a strategic plan, a master plan, if you will, or a multi-sector plan, as we prefer to call it for the aging network.

We talked about that very upfront with the governor in a white paper when I interviewed to become secretary.

It's something that I highlighted and talked about.

And very shortly after, the governor appointed me and the Senate confirmed me.

We went to work immediately as a department, building a team of individuals, recruiting individuals from inside the Commonwealth to help us build a plan that would transform the lives of older adults.

And it truly was an amazing agency-wide effort that engaged with the long-term care council as our steering committee with countless stakeholders with 29 state agencies with thousands upon thousands of older adults all across Pennsylvania, getting feedback directly from them, taking their feedback, building their words into the plan, because that's really what was most important.

What we're most proud of is the stakeholder engagement that we did.

That we went out to 67 counties, that we had over 200 listing sessions, that we listened in languages, that we listened to special groups of individuals who wanted to be heard differently, that we really made sure that we heard what people were telling us we needed to do so that they can age in place in their communities.

And 372 days later we had a plan, even after two rounds of public comment, we hit our mark and now we can go to work with all our partners and our stakeholders and communities like all of us live in to transform aging for Pennsylvania.

- I was gonna ask how long that took, more than a year?

All cold?

- Yes.

- Wow, alright.

We're gonna get back to some details here in a moment, but I really wanna ask Patricia a question about reframing aging.

- Sure.

- I've heard you say this in the past, that what is aging?

We are all aging, there's no such thing as aging, but there is aging.

You know, how, what is the, tell me what you would love people to take from the reframing aging conversation.

- Sure, so I think a couple things.

One is it is important for us all to recognize that we are all aging from birth.

So it's real easy for us to say, oh, those aging people over there and other older people, we really have to recognize that we are all aging.

We also have to recognize that we become so much more diverse as we age.

And the way in American culture that we learn through our work in American culture, it's quite often that we think about older people or aging, right?

We talk about anti-aging, we talk about battling aging.

You actually see people put their hands out and battle, don't wanna talk about it.

I don't wanna age.

And it's really important for us to recognize that yes, some of us age with chronic disease, yes, some of us age and are jumping out of airplanes on our 80th birthday, and yes, some of us are in the middle there, right?

So there's a continuum about aging that we all have to recognize and what I think is so important about reframing aging and what's great about working with Jason and his team is recognizing that and being able to share that and how that influences the plan for all of us as Pennsylvanians.

So it benefits us all that this plan exists regardless of our age.

- I've heard someone say on the panel here that it's really, when you improve anything for an aging population, you're improving it for everybody.

It's really kind of a selfish initiative if you think about it.

- So think about, so think about with the Americans with Disabilities Act and curb cuts, right?

So when we put curb cuts in, that certainly benefits us all.

If we need an assistive device, a wheelchair, you know, a walker, it benefits us.

If we're pushing a cart, if we're pushing a baby carriage, if we are riding our bike and we need to hop the curb, right?

It's a lot easier with a curb cut.

So there are so many ways to think about the services and supports that might start with one idea in mind, but how they start to benefit us.

- I was does this you're you're nodding.

I could tell that you, you've, you felt this.

- Well, I definitely, because the reality is if you improve healthcare for an older adult, you're also gonna be improving healthcare for a child as well.

And the same for education and the same for lifetime experiences.

And the same for, you know, just learning, you know, things about financial literacy and things, you know, it's important.

You start those things earlier and that's gonna make your age, age well, you know, and be able to have better experiences during that.

But kids will learn better, you know, they'll have better healthcare, you know, throughout their lives and things will be, it'll be an advantage for everyone.

- This is a big question here, Kristen, but I'm curious when we hear mistreatment, what exactly you mean by that?

It seems to me there can be a lot of different examples in different buckets there of mistreatment.

What is it, what's the work that you're doing?

- So, and you know, the comments just about reframing aging.

You can think about, we have an ageism problem in this country, and arguably the most egregious form of ageism is elder mistreatment or abuse.

And there's several types of course of mistreatment.

There's physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, financial exploitation is one that gets a lot of attention.

There's also neglect and even self neglect.

And so these are the topics that we look at in the research that we're doing.

And in the national collaboratory work where we're trying to improve prevention and intervention.

And they often travel together, the different types of elder mistreatment.

