Transcript
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But I think I always think back to what a foster
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grandparent told me once.
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And it was care where you are.
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Your biological grandchildren or grandparents
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may not be next door to you.
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But I'll bet in your neighborhood there's a child,
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there's an older person, and you can care where you are.
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There's an aging part of our population is aging.
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And they don't have children.
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They didn't have children.
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And having children doesn't make it a guarantee
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that they're going to take care of you.
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So who's going to care for us?
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And it's the responsibility we all share.
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In our communities that's there for them.
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And that's what we can all do.
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[MUSIC PLAYING]
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And now the podcast we're together,
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we discuss proactive aging on your terms,
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connecting to the professional advice of our special guests
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while creating better days throughout the aging process.
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Now here's your host, Mark Turnbull.
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Hello, everyone, and welcome back to another lively discussion
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on aging today.
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We are the podcast where together we're
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exploring the many options to aging on your terms.
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You can find aging today and our past eight years of programming
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on our website, all you got to do is go to agingtoday.us.
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That's agingtoday.us.
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And I just want to say thank you to all of you
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for joining in on our conversation today.
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And we do have a lively conversation,
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another one that comes out every Monday.
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And this is one that I know you will all enjoy.
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Well, one of the things that many of you know,
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and if you don't know, that by the year 2030,
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the percentage of adults age 65 and children
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under the age of 18 will be about the same.
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That's kind of interesting.
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It's an interesting stat.
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And so my question is, what does that mean to us?
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And then why should we be concerned?
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And then what's going to be the impact on our lives?
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Well, one of the things that we all are interested in,
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and that is healthy living and longevity to our lives,
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and there's impacts on longevity and healthy impacts.
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And what we're noticing is that there's
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an alarming rate of seniors that find themselves disconnected.
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And that will have an impact on our longevity.
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We'll have an impact on our health.
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And I can only say that we're designed to be social.
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And when we are isolated, we run the risk of loneliness,
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depression, which can then lead to increased risk of heart
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disease, stroke, dementia, anxiety, and other long-term illnesses.
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So here to talk with us through this whole topic of the strategies
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and the solutions that we all desire for adopting
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in our personal lives to help us live healthy.
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And with more longevity is Lauren Dunning and Donna Butts.
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And they are of the Milken Institute for Health.
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Welcome ladies to Aging Today.
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Hi, thank you.
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Yeah, so--
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Thank you, Mark.
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Absolutely.
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Looking forward to that.
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I'm actually with--
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I do have a disclaimer though, I'm not with the Milken Institute.
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I'm with Generation United.
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We're partners and friends and collaborators.
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OK.
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And Lauren, you're the one that's with Milken, correct?
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Yes.
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I'm Lauren Dunning.
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I'm with the Milken Institute Future of Aging.
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OK, great.
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I'm glad that we got that straightened out and up front
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so that we give the credit to the right organizations.
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So we always start out in our conversations.
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We always start out about what's in your story.
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Let's start with you, Lauren.
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What's in your story?
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What led you to being a part of the Milken Institute
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and some of the history that you've done in taking that track
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that way?
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Absolutely.
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I'll just also briefly introduce it.
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The Milken Institute's a nonprofit nonpartisan think tank
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more focused on accelerating measurable progress on the path
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to a meaningful life.
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And we believe that physical health, financial health,
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and the ability to give back are central to this progress.
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And within the Milken Institute, we
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have the future of aging where I sit.
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And we're working to advance healthy longevity
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and financial security for all.
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And we do that through research convening
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multi-sector partnerships and the elevation
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of high impact policies and practices.
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And I say this because that coming together of healthy longevity
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and financial security and looking out,
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looking towards the power of convening, leveraging our partners
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and elevating really great ideas is something
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I am passionate about.
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I'm a lawyer and I have a public health degree.
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And I previously worked in government.
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And in working in government, focused on public health
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and taking care of the health of the 10 plus million citizens
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and LA County and being a part of that endeavor really helped
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me understand what are some specific needs related
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to population aging.
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And that population aging is something
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that it's not coming tomorrow.
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And people often speak of it in the same breath as climate change,
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twin megatrends, they're changing how we live,
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they're changing the makeup of our societies.
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And I really wanted to be a part of not only
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addressing some of the challenges, which there are,
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but also creating upsides, right?
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There are upsides, there's benefits, there's really exciting things
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about how do we increase our health spans, increase our well spans
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and make the most of these sort of years that we've been given.
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And so that's why I'm here doing this.
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And as Donna mentioned, we have an incredible network
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of partners that includes Donna and Generations United.
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All right.
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And Donna, how about you?
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What has led you down this path and this journey
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to be where you are today?
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Yeah.
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Well, thank you, Mark.
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It's an honor to be here today and so wonderful to be
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with Lauren who's a terrific partner.
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My path, I think it always made sense to me
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because I come from a long line of Midwest ministers
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and I grew up in Salem, Oregon.
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And one of my first jobs was directing a teen program
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at the YWCA.
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My heart was always with teenagers
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because they're probably the most difficult population
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at times to work with.
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So when I was named as the teen director at the YWCA,
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one of the programs I inherited was called Senior Outreach.
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And it was one of those in early administration
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on ageing demonstration programs.
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And it was coming to the end of funding.
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And so I was like, at the wise age of 22,
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if we don't have funding, we'll just end the program
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if we can find funding great.
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And what the program was, was it took
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high school sociology students
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and they visited low-income, isolated older adults
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who were basically by themselves
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once a week for a friendly visit program.
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And what I found, the first time I went for a visit
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were older adults that didn't get out of bed
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until the day that they knew their young friend was coming.
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And teenagers who skipped school, except for the day
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that they were gonna go see their older friend.
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They both had purpose, they both had meaning,
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they showed up for each other.
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And those semester-long relationships
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went on to last lifetimes.
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So I just found it was such a powerful, powerful program.
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So as my career progressed through other teen work
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and youth work about 27 years ago,
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when I was poking around talking to some national leaders
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here in Washington, D.C., one of them said,
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"You know, Donna, we have this new organization
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"and you might be the right person for this job."
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And what it was was Generation United had just been formed,
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actually it had operated as a Looseningit Coalition
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founded by the National Council on Aging,
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ARP, Children's Defense Fund in the Child Welfare League
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of America.
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And they were looking for, really, their first executive director
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to either sink or swim with this organization.
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And it has been an incredible honor and thrill
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to be able to work with committed, fabulous people
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and be able to elevate intergenerational programs,
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public policies and practices that connect generations
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that value people at all ages and stages of life.
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And I think that our mission and the work of the Milken Institute
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is more critical today than ever.
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Yeah, how is the correlation between the two organizations?
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How does that work and where's the crossover
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and how you guys got all together?
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And then you're trying to solve a common problem.
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We are.
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So at the Milken Institute, we not only do our own research
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and work, but we do that by engaging experts, right?
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And so to do that, we have to have a large network of folks
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that we can partner with to share ideas,
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to help us build and generate new solutions.
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And Donna is one of those incredible, incredible people
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that we do that with.
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And to also elevate messages together,
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like we're doing here today.
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And by the way, thank you for this opportunity to share
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and to help people, your listeners learn
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more about intergenerational connection and healthy aging.
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And so, right, we do that by doing our work
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and then elevating together, partnering on ideas
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and getting great messages out there.
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So for example, I just will show them like earlier this year,
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we published Translending Age-Based Divides,
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which focuses on intergenerational connection
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and how it's an important solution
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for many areas of society where we need action.
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And then sorry, Donna, I'll just also say,
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Donna has an exciting new report that's focusing
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on intergenerational living and housing.
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And both of those sort of contain sort of complementary ideas
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and work to help keep elevating and help
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pushing forward and getting into the right hand
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so we can help decision makers, right?
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Make changes and help society reflect
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what we're all excited to see, which is more intentional ways
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that we're helping people of all ages connect with each other,
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including right, through housing and social connection
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and all different kinds of opportunities
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in our own communities and other--
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- Yeah, I'm always fascinated by all the different
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and array of organizations out there
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that are focused on some of the same things.
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And yes, we're talking about the aging complexities
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and as we're in aging culture, there's so many needs out there.
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Is the milk, is the milk and institute,
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is that a private organization or is that a governmental organization?
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How does that all fit in?
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- Absolutely, we're a private organization
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where a nonprofit organization
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and our work is focused on, right, research, convening.
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We host incredible events bringing together experts.
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Such as Donna, we got to see Donna last week
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at our future of health summit,
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where we had a conversation on health, place,
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and aging in community.
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And so that's just a brief explanation,
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Donna, I don't know if we want to say a bit more
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about generations united.
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- Well, I would just say, Mark,
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that as generation united, as I mentioned from our very beginning,
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we were formed as a collaborative
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and we really do believe that the strength is in
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when we work together, that we're really stronger
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when we work together
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and that we shouldn't compete to do good,
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that there's enough space for us.
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So a lot of our work is in collaboration
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and the sort of the analogy sometimes I use
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and being an organian, you might understand this,
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is an intergenerational can be everything or nothing.
