The Coming Crisis in Geriatric Medicine David J. Demko, PhD, Editor-in-Chief AgeVenture News Service, Boca Raton, Florida 06-23-07

Growth is good. But not always. As a case in point, the nation's older population is about to double in size from today's 37 million to an all time high of 78 million. It all began this January when the first baby boomer turned age 60 years. Call the year 2007, the Year of the Boomers. So many elders. So great a need. So little time to prepare. The Boomers. Affluent. College educated. Future recipients of an estimated $110 billion motherload of inherited wealth. The boomers are the pampered off-spring of sacrifical post-WWII parents who promised their kids a better life. As a result, the boomers were, and still are, intent on changing the world to accommodate their vision of life. Re-inventing retirement. Embracing the philosophy of successful aging. However, there is one reality to life that remains unchangable, age decline and the eventual need for eldercare. A new vocabulary, once foreign during the boomers' robust years, will gradually creep into their daily conversation. Words such as eldercare, medicare. medicaid, custodial care, palliative care. As more attention continues to focus on baby boomers soon reaching retirement age, the country is faced with an urgent need to find caretakers for the more than 78 million persons estimated to live well into their senior years. 3 million people now work in the so-called eldercare service industry providing nursing, home health, and personal care. That's a lot of manpower. But rising eldercare needs will demand one million more, a 33 percent increase, in less than a decade. But that sounds like good economic news, growth in the manpower needs. One problem. But it's a big one. Current caretakers, women age 25 to 55 years is a segment of the population expected to grow barely at all. There in lies the crisis. The clash between enormous need and limited manpower will reach its zenith in year 2030. If this eldercare scenario played like a Western movie, we would begin to hear the rescuing sound of the Calvary's buggle charge driving off the bad-guys. In this case, the cavalery is the American Geriatrics Society (AGS). Like a modern-day Paul Revere, "The boomers are coming, the boomers are coming" AGS is calling America's attention to the coming crisis in eldercare. The AGS wake-up call to the nation comes in the form of a report, "Caring for Older Americans: the future of geriatric medicine." The report offers a roadmap to better meet the unique health care needs of older adults, and more importantly, their caregivers. AGS is calling for more physicians and healthcare professionals who are specially trained to provide eldercare. "This (AGS) study illustrates the crisis situation we face in lacking the appropriate physician specialists and caretakers for the growing aging American population", says AGS past-president, Dr. Jane Potter (photo). "While today this (eldercare) is a significant concern," cautions Dr. Potter, "it may likely reach crisis proportions in the next 25 years as millions of baby boomers hit retirement age. In fact, by 2030 there will be only one geriatrician for every 7,665 older adults, unless major steps are taken to recruit and train geriatricians." AgeVenture News Service welcomes your point of view at: demko@AgeVentureNewsService.com Submissions may be edited for content and length.

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