And so some are more obvious than others, but usually when you pull back the cover and start looking more deeply, you'll notice that somebody with physical signs of physical abuse may also be being financially exploited at home or neglected.

- I hadn't even thought about self neglect.

Say a little more about that.

Is that more prevalent than I'm thinking it is?

- Oh yes, it's actually, the latest reports were that over 50% of the reports of concerns to adult protective services nationally were for self neglect.

And it's a really complex issue, but typically it's when an older adult, in this case I'm thinking about older adults who are either unable or unwilling to provide the care that they need to stay safe.

And it's a major concern among many reporters of elder mistreatment that the, for example, medical advice that they're giving to their patients is not being followed and that this person is in really dangerous situations.

- All right, we're gonna get into some of these topics a little more detailed.

But first, as you may imagine, there are a lot of knowledgeable people in this space who couldn't be here with us as we did this show.

And they were able to send some remarks.

And I'd like you to take a look at the first one now.

- There's a difference between something that is an intergenerational program and maybe a multi-generational program.

Intergenerational is really about fostering that dialogue between generations.

And if you think of like a multi-generational space, there might be different ages there, but they're not necessarily connecting with one another.

And so we love the idea of intergenerational because it means that we're learning together.

I think a lot of people associate aging with decline, at age-friendly, greater Pittsburgh, and in the age friendly movement, we like to acknowledge that aging is also an ascent.

A lot of our job is really challenging that narrative, that old age is somehow sad and lonely.

Something that's going to be good for our older neighbors, the older Pennsylvanians, it's gonna be good for all ages, really.

You know, you think about a sidewalk, if it's made more accessible, more welcoming to someone who's using a walker or using a wheelchair, some other mobility device, it's gonna be easier for a woman who's pushing a stroller or a man who's pushing a stroller.

It's gonna be easier for a person who might be a little bit tired that day.

It's gonna be easier for a child with a giant backpack.

As we invite people from economic development to the table as we invite people from transportation, from housing, and getting everybody to think about the population that we have.

We have an older population, that's a fact and it's an asset if we're all at the table thinking about how we can do better.

- I love something she pointed out there that I hadn't thought about, multi-generational versus intergenerational and the differences between those.

Does someone wanna take that and explain what that means?

- Do you want to?

- We all want to.

- We're going to go first.

I think the thing about intergenerational is when you see people of multiple generations working together or engaging together, a sewing class could be intergenerational, a music class, intergenerational, a book club, intergenerational, where people of all different ages are part a part of this and actively part of that program.

And sharing life experiences, right?

And getting to know some of the differences that people might experience, but also some of the similarities and sort of breaking down some of those biases we might have about someone's age.

Whereas multi-generational, I've heard described as we have a building and on the first floor there's the preschool and on the second floor is the older adult program, and never the twain shall meet except maybe going down the steps one day, so.

- And what are some of the benefits of generations interacting?

- Oh, there's countless benefits.

I mean, it mean when you bring older adults and adolescents into the same space together, magic things happen.

It's something that we've seen.

We've, we see it when we work with young adults in the independent living program.

When they come into the space with, when they come to a senior community center, we see the rooms change, we see conversations happen.

We see two populations come together, you wouldn't expect.

So really, it's, we've always kept things in buckets.

We keep people separated and unnecessarily.

So we have a daycare, like we said, in this part of this community center, and then we have the senior center and the other half.

Okay, but what about those grandparents raising grandchildren?

Why aren't they bringing their grandchildren to that space?

Because when they do, the other older adults that are sharing the same program with them, enjoy seeing their grandchildren and having those conversations, and that's how children learn.

And when you have children around, around older adults that teach them good things and teach them about their community, wonderful things happen.

Communities get better.

It's, again, it's a space that we create, a learning environment that we create that we, again, venerate our older adults.

And we've, and we help younger adults understand that someday it'll be them.

And they want to be respected and treated the same way.

- One of the examples to give is the Pennsylvania Council in Aging started a project with some of the colleges and universities across the state, and you had college students visiting seniors in their community.

And you saw, you saw those same very actual things.

You know, the students learned a lot.

It wasn't just like talking to your grandmother, but, or actually talking to someone who was interested in the technology they were learning at school or interested in the topics that, you know, things that they were learning at school.

But they also, the senior were able to share their experiences with them.