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It's kind of a, you know, a times difficult to explain.
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So the approach that we take is we barnacle.
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We attach to issues and we attach the lens,
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the intergenerational lens and perspective
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and partner with really good people
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and really good organizations
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and look at how an intergenerational solution
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helps to address so many of the issues in our country.
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So it's really a thrill to be able to work with Milka
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and institute Lauren and her colleagues.
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- Now, the focus today in our conversation is on,
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you know, solutions for loneliness and isolation.
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And one of the tenants that you're putting forth
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is the concept of intergenerational living?
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Am I correct in that framing that our conversation today?
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- Yes, you are.
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We both in those lovely reports I just showed
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that folks can find on our respective websites.
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They both handle and discuss housing as a way
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to increase intentional intergenerational connection
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and also by having that type of proximity,
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it can support building intergenerational relationships,
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which as you mentioned, have important and unique benefits.
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And, Dawn, I know you've done lots of research
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on intergenerational connection
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and I think one of the most important pieces
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I just love to start with is that
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people want intergenerational connection.
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Eight in 10 older adults is looking to connect
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with someone from a different generation.
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And so we have to start there knowing that many people
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might not perceive or know or think
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that people really want to connect across different ages,
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but they do.
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- How did you come to that conclusion
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that intergenerational connectivity was so important
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to seniors and to our young people?
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- And to our families and to everyone in between.
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The research that we did,
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we actually did a national public opinion survey
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and asked people questions about,
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where the responses were,
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that most people wanted the opportunity
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to connect with other generations.
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They just didn't know how to do it or where to do it.
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They didn't feel like they had that avenue.
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They also thought about if they ever needed care
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or they needed to find a spot for care for their parents,
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that they wanted it to not just be single aged.
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They wanted it to be around children, youth
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and other older adults,
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that they're really very vibrant.
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So when you think about social isolation and loneliness,
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the fact is it's really our older adults
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and our younger people who feel the most isolated and lonely.
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And so when you connect the generations,
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you're really having much a multiple impact, multiple effect.
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And when you think about ageism,
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the two groups that suffer the most from ageism
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are older adults and young people.
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Young people aren't ready to be, they're waiting.
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Older adults are done and they're waiting to die.
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And neither one of those are true.
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They're vibrant.
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They have so much to contribute.
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And it's sort of like put me in coach, I'm ready.
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- Yeah.
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Yeah.
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And one of the things I was thinking about as you were describing
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that is many of our listeners may be saying,
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oh, what is intergenerational living?
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And so let's define that.
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And then we can look back on some of the solutions
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that it provides with those relationships.
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- Lauren and I might both have something to add to that definition,
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but basically with generations you might,
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there are a number of models around the country.
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And I almost always think of it kind of on a spectrum
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where it can be intentionally built housing,
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like for a multi-generational family,
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or it could be an older adult who chooses to home share
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with a student.
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It could be an intentional community like Bridge Meadows
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where adoptive and foster families live side by side
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with lower income older adults who's only job
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is to care about the families.
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It can be communities that are intentionally built
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so that the parks and the walking trails
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are good for people at all abilities and ages
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that they can all enjoy it.
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Has that community intergenerational center or space
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where they can connect?
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It has opportunities for young and old to engage,
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whether it's tutoring and schools or doing yard maintenance
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for an older adult or checking in on your friendly neighbors.
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So it's the intentionality that is really important
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and we're just seeing a tremendous surge in interest.
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It takes a while, we've made it too complex by zoning,
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by policy, things like that,
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but there are really fabulous innovators
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that are developing really, really warm
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and wonderful communities
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that help people live longer in their own homes
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and stay connected in their communities.
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So tell me how zoning and some of the other regulations
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that we have in our communities that are keeping people
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from connecting intergenerationaly?
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I'll offer a converse, which is,
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some really great trends that are helping people reconnect.
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So during the pandemic, we saw a rise in intergenerational living,
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more families living together.
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And right, there's some complex trends happening,
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including around housing availability and affordability
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and communities are looking for solutions.
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And one of those solutions that many cities are taking up
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are ADUs and allowing many, many different types
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of properties to have multiple buildings
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or additional units built on them.
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And that can be a way not only to increase housing stock,
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but also enable people to live in closer proximity
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or to have a larger unit and a smaller unit
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or to enable maybe families to live on the same property
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or people that want to rent and create their own
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intergenerational spaces either on accident or on purpose.
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And so many cities are taking that approach
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by changing zoning to enable more ADUs, right?
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And taking different approaches to helping housing arise
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that meets the needs of many different people.
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There's other examples as well that are less
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about zoning and regulation and more
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about private sector innovation.
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So for example, there's the idea of decentralized senior housing
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where there's one example of that is upside,
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which is a company that has a model that
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has rental units in buildings that are open
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and support people being there of all ages.
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But then enable older adults to live practically
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in those communities by offering the services
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that people might need as they age and might have some level
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of need such as for meal support or some level of assistance
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with ADLs.
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And that approach can also enable people
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through private sector innovation to have more proximity.
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But first, obviously the baseline is being able to have,
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right, housing that supports multifamily living
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and that's a part of that equation that you were discussing.
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And Don, I know that your recent report
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has definitely some points on this.
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Yeah, I would add to what Lauren said is that part
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of how we've made it complicated is that we have really
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age-segregated or siloed policy, funding,
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and other services, the way that we live,
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when in fact we actually live together
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and we're interdependent.
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So sometimes you'll have a funding stream
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but it will only be for senior housing.
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You can't serve anybody younger.
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Or what we saw during the pandemic, which was amazing to me,
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were even food programs like meals on wheels
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could deliver a meal to an older adult
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but not to the child standing next to them.
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And a school lunch program, an older person
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could take a child at that school for the school lunch program
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but they couldn't eat.
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So we've really segregated and we need to address that.
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And that happens locally too.
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How we give preference to where we will allow a project
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to site to be built.
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What is the square footage that's needed?
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If it's a shared site with childcare and adult day care
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center, that sort of thing.
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And then how many restrictions there
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are a lot of the campus-based programs
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are taking years to develop because they have to hash through
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both who owns the land, what the restrictions are on the land,
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and how they're going to connect.
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So it's really a matter of us, I think,
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using that intergenerational lens and enabling,
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encouraging, and allowing people to live the way
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that we should be living.
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Yeah, one of my favorite sayings is,
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when you change the way you look at things,
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the things you look at change, and essentially,
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what you were describing right there.
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And as I was listening to the two of you
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discuss what each of your agencies do and how you do it.
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And I was curious, I mean, that's a monumental task.
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We're talking 50 states across 3,000 miles.
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I mean, how is our your voices connecting
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all the pieces out there in the practical world
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and how that's trickling down in affecting change
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in the way we're approaching our seniors?
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Well, Lauren, I'll jump in first, and please.
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I mean, a part of our work at Generation United
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is we do promote program.
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We elevate programs of distinction, programs of merit.
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We set the bar for high quality intergenerational programs.
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So we build the tent that connects people
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so they don't feel like they're isolated or they're alone.
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We do a global biennial intergenerational conference,
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the largest gathering of its kind in the world.
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That's going to be in June in Louisville, Kentucky, this year.
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We have learning communities around intergenerational living
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shared sites, grandparents raising grandchildren,
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but we build those communities.
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But we also focus on policy because if we want something
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to last to get it embedded in policy or to change policy,
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really does help to support and raise awareness
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and possibility in people's eyes.
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Now, does that policy then?
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You have relationships with individual states and governments
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and the impact of your messaging is that on a federal level,
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is it on a state level?
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And then how are what we're talking about,
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these policies being instituted to affect change?
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Yeah.
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So that's a deep question.
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That's a deep question.
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I sat on the other side previously,
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and I know that I always looked to write experts
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in the field that were working directly on specific issues
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when trying to solve an issue.
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And so looking at people's sort of working with experts,
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doing research and reflecting back,
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new thinking, elevating ideas from other places,
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so having resources that bring all that together
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and make that available can really help the job
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that folks in government who are passed with policy making,
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how they do their job.
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So it's supportive.
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It helps get information that is pretty specialized in many ways
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into the hands of people that can take action.
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And that's really what we're up to is using that research
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and convening power to elevate ideas, elevate policies
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and practices that we want to see spread,
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and also build and architect and give some prototypes
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or directions for how do you make some new things that
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might also help along the way?
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And so we do that by publishing, just like the brief,
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I showed you, we do that also by doing this.
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We do that by, we have a great government affairs team
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that can provide information directly to folks
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when there's something relevant,
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commenting on what's going on in the world.
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There's some exciting, right, policies, stuff going on
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at all kinds of levels, right?
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The Older American's Act is being renewed.
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Recently, there was a blueprint that was a scoping document
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for a national plan on aging.
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That's a federal plan to guide, right?
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How the federal government addresses aging
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across all kinds of domains.
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And we've seen things like that for other areas,
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such as Alzheimer's and caregiving.
