White House Conference on Aging
On March 31, 2015, the White House Conference on Aging-Phoenix Regional Forum was convened to engage older Americans, their families, caregivers, advocates, community leaders, and national experts on key issues affecting older Americans.
Additional Listening Sessions were held in Casa Grande, Flagstaff, the Navajo Nation, Tucson, and Yuma to capture statewide dialogue and input. The Phoenix Regional Forum and Listening Sessions were convened to inform and provide ideas for the 2015 White House Conference on Aging in Washington, D.C.
2015 marks the 50th anniversary of Medicare, Medicaid, and the Older Americans Act, as well as the 80th anniversary of Social Security. The 2015 White House Conference on Aging is an opportunity to recognize the importance of these key programs as well as to look ahead to the issues that will help shape the landscape for older Americans for the next decade.
The Phoenix Regional Forum focused on four topics:
- Retirement Security
- Long-Term Services and Supports
- Healthy Aging
- Elder Justice (i.e., protection of older adults from financial exploitation, abuse, and neglect)
A Summary of Arizona’s five Listening Sessions was produced and a recommendation report from each of the five sessions was generated. Following are all of the reports for download.
Following are recordings of the two panel discussions at the Phoenix Regional Forum.
Panel Discussion 1: Healthy Aging/Long-Term Supports and Services
Panelists: Marc Freedman, Founder & CEO, Encore.org; Dr. Adriana Perez, Assistant Professor, College of Nursing & Health Innovation, Arizona State University; Dr. Fernando Torres-Gil, Professor, Social Welfare and Public Policy & Director, Center for Policy Research on Aging, UCLA; Amy St. Peter, Human Services & Special Projects Manager, Maricopa Association on Governments
Panel Discussion 2: Retirement Security/Elder Justice
Panelists: Dr. Laura Mosqueda, Director, National Center on Elder Abuse & Chair, Dept. of Family Medicine and Geriatrics, Keck School of Medicine, USC; Mary Lynn Kasunic, President/CEO and Executive Director, Area Agency on Aging; Judith Mares, Deputy Assistant Secretary, Employee Benefit Security Administration, U.S. Department of Labor; Gopi Shah Goda, Senior Research Scholar, Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, Stanford University