And it actually resulted in a number of students deciding to change their major.

- Oh, wow.

- And decide they want to focus on working with, you know, in gerontology because they saw that it definitely was a benefit from that, and they enjoyed the interaction.

- And we saw how magical it was when we did the volunteer conference this year.

And we brought the students from the high school in and it really just changed the evening.

- That is true.

- Yes.

- Very true.

- It seems to me, this actually speaks directly toward the isolation issue, which is something I would like to get into just a little bit.

Senior isolation.

I mean, it probably is what kind of the pyramid, the bottom of the pyramid that so many other things can grow out of.

I would love for you to talk a little bit about senior isolation, ways that we can possibly counteract this.

What are some of the things people are doing now?

How can we do better?

It's a great question.

- So social isolation is a huge problem nationally, and I'm sure here in Pennsylvania, it's also one of the leading risk factors for elder mistreatment or elder abuse.

And what I've been really impressed about with the Aging Our Way work that Jason has been been leading is there are efforts built into that to address social isolation.

And that includes things like connecting seniors through technology to be able to, to have more social interactions, even if they are living in a place where it's more difficult to get in person places.

It includes trying to, from the elder mistreatment perspective, trying to detect earlier on when there's signs of elder mistreatment, like social isolation.

And then all of the great examples that we just heard here of ways to connect different generations with each other.

This is, you know, I'm a researcher, but this is a personal anecdote from my own volunteer work, is I do some work trying to help older adults with technology and it's really, I'm limited.

It's really just how do you turn on your computer?

But I was going on, I was going out to a home recently, a few months ago, and I didn't have childcare for my 4-year-old.

So I brought her along and, you know, even all this work that I do, and knowing the intergenerational first thought was, I should have had a babysitter for today.

And second thought was, okay, I'll bring her along.

And then I get there and I'm thinking, I should have brought a screen for her.

She's gonna be so bored while I'm spending an hour with this couple trying to connect their computer.

And anyways, I forgot the screen.

She sat there and listened.

And when we got in the car, I said, how was that for you?

And she said, "Oh, I didn't mind at all.

I was so interested."

And there was no kid's toys, it was just her watching this couple that she didn't know interact with me, interact with her.

So I think there are small things that we can each do, and really importantly, we need the systems through things like Aging Our Way, PA, to help people that aren't connected connect.

- Is there a way to catch that on a, I don't know, in on a doctor level or is, or do you, would you rather teach families?

Here's some of the signs that you to look for before it even gets to the point where you need a doctor.

You would say, say, if you would, some signs that people might look for.

- Mm, it's a great question.

So we do, the work that we do in the National Collaboratory is largely focused on the healthcare sector.

So we think that there's things that, that healthcare professionals can identify earlier on.

And sometimes the healthcare setting, like an emergency department might be the only place that some older adults have the opportunity to be recognized that these signs have the opportunity to be recognized.

So we do feel that's really important.

And we feel that people in communities can do something.

You know, if you're living in a neighborhood, you may not think to knock on the next door neighbor's door and say, Hey, is there anything I can do to help you?

Do you need some groceries today, that sort of thing.

And then of course there's signs that we can look for in older adults in the way that their appearance is and the way that they interact with their caregiver and the way that they interact with providers, both healthcare providers and social services providers, you know, are, do they seem fearful when they're talking?

Are they telling you a story that's not quite adding up or doesn't quite match to the physical signs that you're seeing when you're, when they're in a healthcare setting?

- What exactly is Velma, I think I'll give this one to you.

What exactly is Elder Justice?

What do, is there a definition for that?

What have you seen in your work in Elder Justice?

- I really think it's an, it is an understanding that, you know, people do have an opportunity to really be protected and understand that we don't always talk about that.

You know, we tend to not want to really focus on, you know, thinking about, you know, bad things happening.

But, you know, the reality is that, you know, there are opportunities when people, older people get miss overlooked and they're not, people don't pay attention.

- What about, what about either one of you?

- Well, I think of Elder Justice.

I think we've spent a lot of time and time that will, was well spent and needed to be spent on protective services in Pennsylvania and talking about older adult protective services and trying to get our older adult protective services act across the finish line and update it.

And we've concentrated fear, a lot of energy on the abuse factors like that we just went over.

But I think Elder Justice is a far broader topic.