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And so thinking about it from an overarching level for aging
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is a really exciting proposition.
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States are creating multi-sector plans for aging
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that include housing.
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And there's many, many ways that they're gathering input on that,
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including by checking out all of sort of these exciting
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documents and then also by getting direct input
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from stakeholder groups and from other groups like
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think tanks and nonprofits such as ourselves.
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- Yeah, I'm always fascinated by the voice
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and you have to have that voice.
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And you're the voice of two in the wilderness
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and you're saying to the world out there,
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hey, we have an issue, we have a problem.
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And the problem is that as our population is aging,
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along with the aging population,
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is being as high as it is and then also you've got
524
00:25:26,680 --> 00:25:30,800
the younger generations, they seem to be as equal
525
00:25:30,800 --> 00:25:33,920
in terms of numbers and percentage of our population.
526
00:25:33,920 --> 00:25:37,240
And what you're trying to do is to bridge that gap
527
00:25:37,240 --> 00:25:39,760
so that you can affect both populations.
528
00:25:39,760 --> 00:25:42,800
'Cause I think one of the things that we've lost
529
00:25:42,800 --> 00:25:47,320
in my opinion is the whole concept of honoring
530
00:25:47,320 --> 00:25:49,520
your mother and your father.
531
00:25:49,520 --> 00:25:54,080
And when we disconnect from our aging population
532
00:25:54,080 --> 00:25:58,240
as young people, I think that has a negative effect
533
00:25:58,240 --> 00:26:00,840
on our culture and not in a good way.
534
00:26:00,840 --> 00:26:02,880
And I think that's what you guys are addressing.
535
00:26:02,880 --> 00:26:07,280
- Mark, you're really right because one of the benefits
536
00:26:07,280 --> 00:26:11,360
of intergenerational programming is that you ask a child
537
00:26:11,360 --> 00:26:16,080
or a young one who's been in an intergenerational program,
538
00:26:16,080 --> 00:26:18,800
show them a picture of a seven year old and a 70 year old
539
00:26:18,800 --> 00:26:20,600
and they're gonna look at both of those and say,
540
00:26:20,600 --> 00:26:22,000
that's my friend.
541
00:26:22,000 --> 00:26:24,320
When they're exposed, when they grow up,
542
00:26:24,320 --> 00:26:28,680
they don't look at the differences as something that matters.
543
00:26:28,680 --> 00:26:31,200
They also learn soft skills and their patients,
544
00:26:31,200 --> 00:26:33,600
they learn more communications or more accepting
545
00:26:33,600 --> 00:26:35,520
of people with disabilities.
546
00:26:35,520 --> 00:26:38,120
And then for older adults, they see hope in the future.
547
00:26:38,120 --> 00:26:41,600
So again, just from a very early age,
548
00:26:41,600 --> 00:26:44,720
but I think that when we think about policy,
549
00:26:44,720 --> 00:26:46,920
there's so much that we can do at the federal level,
550
00:26:46,920 --> 00:26:49,200
but so much as state and local.
551
00:26:49,200 --> 00:26:51,280
The one thing that I really appreciate
552
00:26:51,280 --> 00:26:55,080
about intergenerational work is that it really cuts
553
00:26:55,080 --> 00:26:58,920
across party lines because we all have had aging parents
554
00:26:58,920 --> 00:27:01,480
or we're all aging or we know people,
555
00:27:01,480 --> 00:27:03,320
it's our neighbor, it's that sort of thing.
556
00:27:03,320 --> 00:27:05,760
So you can really build common ground.
557
00:27:05,760 --> 00:27:08,600
And so what we try to do similar at Lauren was saying
558
00:27:08,600 --> 00:27:11,600
is elevate the models that we see around the country.
559
00:27:11,600 --> 00:27:15,200
For example, Nebraska just passed a state,
560
00:27:15,200 --> 00:27:20,800
a state law that they're providing a certain amount
561
00:27:20,800 --> 00:27:22,960
of money and incentives for people
562
00:27:22,960 --> 00:27:25,040
who are building senior care facilities
563
00:27:25,040 --> 00:27:27,120
with childcare centers.
564
00:27:27,120 --> 00:27:30,720
And they're doing that because the workforce,
565
00:27:30,720 --> 00:27:35,000
the caregiving workforce is really a very tough area
566
00:27:35,000 --> 00:27:38,800
to recruit in, it's a tough area to retain people.
567
00:27:38,800 --> 00:27:42,080
And by providing childcare, the workers have a place
568
00:27:42,080 --> 00:27:44,640
to take their children, they stay connected to their family
569
00:27:44,640 --> 00:27:47,040
and then the children benefit by their exposure
570
00:27:47,040 --> 00:27:48,480
with the older adults.
571
00:27:48,480 --> 00:27:52,840
So I love seeing states that are taking progressive,
572
00:27:52,840 --> 00:27:56,400
but not progressive so much as proactive stances
573
00:27:56,400 --> 00:27:58,640
to be able to make sure we're connecting generations.
574
00:27:58,640 --> 00:28:01,320
And those are common sense things.
575
00:28:01,320 --> 00:28:03,480
Did you know that many factors, not just those
576
00:28:03,480 --> 00:28:06,360
we typically think of like diet, exercise,
577
00:28:06,360 --> 00:28:10,080
and not smoking contribute to health and longevity?
578
00:28:10,080 --> 00:28:13,640
One critical area is social connection.
579
00:28:13,640 --> 00:28:16,680
Lacking social connection is as dangerous to our health
580
00:28:16,680 --> 00:28:19,520
as smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day,
581
00:28:19,520 --> 00:28:22,880
interacting with friends, family, and neighbor staves
582
00:28:22,880 --> 00:28:25,480
off the very real impacts of loneliness,
583
00:28:25,480 --> 00:28:28,800
which is associated with increased risk of heart disease,
584
00:28:28,800 --> 00:28:32,800
stroke, dementia, anxiety, and depression.
585
00:28:32,800 --> 00:28:35,040
This, did you know, segment was brought to you
586
00:28:35,040 --> 00:28:40,040
by this week's guests and sponsored by Royal Hospice of Oregon?
587
00:28:40,040 --> 00:28:41,840
And those are common sense things.
588
00:28:41,840 --> 00:28:44,400
I mean, I'm in the in-home care agency,
589
00:28:44,400 --> 00:28:47,520
I have an in-home care agency and a hospice agency.
590
00:28:47,520 --> 00:28:53,200
And so I understand the tension between not having enough caregivers
591
00:28:53,200 --> 00:28:57,320
and oftentimes caregivers, they're young mothers,
592
00:28:57,320 --> 00:28:58,440
they're young fathers.
593
00:28:58,440 --> 00:29:01,920
And what keeps them from showing up to work
594
00:29:01,920 --> 00:29:04,680
on a consistent basis is childcare.
595
00:29:04,680 --> 00:29:09,520
And I love the solution that Nebraska is doing.
596
00:29:09,520 --> 00:29:12,600
And I think that should be pushed out to all the states
597
00:29:12,600 --> 00:29:16,840
and providing, you know, if all of our institutions,
598
00:29:16,840 --> 00:29:19,840
you know, our long-term care communities had that ability
599
00:29:19,840 --> 00:29:22,320
to provide some care.
600
00:29:22,320 --> 00:29:25,080
And again, I don't know how you pay for all that,
601
00:29:25,080 --> 00:29:27,840
but it's, I, but I get the concept
602
00:29:27,840 --> 00:29:31,200
because the long term effect of that is, is,
603
00:29:31,200 --> 00:29:33,120
it's intergenerational.
604
00:29:33,120 --> 00:29:36,080
It's going to affect our seniors, but it's also going to affect,
605
00:29:36,080 --> 00:29:38,680
you know, one of the things I'd like to say about myself
606
00:29:38,680 --> 00:29:43,680
and I say this with great pride is that I'm a privileged man
607
00:29:43,680 --> 00:29:48,160
and the reason why I'm a privileged man is because I grew up in a home
608
00:29:48,160 --> 00:29:53,160
where we live out the intergenerational care for my, you know,
609
00:29:53,160 --> 00:29:56,760
I grew up around grandparents and I grew up,
610
00:29:56,760 --> 00:30:00,640
and I'm taking care of my mom currently in her home
611
00:30:00,640 --> 00:30:04,120
so that she can live her days on her terms
612
00:30:04,120 --> 00:30:07,440
the way she wants to live out her final days.
613
00:30:07,440 --> 00:30:11,320
And yet at the same time, I take great pride in that,
614
00:30:11,320 --> 00:30:16,320
but I'm also aware that the majority of our population
615
00:30:16,320 --> 00:30:20,440
doesn't have that ability, they don't have
616
00:30:20,440 --> 00:30:23,520
intergenerational relationships with grandparents
617
00:30:23,520 --> 00:30:28,160
or maybe those intergenerational relationships
618
00:30:28,160 --> 00:30:30,800
with grandparents are, you know, out of state.
619
00:30:30,800 --> 00:30:33,680
And so how do you, how do you live that way?
