Conference gives boomers primer on retirement
Sorry baby boomers. Getting old will happen even to you. That’s why a local nonprofit is having a one-day conference Saturday in Spokane to help navigate the descent into old age and make it as easy and enjoyable as possible.
The Senior Assistance Fund of Eastern Washington puts on the annual conference “Planning for Retirement and Successful Aging: Boomers and Beyond” to raise money to support local senior services that are struggling to meet needs with the influx of baby boomers. It also wants people in the region to know about resources and options before a sudden accident or medical emergency.
“We want people to be prepared and not caught off guard,” said Joyce McNamee, the chairwoman of the SAFE board of directors. “Ten thousand boomers a day turn 65. It’s a silver tsunami.”
The keynote speaker is local author and senior advocate Gail Goeller, known for her award-winning “Directory for Seniors and Their Families” that she wrote with her husband. She also wrote a book of vignettes – “Coming of Age with Aging Parents: The Bungles, Battles and Blessings” – about her caregiving experiences and mishaps, including the humorous side, after spending 12 years caring for five different relatives. Most recently, Goeller cared for her husband, who was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s.
“Communication is absolutely essential and a lot of families don’t know how to do that very well,” said Goeller, adding that her talk and the other conference presenters will help encourage people to start having those tough conversations with aging parents and spouses.
Our culture isn’t good about talking about death and dying, she said, but those talks are crucial before a crisis happens and the family is forced into a confusing and terrifying world of the unknown.
Like with everything, Goeller said it’s best to educate yourself and be prepared.
Her other tip is to find something meaningful to do while you age. She suggests getting past the “cosmetic worries” of looks and success and do something fun. Go to the senior center. Take a Zumba class. Laugh, especially at yourself.
“Find some way to really create a purpose and not just kind of fade away,” Goeller said. “It’s really a challenge and an opportunity.”
The event at Spokane Community College includes 13 other presenters and 40 exhibitors from local organizations involved with aging.
Other speakers include Mary Ann Wilson of the public television program “Sit and Be Fit,” Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich and George Rice, a retired local physician and aging advocate who will talk about the AARP and its influence on national senior health care issues and how they affect Eastern Washington.
Other presenters will focus on financial planning, aging in place, how to prepare for hospital stays and rehabilitation, adaptive gardening, senior travel, how to talk to your doctor, retirement living in Spokane and how to navigate the Medicare maze.
Admission to the all-day event is $5 and goes to SAFE’s grant fund that awarded $4,500 last year to local senior services such as Care Cars, SNAP, Elder Services and the Greater Spokane County Meals on Wheels.
McNamee said SAFE works to supplement programs for underserved seniors. Many of these programs are suffering funding shortages because, she said, Congress hasn’t reauthorized the Older Americans Act, which is problematic as the largest generation ever is aging and needing services.
“People don’t think old people have needs,” she said. “But we do. That’s why we are called the Invisible Society.”