We, it encompasses ageism, it encompasses what a really making an older adult whole after they've been victimized and talking about older adults as victims, we have in victim services, in the victim services world.

It's been tough for us to break through and say that these older adults are victims too, and they, you know, they have the same rights to being served in that way and working through their trauma and identifying that they have trauma.

So I think of Elder Justice in a very broad way.

I think of it from, yes, yes, there is abuse, exploitation, et cetera, but I also think about there's a higher, higher cause that we're working for.

And thankfully we work with the Elder Justice in the courts program through AOPC, through the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts to really transform that space for Pennsylvania and to transform that space for every older Pennsylvanian because it's important to really get this concept of Elder Justice out into communities.

Communities can identify people that are at risk.

They can identify those that are living in isolation, you know, that your neighbors that don't really have a lot of contact, you know, the people that you see in the grocery store that really don't have anyone to talk to.

It's really those simple acts of kindness, those simple acts that really can change someone's lives.

It doesn't have to be expensive, it doesn't have to be complicated.

It just has to be simple and you can really protect someone and you can identify someone who might need something and help them get connected to someone who can serve them.

- In your opinion, is ageism at the root of this?

- In my personal opinion, yes.

I think there's a lot of ageism in our country, and I think there's a lot of ageism in our communities that we need to one, talk about in a real way, and two put an end to.

We tend to put older adults into a category unto themselves and forget, they give so much to our communities.

All in all of our volunteers, the 11,000 volunteers that we have at the Department of Aging, all across Pennsylvania, the majority of 'em are older adults.

They're babysitters, they're the people that go out and help little leagues happen.

They're the people that go out and keep boy Scouts going, any church function, any congregation that gets together, they know it's the older adults that keep those things going.

They keep communities running.

And without the older adults doing all that, you know, a lot of things that we have in society that we've taken for granted will go away.

And that's not necessarily a good thing.

It's something we really should be cognizant of and we should be chop trying to stop.

- Well, and I think about when we think about ageism, at least what we learned through the work that we've done and the research that we conducted is that we don't realize that we're being ageist.

And it's one of, it's one of those things that people accept.

So when we make statements like, I have a pain in my back, I'm just getting old, right?

Well, we accept that you're aging and we accept that you have a pain in your back, but you have to go get that checked out.

It's not simply your chronological birthday that caused that pain in your back.

When we, I mean we are ingrained with messages from when we're like two and three years old.

When you think about jokes that people tell about age, television shows that we watch, where we always have that one character who's the old crotchety grandparent in the corner when we know that's what all older people are.

And that's not what all grandparents are.

And the one place that we talk about pretty frequently is birthday cards, right?

Where else would you make fun of somebody in a way that is age, you're making an ageist statement when you buy a birthday card that makes fun of someone's age.

And we actually should be recognizing the wisdom that we build as we age and the momentum of all the accumulated works that we have as we age.

And we should celebrate that, when we think about elder mistreatment as in our communities, when our community bonds are strong, when we recognize the importance of a collective responsibility in our communities, we start to be able, we start, we can start to be able to address issues like this before it even gets to a point where, you know, you're visiting for social services and we're talking about case studies of elder mistreatment.

And I think that's what's so important about where we're trying to educate people about our own biases that we carry about age, how that informs it.

And I certainly carry biases that I've had to learn over the years myself.

You know, I have to catch myself and say, oh no, that's ageist.

I have to be careful about that.

And I have to rethink my approach.

- I was gonna ask why it's so difficult to combat ageism, but you just answered it.

It's everywhere.

- It is and it's not on people's radar screen.

- Right.

- It's just not on people's radar screen.

And that's what we learned in our research.

We conducted research around the country and we interviewed people who work in aging who, when you ask them about, you know, how important is aging, right?

We embrace aging, right?

Everything about aging, like we, you know, we think about it, I think morning till night, right?

But when you ask the general public, and I'm gonna say I'm part of the general public, we're all part of the general public, but we have a little bit of different knowledge.

When you ask the general public there's that battle, right?

Anti-aging, I gotta wear that cream because I gotta get rid of those wrinkles.

I don't want anybody to know how old I am, things like that.

And it's just something that in our culture, in American culture, it's just embedded from two and three years old.