620
00:30:33,680 --> 00:30:35,560
I mean, it's just, it's crazy.
621
00:30:36,880 --> 00:30:40,520
You know, it's, I think, and thank you for everything you're doing,
622
00:30:40,520 --> 00:30:41,960
Mark, I mean, that is terrific
623
00:30:41,960 --> 00:30:43,920
'cause not everybody has that opportunity,
624
00:30:43,920 --> 00:30:45,880
but I think I always think back to what a foster
625
00:30:45,880 --> 00:30:49,480
grandparent told me once and it was care where you are.
626
00:30:49,480 --> 00:30:52,480
Your biological grandchildren or grandparents
627
00:30:52,480 --> 00:30:54,040
may not be next door to you,
628
00:30:54,040 --> 00:30:56,360
but I'll bet in your neighborhood there's a child,
629
00:30:56,360 --> 00:30:59,760
there's an older person and you can care where you are.
630
00:30:59,760 --> 00:31:01,840
And I think that's a conversation that we're having
631
00:31:01,840 --> 00:31:04,960
more and more now because people are thinking about
632
00:31:04,960 --> 00:31:07,240
people who have not had children.
633
00:31:07,240 --> 00:31:08,360
You know, there's an aging population,
634
00:31:08,360 --> 00:31:09,960
part of our population is aging
635
00:31:09,960 --> 00:31:12,400
and they don't have children, they didn't have children
636
00:31:12,400 --> 00:31:14,560
and having children doesn't make it a guarantee
637
00:31:14,560 --> 00:31:16,200
that they're gonna take care of you.
638
00:31:16,200 --> 00:31:18,560
So how are, who's gonna care for us?
639
00:31:18,560 --> 00:31:22,720
And it's the responsibility we all share in our communities.
640
00:31:22,720 --> 00:31:26,000
I love, my husband is retired and he spends a lot of time
641
00:31:26,000 --> 00:31:29,440
checking up on our former housekeeper who's 95
642
00:31:29,440 --> 00:31:31,400
and our former neighbors who are 80
643
00:31:31,400 --> 00:31:33,280
and he engages regularly with them.
644
00:31:33,280 --> 00:31:37,480
He's that extra pair of hands and heart that's there for them
645
00:31:37,480 --> 00:31:38,920
and that's what we can all do.
646
00:31:38,920 --> 00:31:40,680
- Yeah, absolutely.
647
00:31:40,680 --> 00:31:44,400
- And so much of how you make those connections,
648
00:31:44,400 --> 00:31:46,280
it's great if they happen organically
649
00:31:46,280 --> 00:31:48,640
and sometimes they do from shared activities or interests
650
00:31:48,640 --> 00:31:50,840
but because so many things are siloed,
651
00:31:50,840 --> 00:31:53,680
we also aren't afforded those opportunities, right?
652
00:31:53,680 --> 00:31:56,720
To develop those relationships intentionally
653
00:31:56,720 --> 00:31:59,560
and so the more that we can create conditions, right?
654
00:31:59,560 --> 00:32:01,320
Through intergenerational communities
655
00:32:01,320 --> 00:32:03,960
that involve, right, strategically planning
656
00:32:03,960 --> 00:32:05,480
to have multiple generations be there
657
00:32:05,480 --> 00:32:08,720
that have sort of all the sort of incentives
658
00:32:08,720 --> 00:32:10,600
that financially that help and support people
659
00:32:10,600 --> 00:32:12,160
to live in intergenerational communities
660
00:32:12,160 --> 00:32:14,680
and then programs that help people connect
661
00:32:14,680 --> 00:32:17,600
in a structured way so that they can build those relationships
662
00:32:17,600 --> 00:32:20,640
because, right, it is, it does change your life
663
00:32:20,640 --> 00:32:22,320
in your perspective, right?
664
00:32:22,320 --> 00:32:24,400
And once you sort of do it once,
665
00:32:24,400 --> 00:32:26,600
you go, oh, I can do this again, right?
666
00:32:26,600 --> 00:32:29,040
And we all maybe have that person in our lives, right?
667
00:32:29,040 --> 00:32:32,080
My gardening partner of passions intergenerational gardening
668
00:32:32,080 --> 00:32:36,080
is 97 and we've been gardening together for about 15 years
669
00:32:36,080 --> 00:32:39,080
and I think, you know, when I first started gardening
670
00:32:39,080 --> 00:32:40,840
at the garden, if you would said,
671
00:32:40,840 --> 00:32:43,480
do you want a 97-year-old best friend,
672
00:32:43,480 --> 00:32:46,360
I have to admit, maybe I might have been slightly ageist
673
00:32:46,360 --> 00:32:48,920
and had a perception that, oh, it's gonna involve
674
00:32:48,920 --> 00:32:53,360
so much giving my time and, you know, it'll be an outlet,
675
00:32:53,360 --> 00:32:55,400
I don't want that kind of responsibility.
676
00:32:55,400 --> 00:32:57,880
I think people might be surprised
677
00:32:57,880 --> 00:33:02,280
that there's giving and receiving on both sides, right?
678
00:33:02,280 --> 00:33:05,000
And that we have to remember that it's, right,
679
00:33:05,000 --> 00:33:07,560
to make a real relationship, we have that opportunity
680
00:33:07,560 --> 00:33:08,960
for both ways, right?
681
00:33:08,960 --> 00:33:11,880
And that generativity, like the act of,
682
00:33:11,880 --> 00:33:14,160
specifically older adults, to younger people,
683
00:33:14,160 --> 00:33:15,560
benefits both sides, right?
684
00:33:15,560 --> 00:33:19,040
It's a unique type of giving and it provides benefits
685
00:33:19,040 --> 00:33:21,920
and so getting ways that people can have that
686
00:33:21,920 --> 00:33:24,760
so that now whenever I, you know,
687
00:33:24,760 --> 00:33:27,360
I look at the world differently from here on out
688
00:33:27,360 --> 00:33:29,080
and I'm one of those people that as,
689
00:33:29,080 --> 00:33:31,840
encounter people who might be so waging or meet new neighbors,
690
00:33:31,840 --> 00:33:35,320
it's just sort of changed my perspective and capacity as well
691
00:33:35,320 --> 00:33:38,160
and so I know that Donna's working hard
692
00:33:38,160 --> 00:33:40,000
to make those opportunities for more people
693
00:33:40,000 --> 00:33:41,000
in different ways.
694
00:33:41,000 --> 00:33:45,120
- Yeah, and, you know, it's real too.
695
00:33:45,120 --> 00:33:47,800
As I'm involved in seniors,
696
00:33:47,800 --> 00:33:52,800
lives in multiple, you know, multiple areas of their aging
697
00:33:54,240 --> 00:33:57,920
as they age all the way from needing a little assistance
698
00:33:57,920 --> 00:34:00,040
to all the way to the end of life,
699
00:34:00,040 --> 00:34:05,040
it's a daunting task as we age and, you know,
700
00:34:05,040 --> 00:34:07,800
one of the greatest fears everybody says
701
00:34:07,800 --> 00:34:11,280
that seniors fear the most is out living here resources.
702
00:34:11,280 --> 00:34:13,880
Number one, number two is the fear of falling
703
00:34:13,880 --> 00:34:15,760
and, you know, number three, you know what?
704
00:34:15,760 --> 00:34:19,880
I think even this is in third place the way I'm putting it
705
00:34:19,880 --> 00:34:24,880
but I think that fear of being alone is right there at the top
706
00:34:24,880 --> 00:34:29,800
and I know a lot of people in their 40s and 50s
707
00:34:29,800 --> 00:34:33,200
may not think that that's that great of a fear
708
00:34:33,200 --> 00:34:35,400
but when you're in your 70s and 80s
709
00:34:35,400 --> 00:34:38,240
and your abilities are diminishing
710
00:34:38,240 --> 00:34:40,600
and you don't have family around you,
711
00:34:40,600 --> 00:34:42,640
you don't have a support system,
712
00:34:42,640 --> 00:34:46,040
you don't have that intergenerational support,
713
00:34:46,040 --> 00:34:47,600
it can be scary.
714
00:34:47,600 --> 00:34:50,680
I can only imagine and, you know,
715
00:34:50,680 --> 00:34:53,680
when you don't have that power to do anything about it.
716
00:34:53,680 --> 00:34:56,960
- And a part of why we advocate
717
00:34:56,960 --> 00:35:01,680
for intergenerational relationships is because if you only have
718
00:35:01,680 --> 00:35:05,880
one age co-horidist friends and your aging with them,
719
00:35:05,880 --> 00:35:08,120
then yes, all around you, what you're gonna see
720
00:35:08,120 --> 00:35:11,480
is what I call the three P's, pain pills and passing.
721
00:35:11,480 --> 00:35:13,080
People are gonna talk about what hurts,
722
00:35:13,080 --> 00:35:14,600
they're gonna talk about, you know,
723
00:35:14,600 --> 00:35:17,040
what medication they're on, they're gonna talk about who died
724
00:35:17,040 --> 00:35:19,280
but you can't do that if you also have friends
725
00:35:19,280 --> 00:35:22,520
in their 40s or 20s or there's kids
726
00:35:22,520 --> 00:35:24,760
who are running around that sort of thing.
727
00:35:24,760 --> 00:35:26,720
So I think what you're, you know,
728
00:35:26,720 --> 00:35:28,520
you're right in that people start to see
729
00:35:28,520 --> 00:35:32,040
a diminished social circle because they haven't had
730
00:35:32,040 --> 00:35:34,560
or nurtured or intentionally thought about making sure
731
00:35:34,560 --> 00:35:37,000
they know people of other ages
732
00:35:37,000 --> 00:35:39,720
and they nurture those relationships.
733
00:35:39,720 --> 00:35:41,720
And also that they focus,
734
00:35:41,720 --> 00:35:45,240
it's easy to focus on diminishing ability
735
00:35:45,240 --> 00:35:48,040
rather than what abilities you still have left
736
00:35:48,040 --> 00:35:49,440
and to be able to use those
737
00:35:49,440 --> 00:35:51,440
because we've had intergenerational programs
738
00:35:51,440 --> 00:35:53,600
where homebound seniors back in the day
739
00:35:53,600 --> 00:35:56,600
were the telephone support to after school kids
740
00:35:56,600 --> 00:35:58,800
or they were the ones that could, you know,
741
00:35:58,800 --> 00:36:00,240
that could wave out the window
742
00:36:00,240 --> 00:36:03,160
or they could do, there were things that they could do
743
00:36:03,160 --> 00:36:05,040
in spite of the fact they couldn't get out
744
00:36:05,040 --> 00:36:07,160
or get around as well as they used to.
745
00:36:07,160 --> 00:36:08,160
- Yeah, yeah.
746
00:36:08,160 --> 00:36:09,680
- And it's efficient, right?
747
00:36:09,680 --> 00:36:12,440
So bringing it back to intergenerational housing, right?
748
00:36:12,440 --> 00:36:14,040
We're talking about loneliness,
749
00:36:14,040 --> 00:36:15,040
we're talking about isolation,
750
00:36:15,040 --> 00:36:19,160
we're also talking about fear of outliving your resources,
751
00:36:19,160 --> 00:36:20,600
right, and intergenerational solutions
752
00:36:20,600 --> 00:36:25,600
can be incredibly efficient and also just plain joyful
753
00:36:25,600 --> 00:36:28,480
way to address so many issues at once.
754
00:36:28,480 --> 00:36:32,040
And that's why I think that the report,
755
00:36:32,040 --> 00:36:34,200
recent report from General Rations United
756
00:36:34,200 --> 00:36:37,000
on healthier lives across generations is really important,
757
00:36:37,000 --> 00:36:39,360
right, because those two things, right?
758
00:36:39,360 --> 00:36:41,120
Where will I live and who will take care of me
759
00:36:41,120 --> 00:36:42,760
and then we're gonna add also,
760
00:36:42,760 --> 00:36:45,400
how do I ensure that I have the resources to do so?
761
00:36:45,400 --> 00:36:48,800
Really is the place where we live,
762
00:36:48,800 --> 00:36:51,680
where we age is so central to answering those questions
763
00:36:51,680 --> 00:36:54,360
and intergenerational housing can be a really important
764
00:36:54,360 --> 00:36:57,640
solution to making the answers easier for people.
765
00:36:57,640 --> 00:37:00,840
- Yeah, one of my greatest concerns is,
766
00:37:00,840 --> 00:37:04,360
going back to outliving your resources
767
00:37:04,360 --> 00:37:08,440
and that is a legitimate fear because I know what I charge
768
00:37:08,440 --> 00:37:12,080
in in-home care and I can't even afford
769
00:37:12,080 --> 00:37:15,280
my own services and this has got me very concerned
770
00:37:15,280 --> 00:37:18,440
is that the majority of our population
771
00:37:18,440 --> 00:37:22,600
cannot stay in their own home and that's not much of a choice
772
00:37:22,600 --> 00:37:24,840
and everybody should have that choice
773
00:37:24,840 --> 00:37:27,320
in that opportunity to stay home
774
00:37:27,320 --> 00:37:29,800
or they can go into a long term care community
775
00:37:29,800 --> 00:37:34,800
of various kinds, whatever they desire,
776
00:37:34,800 --> 00:37:41,040
but it's even, it doesn't matter what model you choose,
777
00:37:41,040 --> 00:37:45,120
they're getting prohibitively expensive where people
778
00:37:45,120 --> 00:37:48,720
just don't have the resources or they lose their entire
779
00:37:48,720 --> 00:37:51,040
estates in the process.
780
00:37:51,040 --> 00:37:55,160
So somehow, some way is that being addressed
781
00:37:55,160 --> 00:37:57,000
by both of your organizations?
782
00:37:57,000 --> 00:38:01,080
How are we going to make it affordable for people
783
00:38:01,080 --> 00:38:04,880
to live a quality of life because we're living longer?
784
00:38:04,880 --> 00:38:06,280
How do we do that?
785
00:38:06,280 --> 00:38:07,600
- Yeah, absolutely.
786
00:38:07,600 --> 00:38:09,400
I mean, I think that there's a lot of ways
787
00:38:09,400 --> 00:38:11,320
people are addressing this, right?
788
00:38:11,320 --> 00:38:13,920
And so right now we are doing work
789
00:38:13,920 --> 00:38:16,120
on the future of connected care in the home
790
00:38:16,120 --> 00:38:19,280
where we're looking at how technology can be an important,
791
00:38:19,280 --> 00:38:22,960
we'll call it force multiplier to helping people
792
00:38:22,960 --> 00:38:26,920
get the care they need, including remotely,
793
00:38:26,920 --> 00:38:28,880
which can address some of the challenges
794
00:38:28,880 --> 00:38:33,480
as an expense of providing direct hours of in-home care,
795
00:38:33,480 --> 00:38:36,360
and our previous work focusing on the forgotten middle,
796
00:38:36,360 --> 00:38:41,360
the group of older adults who have too much in assets
797
00:38:41,360 --> 00:38:46,560
or income to qualify for government support programs,
798
00:38:46,560 --> 00:38:49,040
but who cannot afford the housing and care
799
00:38:49,040 --> 00:38:51,080
that they will need or want, right?
800
00:38:51,080 --> 00:38:55,160
And so we focused on that group on how can we create
801
00:38:55,160 --> 00:38:58,440
financial models and also new ideas, maybe in healthcare
802
00:38:58,440 --> 00:39:02,000
partnerships in housing and healthcare can work together
803
00:39:02,000 --> 00:39:05,120
to increase the affordability of housing options
804
00:39:06,120 --> 00:39:07,960
for the missing middle.
805
00:39:07,960 --> 00:39:10,880
And so we are, you know, and have published on both
806
00:39:10,880 --> 00:39:13,080
of those topics and we'll keep publishing on both
807
00:39:13,080 --> 00:39:17,320
of those topics and also would be remiss if I didn't mention.
808
00:39:17,320 --> 00:39:19,600
Mark, we're also doing on caregivers in the workplace,
809
00:39:19,600 --> 00:39:21,600
making sure that, you know, looking at aging
810
00:39:21,600 --> 00:39:25,800
as an intergenerational issue and aging as a life course journey,
811
00:39:25,800 --> 00:39:28,280
right, making sure that family caregivers
812
00:39:28,280 --> 00:39:31,760
that are in the workforce that are doing elder care
813
00:39:31,760 --> 00:39:33,840
are able to, right, keep, you know,
814
00:39:33,840 --> 00:39:35,680
maintain their employment, have support,
815
00:39:35,680 --> 00:39:38,800
and see some things in the private sector that might support them
816
00:39:38,800 --> 00:39:41,680
and bring some of that innovation we've seen in childcare
817
00:39:41,680 --> 00:39:44,000
to people doing all different sorts of caregiving.
818
00:39:44,000 --> 00:39:46,400
And so we're working on all three of those issues
819
00:39:46,400 --> 00:39:49,280
and more about connecting health span and wall span.
820
00:39:49,280 --> 00:39:54,280
- And I think that, you know, Lauren said is very important,
821
00:39:54,280 --> 00:39:58,480
there's a way we need to restructure some of the reimbursements,
822
00:39:58,480 --> 00:40:01,760
some of the ways that we look at funding
823
00:40:01,760 --> 00:40:04,480
and change and update some of the policy around that.
824
00:40:04,480 --> 00:40:05,800
But there are other things as well.
825
00:40:05,800 --> 00:40:08,280
I think there's some really wonderful innovation underway.
826
00:40:08,280 --> 00:40:11,920
There's a gentleman named Marvell Adams
827
00:40:11,920 --> 00:40:14,320
who is a part of the Eisner Foundation's
828
00:40:14,320 --> 00:40:17,440
intergenerational fellows program designed a model
829
00:40:17,440 --> 00:40:21,560
of an intentional intergenerational mixed income community
830
00:40:21,560 --> 00:40:26,320
so that they actually, the support was there financially
831
00:40:26,320 --> 00:40:30,520
to help some of the lower income folks be able to age there.