Really, our work is to try and work on our communication strategies, those proven strategies and what's important about what we're working with Jason and his team about how we talk about aging so that people start to understand it much more and understand that collective benefit that we're talking about.

- And also when you think about the, I'm sorry.

- [Julie] No, no, go ahead.

- When you think about the population that we serve, and then the aging network, so you serve someone from 60 till, you know, 120, okay.

And there's ageism all throughout that population too.

So there's, you know, there's, from 60 to 70, there's ageism about people from 70 to 80 and 70 to 80 there's ageism about 80 to 90.

So it's, it continues out throughout our entire lifespan, but we're not cognizant of it.

And but, and again, we, this is, we're trying to have a, we're trying to change culture, not change culture, you know, but to do anything, but to make everyone understand it's a wonderful thing to become older.

And it's a wonderful thing to age and especially in the communities that we all age in all across Pennsylvania.

- Go ahead, Velma.

- I just gonna add that mistreatment should not be acceptable for anyone of any age.

Bottom line.

And when you think about how long it's taken for people to talk about child abuse and to have that out and talking, we should be talking about elder abuse as well.

And it just doesn't happen there.

There's a certain level of shame, families don't wanna talk about it, don't wanna reveal it, but people are also being harmed.

- Well, perhaps another form of ageism that they wouldn't want to put their time into, that sort of thing.

- That's an interesting point.

- I just wanna add that in.

In order for us to be successful in addressing and preventing elder risk treatment, people need to have confidence in the systems that there's something they can do about it.

If they identify it, recognize it, that there's something they can do.

And I think that the work in the Aging Our Way, PA really starts to do that.

It really talks about the systems and approaches that we can do to limit social isolation, to identify earlier, to have some accountability for the people that are perpetrating elder mistreatment.

Sometimes that's, you know, legal accountability.

Sometimes it's getting help for people that are struggling with drug abuse and things.

So what can we do at a systems level and not put the onus on just individuals to deal with this problem?

- And this seems like a start, a start for that system, yeah.

- We talk about systems and we know that we wanna compare older adults and children, but we look at some of the protections that children have and some of the things that we all do for like, just off the top of our heads to protect children.

They don't carry over for older adults, you know, simple things that we have to do to just go on a school trip and volunteer to take your your child to on their annual field trip.

That doesn't happen in the older adult space.

And making those things real in Pennsylvania, making those things real in all these communities is important because there should be no difference.

People should be protected regardless of any age.

- Well, and the other piece I would add about aging, RIPA and the system solution is that the Department of Aging is certainly part of this, but the Department of Transportation.

The legal system, the police, you know, police and fire, so law enforcement.

So it's multi, when you say multi-sector, it's all of the departments.

So this is something that really does encompass everyone for the solution.

So it's not just over here or over there, you know, so as a citizen, you're saying when you need to know where the solution is, you have that opportunity to really address the department that, you know, all the departments are understanding why this is important, not just one single department.

- We're gonna have to move on here because we do have another video.

This one's from an organization that is dedicated to empowering Americans, AARP.

Take a look.

- We know that there is an aging wave coming to Pennsylvania.

I think it's here already, but it's really gonna be hitting us right now.

One in four Pennsylvania's over the age of 60.

That will be one in three in 2030, I'm gonna say that again.

That'll be one in three in 2030.

This is not one of those documents that's gonna be pulled and then put up on a shelf.

It's a living document that we're gonna be looking at every year and reevaluating.

And we still on this path.

Are these still the needs that we have?

Are these policies changing in the way that they need to be changed?

Are there new policies that we're coming upon that need to be looked at?

Yes, we need the support of the governor.

Yes, we need the support of the state legislature.

We may even need support of federal, our congressional delegations, but it's really at the local level where people live, where they work, where they're interacting with their grandchildren, and in their community that the changes need to be made.

And this idea that they're just sitting in their rocking chairs is not it.

They like to bike, they like to run, they like to travel, they like to do everything that they're able to do.

And if they have the finances to be able to do that, trust me, they do that.

- I love that idea.

Just first of all, that seniors are people.

They're doing everything that they are out there doing.

But I also wanted to talk a bit about the caregiver experience.

And I'm looking right at you, Velma, because I know that you have had some experience in this.

Frankly, I think we could do an entire show on caregiving and caregiver resources alone.