832
00:40:30,520 --> 00:40:32,040
And then the home share programs,
833
00:40:32,040 --> 00:40:35,080
well not for everyone, for many older adults
834
00:40:35,080 --> 00:40:38,200
to have a student in their home to either help them
835
00:40:38,200 --> 00:40:42,440
with some of the, you know, have a meal together
836
00:40:42,440 --> 00:40:45,360
help with isolation, walk the dog when it snows,
837
00:40:45,360 --> 00:40:47,280
but also provide a little bit of income
838
00:40:47,280 --> 00:40:50,480
that they need to be able to stay in that home.
839
00:40:50,480 --> 00:40:53,680
And some state, one state at least, was looking at how
840
00:40:53,680 --> 00:40:56,720
they made sure that home repair dollars were targeted
841
00:40:56,720 --> 00:41:00,000
to that population so that their home was in good enough shape
842
00:41:00,000 --> 00:41:03,000
to be able to have a student live with them
843
00:41:03,000 --> 00:41:04,680
and for them to be able to stay.
844
00:41:04,680 --> 00:41:07,200
So I think we're starting to see some beautiful nuggets
845
00:41:07,200 --> 00:41:09,720
around the country, but as we've all said,
846
00:41:09,720 --> 00:41:12,400
it's elevating those, it's amplifying them
847
00:41:12,400 --> 00:41:15,720
and it's also enabling their replication.
848
00:41:15,720 --> 00:41:18,960
- Yes, I know because the need is growing, right?
849
00:41:18,960 --> 00:41:22,640
We know that half of older adults by 2029
850
00:41:22,640 --> 00:41:24,880
that are, you know, will be in the missing middle
851
00:41:24,880 --> 00:41:26,920
won't be able to afford the housing and care they need.
852
00:41:26,920 --> 00:41:29,960
That's so many people, but there's lots of solutions
853
00:41:29,960 --> 00:41:32,600
sitting out there that people are trying to unlock
854
00:41:32,600 --> 00:41:35,400
and leverage one of my favorite figures is
855
00:41:35,400 --> 00:41:39,120
from a private sector group, but that it's 137 million
856
00:41:39,120 --> 00:41:41,440
spare bedrooms, right?
857
00:41:41,440 --> 00:41:43,720
You're talking about the possibility of leveraging
858
00:41:43,720 --> 00:41:47,240
even some of those to help make housing more affordable
859
00:41:47,240 --> 00:41:49,520
and also support connection.
860
00:41:49,520 --> 00:41:52,840
- I do have to say, though, Lauren, because I agree with you
861
00:41:52,840 --> 00:41:55,080
that it's interesting because if you talk with an older adult
862
00:41:55,080 --> 00:41:57,920
and probably to any of us, we don't have a spare room.
863
00:41:57,920 --> 00:42:01,840
It's our sewing room, it's our storage room, it's this,
864
00:42:01,840 --> 00:42:04,120
so we have to be careful about how we frame it.
865
00:42:04,120 --> 00:42:07,720
You know, that you have that space that could be welcoming
866
00:42:07,720 --> 00:42:12,400
and engaging and you'd have company and build
867
00:42:12,400 --> 00:42:14,400
the expectation, because I hadn't really thought
868
00:42:14,400 --> 00:42:16,760
about that before that there aren't many people to think,
869
00:42:16,760 --> 00:42:18,000
oh, yeah, I have a spare room.
870
00:42:18,000 --> 00:42:20,120
It's like, no, that's got my sewing machine
871
00:42:20,120 --> 00:42:22,600
or my hobbies or this or that in it.
872
00:42:22,600 --> 00:42:25,120
- And that's, as we keep talking about in this conversation,
873
00:42:25,120 --> 00:42:28,960
right, lens, right?
874
00:42:28,960 --> 00:42:32,240
You had such a great way to say at Mark about changing
875
00:42:32,240 --> 00:42:34,440
how you look at it, changes what you're looking at.
876
00:42:34,440 --> 00:42:38,320
And so it's definitely not a solution for everyone.
877
00:42:38,320 --> 00:42:40,960
I think that there's a lot more that can go on
878
00:42:40,960 --> 00:42:44,440
in terms of financial models making senior housing
879
00:42:44,440 --> 00:42:47,480
more affordable people that are looking at bringing
880
00:42:47,480 --> 00:42:50,680
sort of care and decentralized models out into communities
881
00:42:50,680 --> 00:42:55,680
and looking at how in housing that's supported
882
00:42:55,680 --> 00:42:57,360
through various government programs,
883
00:42:57,360 --> 00:42:59,880
how it is more age integrated.
884
00:42:59,880 --> 00:43:02,960
I think that, right, that everything is sort of a suite
885
00:43:02,960 --> 00:43:04,440
of solutions when we're talking about something
886
00:43:04,440 --> 00:43:05,440
that's magnitude.
887
00:43:05,440 --> 00:43:06,440
- Yeah, yeah.
888
00:43:06,440 --> 00:43:08,200
You know, one of the things I was thinking about
889
00:43:08,200 --> 00:43:10,320
as you were describing that because I've been putting
890
00:43:10,320 --> 00:43:14,560
a lot of thought into this myself, how did we get here?
891
00:43:14,560 --> 00:43:19,520
And, you know, sometimes, and again,
892
00:43:19,520 --> 00:43:22,200
this may be controversial, but that's okay.
893
00:43:22,200 --> 00:43:25,240
We're on a podcast so we can be controversial.
894
00:43:25,240 --> 00:43:28,120
Sometimes I feel like we put too much emphasis
895
00:43:28,120 --> 00:43:30,960
upon the government to solve our problems.
896
00:43:30,960 --> 00:43:33,960
And we've gotten away from the family.
897
00:43:33,960 --> 00:43:38,640
And I know that from my own perspective of,
898
00:43:38,640 --> 00:43:42,200
and again, I look at it from a place of,
899
00:43:42,200 --> 00:43:46,560
I was privileged to be in a intergenerational family
900
00:43:46,560 --> 00:43:48,880
that has stayed together.
901
00:43:48,880 --> 00:43:53,880
And unfortunately, our culture has over the last 20, 30 years
902
00:43:53,880 --> 00:43:59,520
has been talking about how the family is not that important.
903
00:43:59,520 --> 00:44:02,680
And now we're seeing why the family is important.
904
00:44:02,680 --> 00:44:08,600
And so when we dissolve the familial relationships,
905
00:44:08,600 --> 00:44:11,760
now we've opened up, you know, an empty hole,
906
00:44:11,760 --> 00:44:13,720
and then we have to fill it with something.
907
00:44:13,720 --> 00:44:16,120
And then that's where the government steps in.
908
00:44:16,120 --> 00:44:17,560
And I don't think that's the answer.
909
00:44:17,560 --> 00:44:22,240
I think going back to multi-generational, you know,
910
00:44:22,240 --> 00:44:25,640
my children need to take the responsibility
911
00:44:25,640 --> 00:44:27,080
of taking care of me.
912
00:44:27,080 --> 00:44:28,840
I need to take the responsibility
913
00:44:28,840 --> 00:44:30,520
of taking care of my parents.
914
00:44:30,520 --> 00:44:32,560
To me, that's multi-generational.
915
00:44:32,560 --> 00:44:34,920
And then that can go out, that's in-house.
916
00:44:34,920 --> 00:44:36,560
And then there could be an outhouse form
917
00:44:36,560 --> 00:44:38,440
of that multi-generational care,
918
00:44:38,440 --> 00:44:42,960
which we're talking about is open that up to people
919
00:44:42,960 --> 00:44:46,000
outside of your familial, you know.
920
00:44:47,480 --> 00:44:48,480
And then there's a family.
921
00:44:48,480 --> 00:44:51,640
And I don't know, what's your thoughts on that?
922
00:44:51,640 --> 00:44:57,720
- One thing is, I think I look at this slightly different
923
00:44:57,720 --> 00:45:01,320
than you do, but one thing is that many years ago,
924
00:45:01,320 --> 00:45:03,160
the United Nations declared the family
925
00:45:03,160 --> 00:45:05,560
as the cornerstone of civil society.
926
00:45:05,560 --> 00:45:07,920
It should be respected and supported.
927
00:45:07,920 --> 00:45:10,440
And so I think we all agree to that.
928
00:45:10,440 --> 00:45:13,760
And what I think about is that really,
929
00:45:13,760 --> 00:45:17,440
we started to see the trend back in the middle
930
00:45:17,440 --> 00:45:22,120
of the last century that people used to always
931
00:45:22,120 --> 00:45:23,840
live in multi-generational households.
932
00:45:23,840 --> 00:45:26,680
They grew up on farms that they needed everybody to work.
933
00:45:26,680 --> 00:45:27,880
- We used to put that on, yeah.
934
00:45:27,880 --> 00:45:29,160
That was a great example.
935
00:45:29,160 --> 00:45:30,080
- Yeah, the wall, yeah.