We won't do it justice here, but let's talk a little bit about caregiving and maybe what resources are out there if you are facing that.

- Well, first I'll give you some context.

I am the youngest of three daughters.

My middle sister developed dementia, early signs in her fifties.

She ultimately came to live with me and my family, and I became caregiver for her while working full time, raising family and also, you know, trying to provide good support for her.

In a previous lifetime, I used to educate people about the importance of caregiving and the things to support, you know, that caregivers support that they needed.

I also ran caregiver support groups, but I will tell you that my being a caregiver opened my eyes even more.

Yes, I knew a lot about what to do being a social worker.

I knew about resources and things that, you know, could help me and her as she, you know, continued through her disease.

But I also recognized that there were things that I didn't know.

I learned firsthand that not everybody can be a caregiver.

That it is not a role that everyone can assume, but that doesn't mean that they can't help in the process, you know?

So even though you may not be able to sit with someone for a couple of hours and talk or play a game or, you know, do whatever, maybe you can do some shopping or maybe you can do something else to support that caregiver as well.

I also found that, you know, emotionally it takes a toll on you because you're not only are thinking about I'm losing my sister in this process, but how is that also affecting my family and how is it also affecting, you know, other things that, you know, that I'm doing.

I had the benefit of having enough financial resources to be able to have someone stay with her during the day.

So I would pick up, you know, when I got, when I got home.

But not every family has that opportunity.

You know, people need support financially.

People have actually lost their jobs or have had to resign from their positions because they had to stay at home and be a caregiver.

And that's just not acceptable.

I mean, we need to make sure that there are good supports out there, not only financially, but also emotionally to support caregivers because it definitely is needed and it's going to be needed even more in the future.

- How does the plan work to address this, Jason?

- Well, especially in the first year that we were actually working to build up a caregiver toolkit to support caregivers.

And when I look at the audience that we have with us tonight, I look at every row and I can identify just from people I know, at least a caregiver in every row that we have.

This is something that all of us will have in our life.

Not all of us can be the caregiver that we should or want to be, but we all have a part.

And that's why having resources, having tools, having guides and having people be connected to resources, get their questions answered quickly is incredibly important because caregiving happens unexpectedly.

You don't plan to be a caregiver.

It just happens one day and you are a caregiver and you're taking someone to appointments and you're taking to someone's specialist and you're doing hands-on care.

And you need the resources to be easily at your fingertips so you understand what supports that you have.

And something that we never talk enough about is you need to have respite resources too for people.

People need a break.

People need to get their haircut, people need to go to the bank.

People need to just walk away.

If you don't support caregivers, especially the this unpaid caregiving workforce that we have that really works a part-time job every week on top of their full-time job, if we don't support them, that's when we see issues happen.

When people get to their breaking point, when physical abuse situations occur 'cause people are, cross a line because they're so stressed out caregiving impacts us all.

It will continue to impact us all.

You're right, we will have to have a separate episode just on caregiving, but it's something that we are addressing in the plan in the very first year because it's just that important.

- What about in a very rural area, though?

I can think about where I grew up and there just aren't a lot of caregivers available.

Pennsylvania is so rural.

What would you say to people who don't live nearby resources?

- So we have, yes, we have a wonderful network of paid caregivers that go out, but in most of those situations, you see people relying on family and relying on friends and relying on programs like programs at the Department of Aging that have the care reimbursement program that actually you can reimburse someone who comes into your home and helps you.

And it could just be a family friend that, you know.

So there are small programs, there are programs out there that do help people identify, but it's a valuable resource.

And as communities shrink in some parts of Pennsylvania and our rural communities to become older, it's a challenge and it's, we have to be creative in finding solutions because that direct care worker shortage is real.

- I just wanted to, you know, when we think about caregiving, when we think about elder mistreatment and abuse, I just feel like we need to be a little bit careful because sometimes abusive or neglective behaviors are not an intentional behavior.

It's something, I don't know how, you know, my mother has dementia and I don't know how to bathe the person with dementia.

And so there might be, you know, some rough handling that, that comes across as physical abuse signs.

But so to think about when we are identifying abuse and when we're providing resources, we really need to help educate caregivers.

And maybe as the adult daughter and you're, you really wanna care for your mom with dementia as an example, you might not be the right person to bathe her.