936
00:45:30,080 --> 00:45:31,080
- And then, and then,
937
00:45:31,080 --> 00:45:33,360
- And so we're there going, what's the wall to?
938
00:45:33,360 --> 00:45:34,680
(laughs)
939
00:45:34,680 --> 00:45:35,520
- John Boy.
940
00:45:35,520 --> 00:45:38,280
- But as we started to industrialize,
941
00:45:38,280 --> 00:45:40,760
and families started to go to make,
942
00:45:40,760 --> 00:45:42,120
you know, so they could make more money
943
00:45:42,120 --> 00:45:45,600
so that they could make it in this new society,
944
00:45:45,600 --> 00:45:48,040
we started saying that that was the norm,
945
00:45:48,040 --> 00:45:49,640
that there was something that was wrong
946
00:45:49,640 --> 00:45:50,760
if we were interdependent.
947
00:45:50,760 --> 00:45:52,720
We needed to be independent.
948
00:45:52,720 --> 00:45:54,640
I always call it the John Wayne mentality,
949
00:45:54,640 --> 00:45:56,400
like I don't need anybody else.
950
00:45:56,400 --> 00:45:59,880
So we reinforced that, you know, to be independent,
951
00:45:59,880 --> 00:46:01,280
that you needed your own home,
952
00:46:01,280 --> 00:46:04,920
you needed, you know, that was like success in America.
953
00:46:04,920 --> 00:46:07,600
And what's happened, which I love over the last,
954
00:46:07,600 --> 00:46:12,200
probably 25 or more years is that unfortunately,
955
00:46:12,200 --> 00:46:15,080
there'd been horrible things like the housing,
956
00:46:15,080 --> 00:46:20,080
bust and COVID that people, families back together,
957
00:46:20,080 --> 00:46:21,360
living under one roof.
958
00:46:21,360 --> 00:46:23,440
And everybody thought that they were gonna split up again
959
00:46:23,440 --> 00:46:25,160
as soon as that crisis was over.
960
00:46:25,160 --> 00:46:27,640
But in fact, the numbers of multi-generational households
961
00:46:27,640 --> 00:46:29,760
continued to increase.
962
00:46:29,760 --> 00:46:32,640
It didn't diminish after the housing bust,
963
00:46:32,640 --> 00:46:34,400
it didn't diminish after COVID.
964
00:46:34,400 --> 00:46:36,360
And when we surveyed the families,
965
00:46:36,360 --> 00:46:38,120
something like well over 80%,
966
00:46:38,120 --> 00:46:41,720
so they were gonna stay together after COVID,
967
00:46:41,720 --> 00:46:45,160
because if that had it worked, financially, caregiving,
968
00:46:45,160 --> 00:46:48,720
culturally connecting to their roots.
969
00:46:48,720 --> 00:46:51,400
So I think it's what we have to do is push against
970
00:46:51,400 --> 00:46:54,040
the societal norm that we don't need each other
971
00:46:54,040 --> 00:46:55,040
because we do.
972
00:46:55,040 --> 00:46:58,840
And bring up public health lens, right?
973
00:46:58,840 --> 00:47:01,520
Public health is all about creating the conditions, right?
974
00:47:01,520 --> 00:47:04,040
So how do we help create those conditions, right?
975
00:47:04,040 --> 00:47:08,760
Some of it is by right making it so that from an infrastructure perspective,
976
00:47:08,760 --> 00:47:11,400
right, we have communities that support
977
00:47:11,400 --> 00:47:14,200
intergenerational housing and housing stock that supports
978
00:47:14,200 --> 00:47:17,320
aging and place in older adults having homes
979
00:47:17,320 --> 00:47:19,680
that have design features and communities that have design features
980
00:47:19,680 --> 00:47:23,120
that enable them to be fully included as well as people of all ages
981
00:47:23,120 --> 00:47:24,120
to be included.
982
00:47:24,120 --> 00:47:25,200
That's the best part about inclusive design
983
00:47:25,200 --> 00:47:27,560
as it's not just for older adults, as for everyone.
984
00:47:27,560 --> 00:47:30,760
But then also thinking about the conditions, right?
985
00:47:30,760 --> 00:47:35,640
Including to support people who might be performing elder caregiving
986
00:47:35,640 --> 00:47:40,680
by looking at right the role of employers and how people are supported
987
00:47:40,680 --> 00:47:42,600
in doing that work.
988
00:47:42,600 --> 00:47:44,600
And then also looking at innovation, right?
989
00:47:44,600 --> 00:47:48,840
For people that are far away and caregiving far from a loved one.
990
00:47:48,840 --> 00:47:51,320
How do we have the technology that lets them have insight
991
00:47:51,320 --> 00:47:54,680
and makes it just easier for people to be in contact,
992
00:47:54,680 --> 00:47:57,320
connected and mobilizing resources?
993
00:47:57,320 --> 00:47:59,880
And so I think there's innovation across all three of those things
994
00:47:59,880 --> 00:48:03,480
that are happening and that can help create those conditions, right?
995
00:48:03,480 --> 00:48:08,360
Because we need, once again, the public health lens of creating conditions
996
00:48:08,360 --> 00:48:11,400
and making it nudges, behavior,
997
00:48:11,400 --> 00:48:13,400
just making things easier, smoothing the way,
998
00:48:13,400 --> 00:48:16,360
not making it so hard because I think one narrative that you just,
999
00:48:16,360 --> 00:48:20,840
you brought it up a few times is that it's difficult to try to put everything together
1000
00:48:20,840 --> 00:48:24,040
that people might need, whether it's yourself putting together things
1001
00:48:24,040 --> 00:48:26,760
for yourself, whether you're doing it with your family,
1002
00:48:26,760 --> 00:48:28,440
whether you're doing it with your chosen family.
1003
00:48:28,440 --> 00:48:32,520
It can be difficult to plan and execute, but there's,
1004
00:48:32,520 --> 00:48:35,080
like I said, I think resources on the way and people really working on it,
1005
00:48:35,080 --> 00:48:36,680
including us.
1006
00:48:36,680 --> 00:48:41,800
Yeah, and that's why I was going to go is that your two organizations are addressing,
1007
00:48:41,800 --> 00:48:49,160
you know, this whole idea about how we can best serve our senior population
1008
00:48:49,160 --> 00:48:54,520
and how we can best serve our senior population to fight loneliness
1009
00:48:54,520 --> 00:49:00,280
and all of the things that go along with that is, is one of the solutions is to bring
1010
00:49:00,280 --> 00:49:04,280
the intergenerational approach to it, bring in the young people.
1011
00:49:04,280 --> 00:49:10,600
And so that young people then begin to get this idea and this concept of how
1012
00:49:10,600 --> 00:49:14,920
what it means to honor your mother and your father, your grandparents,
1013
00:49:14,920 --> 00:49:18,840
and or just in general older people.
1014
00:49:18,840 --> 00:49:23,640
And there needs to be a respect for the different ages.
1015
00:49:23,640 --> 00:49:27,960
And then the seniors can bring so much, I've seen it over and over again,
1016
00:49:27,960 --> 00:49:35,320
I've seen seniors reaching back and down into the younger generations and bring all of the wisdom
1017
00:49:35,320 --> 00:49:41,320
that they have to the table and the younger generation can benefit from that, for sure.
1018
00:49:41,320 --> 00:49:48,680
So you've got a task at hand, you got the present and you've got the future voice.
1019
00:49:49,800 --> 00:49:54,840
Presently you're working on the intergenerational thing and other things I'm sure as well.
1020
00:49:54,840 --> 00:50:02,520
Where do you both see this conversation going into the future and what are some of the future
1021
00:50:02,520 --> 00:50:10,120
things that you are looking at and recognizing that we're going to be faced with, you know,
1022
00:50:10,120 --> 00:50:15,960
10, 15 years down the road? Because I'm at the tip of the baby boomer generation. I'm on the tail,
1023
00:50:15,960 --> 00:50:23,080
you know, I'm wagon the dog, if you will. I'm 67 years of age and you know,
1024
00:50:23,080 --> 00:50:31,240
it's the biggest population that we have. And so how are we going to dress this and as you're
1025
00:50:31,240 --> 00:50:36,600
bringing these concepts to the table currently, then what are some of the things you're looking at
1026
00:50:36,600 --> 00:50:45,800
for the future? Well, I'll just start absolutely. We are excited about looking at the future
1027
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and of aging, right? And that involves so many things connecting health,
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spend, and we'll spend. And many of the things we've talked about today are about how do we better
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integrate our home, taking care of our health and the care we might need. And how do we do that in
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new configurations that might help bake it more affordable, more accessible, and really meet our
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needs better while at the same time, you know, addressing the intergenerational nature of aging, right?
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It's about people across the life course. And so we're looking at different types of innovation
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on that. And as I mentioned, connected care. So, right, looking at the home is a side of care that
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brings together, right, how people get care, right? And not all of its health care, right? It's some
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of its care for activities daily, living some of its care for just how you're living your life,
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social care, how are you connecting with people? And sort of looking at new ways to bring all of
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00:51:43,400 --> 00:51:48,760
that together with the home at the center. And so technology will be a huge enabler of that. And
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00:51:48,760 --> 00:51:53,880
we're taking a look at how all of the technology that's on both the health side and on the consumer side
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00:51:53,880 --> 00:52:01,480
might fit together in ways that integrate and also sort of build on the models that we have
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00:52:01,480 --> 00:52:06,040
for being able to afford it, including those in health care and other types of insurance. So we
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00:52:06,040 --> 00:52:11,560
will be talking about that more later this year. And we remain very excited about that as we look at how
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we support older adults and caregivers as people are aging. Thank you.
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00:52:17,480 --> 00:52:24,360
Well, I agree. We're also focused on intergenerational living because it's consumer driven.
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00:52:24,360 --> 00:52:31,320
It's what people want. So I think in the future, in my ideal future, we would do a way with
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00:52:31,320 --> 00:52:37,960
gated senior only communities and that we would incentivize people and make it possible for them to live
1046
00:52:37,960 --> 00:52:46,920
in age-integrated communities and see the value and the benefit of that. And I think a part of it is
1047
00:52:46,920 --> 00:52:51,480
when we think about age-cigricated, I guess I've been thinking more lately about age-sellerated,
1048
00:52:51,480 --> 00:52:57,480
accelerated age-sellerated. That's any time we're looking at an issue in this country, we need to
1049
00:52:57,480 --> 00:53:02,520
look at it with that intergenerational lens, whether it's concern about the environment, whether it's
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00:53:02,520 --> 00:53:07,320
concern about the discourse in the country right now and the conversations that we're having.
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00:53:07,320 --> 00:53:12,760
It's making sure that we're looking at it from that age perspective. We don't have to tackle
1052
00:53:12,760 --> 00:53:17,800
transportation for older people. We need to tackle transportation for all ages. We don't need to
1053
00:53:17,800 --> 00:53:22,520
tackle hunger for older people. We need to tackle it for all ages. So how do we come up with those
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00:53:22,520 --> 00:53:28,280
intergenerational solutions? So we're going to continue to advocate using that lens and
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00:53:28,280 --> 00:53:35,320
elevating examples that show how powerful it can be. Well said. Lauren, if some of our listeners would
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00:53:35,320 --> 00:53:44,200
like to learn more about the milk and institute, how would they best do that to dive in and see
1057
00:53:44,200 --> 00:53:48,360
what you guys are doing? And then also if they want to connect with you, what's the best way to do that?
1058
00:53:49,960 --> 00:53:56,200
Absolutely. So we're milkandinstitute.org and we have our publications on our website. We also,
1059
00:53:56,200 --> 00:54:00,040
it's really exciting. We have credible flagship events that bring together experts and leaders
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00:54:00,040 --> 00:54:06,600
talking about timely issues and across all different areas. And they're actually available on our
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00:54:06,600 --> 00:54:14,040
website. So you can listen to Penny Pennington from Edward Jones talk about retirement with an
1062
00:54:14,040 --> 00:54:20,520
incredible array of other experts on the stage, including from TAA and Trans America. So you can watch
1063
00:54:20,520 --> 00:54:25,240
it. It's right there for you. And so folks can check that out. And then if you want to get in touch with
1064
00:54:25,240 --> 00:54:32,200
me, my email is l. Lauren Dunning at milkandinstitute.org. Always enjoy interacting with folks. And thank you
1065
00:54:32,200 --> 00:54:36,920
for having me here today. Yeah, absolutely. And Donna, how about you? What's the best way to connect?
1066
00:54:36,920 --> 00:54:43,480
The best way is to check out our website at gu.org. We try to keep it simple. Just gu for generation
1067
00:54:43,480 --> 00:54:49,880
genited.org. And on the website, you'll find out you'll learn about our learning communities that
1068
00:54:49,880 --> 00:54:54,200
usually meet quarterly and they connect people around the country. We have an intergenerational
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00:54:54,200 --> 00:54:59,640
program database that you can search by your city, by your state, what programs there are. I'd
1070
00:54:59,640 --> 00:55:04,840
really encourage people who are very interested in this to think about the global conference because
1071
00:55:04,840 --> 00:55:10,200
it only happens every two years. And it'll be in Louisville. So we tried to make a kind of a central
1072
00:55:10,200 --> 00:55:16,360
area in June. And there are ways that you can ask questions on the website so that we make sure that
1073
00:55:16,360 --> 00:55:22,200
we connect you with the right person at generation United. So that's usually just gu@gu.org.
1074
00:55:22,200 --> 00:55:27,880
And my emails on the website as well. But I always like to say I work with an amazing group of people.
1075
00:55:27,880 --> 00:55:34,440
I'm usually not the one that knows the most. Yeah, well, the mark of a smart woman is not that she
1076
00:55:34,440 --> 00:55:39,880
knows everything, but she knows where to find out about everything. That's what I always say about
1077
00:55:39,880 --> 00:55:45,800
myself is the same thing. Nobody knows everything, but that's the mark of a smart person.
1078
00:55:45,800 --> 00:55:51,400
Yeah. So mark it's been a joy to thank you. And thank you.
1079
00:55:51,400 --> 00:55:56,440
It literally has. And, you know, so we've been talking about fighting and combating against
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00:55:56,440 --> 00:56:01,400
loneliness amongst our senior population and the solution that you're bringing forward in both
1081
00:56:01,400 --> 00:56:09,640
of your organizations is intergenerational connectivity and connecting the generations to each other
1082
00:56:09,640 --> 00:56:17,800
and that will supply some of the and provide a solution to some of the loneliness that seniors
1083
00:56:17,800 --> 00:56:23,320
are up against in their daily lives because we all want in the in the end, we all want to live our
1084
00:56:23,320 --> 00:56:30,760
best lives possible. Whatever that means to you. So ladies, thank you so much for being on aging
1085
00:56:30,760 --> 00:56:38,760
today and your influence is being felt across our great land. And we want to say thank you for all
1086
00:56:38,760 --> 00:56:45,400
of the efforts that the milk and institute is doing and generations united is doing to make all of our
1087
00:56:45,400 --> 00:56:51,160
lives better each and every day. So thank you for being on aging today. Thank you, Mark.
1088
00:56:51,160 --> 00:56:56,040
Thank you. All right. This is Mark Turnbull, your host. And I want to thank all of you for tuning
1089
00:56:56,040 --> 00:57:02,120
into aging today. And as a reminder, we are the podcast where together we're exploring the many
1090
00:57:02,120 --> 00:57:10,200
options to aging on your terms. Join us every Monday when we release a new conversation on aging
1091
00:57:10,200 --> 00:57:17,080
today to your favorite podcast channel. And I want to leave you with this. We're all in the process
1092
00:57:17,080 --> 00:57:22,760
of aging. And as we age, we really are better together. So stay young at heart.
1093
00:57:22,760 --> 00:57:35,800
♪ You make me feel so young ♪ You make me feel like spring has sprung ♪ In every time I see your face, I'm such a happy
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00:57:35,800 --> 00:57:46,360
individual ♪ A moment that you speak ♪ I want to go play hide and seek ♪ I want to go and bounce the moon
1095
00:57:46,360 --> 00:57:58,920
♪ Just like a toy balloon, well you and I are just like a bulletots ♪ Running across the metal ♪
1096
00:57:58,920 --> 00:58:08,200
♪ Bigger, a lot, so forget me not so you made me feel so young ♪ You made me feel there are songs to be sung ♪
1097
00:58:08,200 --> 00:58:15,480
♪ There will still be wrong and wonderful things to be found ♪ And even when I'm old and grey ♪
1098
00:58:15,480 --> 00:58:22,200
You've been listening to Aging Today where together we explore the options to aging on your terms.
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00:58:22,200 --> 00:58:28,920
Join Mark and his guest next week for another lively discussion on proactively aging on your terms,
1100
00:58:28,920 --> 00:58:34,760
connecting you to the professional advice of his special guests with the goal of creating better days
1101
00:58:34,760 --> 00:58:41,000
throughout the aging process. Your host has been Mark Turnbull. Join Mark and his guest every week on
1102
00:58:41,000 --> 00:58:46,460
aging today your podcast to exploring your options for aging on your terms.
1103
00:58:46,460 --> 00:58:49,760
♫ And even when I was in grade
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00:58:49,760 --> 00:58:53,640
♫ You make me feel the way I feel today
1105
00:58:53,640 --> 00:58:57,620
♫ 'Cause you make me feel so
1106
00:58:57,620 --> 00:59:01,140
♫ You make me feel so
1107
00:59:01,140 --> 00:59:06,360
♫ You make me feel so young
1108
00:59:06,360 --> 00:59:08,760
♫ So young
1109
00:59:08,760 --> 00:59:11,700
♫ You make me feel so young
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00:59:11,700 --> 00:59:14,620
♫ You make me feel so young
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00:59:14,620 --> 00:59:17,040
[music]