It might be that you have somebody else that comes in for certain aspects of the care and somebody else, and you can take on the aspects of care that you are able and more comfortable with.

So just thinking about that, you know, a little bit carefully about how we think about caregiving and elder abuse.

- That's a good point, that not all abuse is intentional.

Well, so let's say I have a family member who's just been diagnosed with dementia Alzheimer's.

What, who's my first call?

Who's my first call?

If I know I need help and resources, where do I go?

- Well, I'm always going to say that you call your your local area agency on agent.

That will be my very always be my answer because they might not have the program.

They not, might not have the solution, but they will get you to where you need to go.

And that's important because it's about the connectivity in a community and that's your, that's your local resource.

Fortunately in this year, we have the resources that we're building out in an adult, an Alzheimer's dementia related disorder division at the Department of Aging for the first time in Pennsylvania.

So we're building out that division, we're building out more, more aggressive programming with our partners all throughout the state.

But the meantime, while we're in the process of making that real, you call your area agency on aging from our perspective, they'll get you to where you need to go.

They'll help you find the service provider that can help you in your community and to your point, sometimes it's education, sometimes it's training, sometimes you're not the right person, that's where you start.

- Yeah, may I just add, take the opportunity to talk a little bit about Adult Protective Services as well?

So if you were a community member and you're trying to care for your mom and somebody calls Adult Protective Services to kind of dispel the myth that Adult Protective Services is necessarily gonna come in and take somebody outta the home and, you know, you're gonna be in a whole lot of trouble.

Adult Protective Services is also an agency that wants to help and wants to connect and their first priority is to help the older adult, you know, realize their self-determination and be able to make the decision that's best for them.

So just taking the opportunity to recognize that APS can sometimes have a reputation of, oh, this is necessarily a bad thing and it's not.

These are, you know, trained people with a lot of resources at their fingertips to help.

- Do you have a sense of what other states, or, not to put you on the spot here, but do you have a sense about what other states are doing or do all states have tenure plans?

Are we a little bit on the forefront here?

- Other states do have tenure plans.

We really believe ours is the best.

And we can tell you all the ways we think that, but we won't do that this episode.

But yes, other states do.

California, you know, Texas, New York's working on one, Maryland's working on one, Indiana has one, but so Ohio has one too.

But, so there's lots of states that have them, but we're not unique how we built it, how quickly we built it.

That's what's unique about Pennsylvania's plan.

The how we incorporated themes into our plan, how we include, you know, reframing, aging into the language of how we designed it, how we made sure that we brought in elements of Elder Justice into this.

How we focused on caregiving is another piece of this and how we engage with stakeholders is what separates our plan out from others.

So it's truly because we have a plan that was designed by Pennsylvanians for Pennsylvania that has made our plan the most unique plan we think.

- Personalized.

- Yes.

- Yeah.

- One of the things, oh, sorry.

- Go ahead, go ahead Velma.

- I was gonna say, one of the things that's important about Pennsylvania's plans is the tenure's about having inclusivity as well as equity as really important factors.

And that's really something that Pennsylvania can really shine about in terms of what they're doing.

- Yeah, how so?

- Because you don't always take advantage of recognizing that, you know, as diverse as Pennsylvania tends to be, that not everyone has access or has had the opportunity to share their experiences.

And so what, by focusing on equity, you're gonna make sure that you're gonna be reaching all communities and making sure that they at least have an opportunity to be heard.

And if they need something different or special or unique to their community, that's something that can be addressed as well because not everyone's gonna learn or, you know, need the kind of help that, that their neighbor does.

It's important.

- And I just wanted to second, you know, as the only non Pennsylvanian non panel, that actually, you know, at the National Collaboratory to address health and mistreatment, we see this plan as really a template that a lot of states can learn from.

It's the ideas that are in it, it's the energy that's behind it.

It's all of the different groups that are at the table working together.

And so we are actually in our next phase of work trying to learn as much as we can about how you all are doing, what you're doing, and how can we share that with other states so that other states can also learn by this example, so.

- [Julie] That's wonderful.

That's very good to hear.

- And I would echo from the National Center to reframe aging as we have started to work with Pennsylvania and what we've learned.

Certainly we're always sharing with other colleagues in other states as we're working with them and making sure that those connections happen, right?

So making sure that people know that this is what's, this is what we've seen here.

It may work in your community, it may not, but think about these things.

And I think that's one of the beautiful things about the multi-sector plans and the work that's happening there around the country is that states have had that opportunity to get together and see what others could, you know, what you can learn from others as well.

- We have one final video message and we are honored that we got this message.

It's from Chief Justice Debra Todd.

- We are truly blessed to have an increasing number of older adults who are living longer, healthier, and more active lives.

Yet within this population, which has given so much to subsequent generations, come unique challenges that affect all of our government institutions, including the judiciary.

As the Commonwealth's overall population continues to age, our court system faces unprecedented needs, our capacity to provide quality services and appropriate remedies to protect vulnerable seniors from financial exploitation, neglect and abuse is a matter of public trust and competence.

The responsibility to honor and protect our older Pennsylvanians belongs to each of us.

It is essential that we work together across our separate but equal branches of government to focus on the unique needs of this population.

The Advisory Council on Elder Justice is committed to improving access, protecting due process, promoting the least restrictive alternatives to guardianship and improving guardianship monitoring.

We have made great strides, including the establishment of a statewide guardianship tracking system.

Together we can face the obstacles that impede progress on these complex issues and make our Commonwealth the state where older Pennsylvanians feel safe to age in place with confidence in our system and with dignity.

- The following is an incomplete list of the topics we did not get to tonight.

Are you ready?

More about marginalized or underserved communities, medical and prescription issues, housing, transportation, Alzheimer's, dementia and memory care specifics and how to find resources or dealing with a lack thereof.

That's a lot of topics.

Obviously we don't have all the time in the world tonight, but I wanted to give you each one final say.

Is there something that you wish to say either about one of those topics or is there a message that you would really like to come through from this show tonight?

What do you want to resonate with people when they see it, Jason?

- I think one really uplifting the message that we're all becoming older and our communities are changing and becoming older all around us.

And we really have to change how we perceive that, how we live with older adults in our communities, how we treat older adults in our communities.

Understanding the concept of Elder Justice and understanding that change happens at the community level.

The state will never come in with a solution that's going to change systems.

The federal government's not gonna come in with solutions that will change systems, communities that are empowered, communities that are informed, change systems and change it for the better.

And that's what we're hoping that we get from this forum that people listen, people hear us and people know that we wanna make sure we're working with them to change the communities that they live in for older Pennsylvanians - That's empowering that it happens here and we can change it.

I think that's empowering.

- I think one of the things that I heard as you were listing different things is the importance of the multi-sector plan, right?

So housing, transportation, all being part of this, this solution is really important for all of us as we age, right?

So really thinking about that, not at a point when we're a certain age, but that we're thinking about that in our communities across our life course, right?

How can we incorporate these things?

We talked in the beginning of tonight about intergenerational thinking and intergenerational interaction.

I think as we start to think about that and that becomes part of these conversations, we start to break down those biases about age that could be so important.

- [Julie] Thank you, Velma.

- Having had friends in California that's what I learned about multi-sector plans first, and that was, you know, a couple of years ago when they were working on their plan and I was so excited.

You know, when I heard that, you know, Jason was champing that idea as well for Pennsylvania, because I saw it as a great opportunity.

I hope that everyone in this room can take an active role in being part of, you know, what's happens with this plan because there are so many things that everyone can be involved with and it'll benefit everyone in Pennsylvania.

- [Julie] Thank you Velma.

- Yeah, you know, a similar message.

I think coming away from this, recognizing there's something that all of us can do and there's the systems work that's going on.

I mentioned earlier, you know, knock on your neighbor's door, call your mom, and then if you're an older adult and you're not getting the care that you need, tell somebody, call your AAA, your area agency on aging.

Tell your healthcare provider.

If you're a caregiver and you're feeling overburdened, also call somebody and talk about it.

That we don't need to kind of suffer in silence.

Let's do something about this together.

- Thank you to all of you.

Our time is up for now.

We cannot thank our panelists enough for sharing their time and their expertise with us.

Remember, this is just the start.

This is the kickoff of a year long project, brought to you by WVIA, WITF, and the Department of Aging with generous support from the All One Foundation and charities.

Thanks as well to our hosts, Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine.

From all of us here, we'll see you next time.

(audience applauding) This program was made possible through support from the Pennsylvania Department of Aging, in partnership with AllOne Foundation & Charities.