American society has been aging rather steadily from it’s beginning if we judge on the basis of the usual measures (i.e., the rise in the median age of the population and the rise in the percent of the population aged 65 years and over). The rate of aging has varied over the decades, primarily as a result of fluctuations in the rate of decline in the birth rate.
Many areas of public life will be greatly affected by the aging of the baby-boom followers. The baby-boom followers, the very large numbers of children born between 1946 and 1964, begin to turn age 60 about 2006 and age 65 about 2011. The current concern about the aging of our population comes from three new conditions, linked closely to one another. The first condition is that the proportion of elderly in the total population is now substantial, about 13 percent. The second is that the number of elderly and the rate of aging are expected soon to increase steeply, with implications for a vast increase in the numbers of persons requiring special services and requiring formal and informal care. The third is recognition of the possible implications of an aging society for the whole range of our social institutions, from education and family to business and government. For these very reasons our government had to do something in 1965 to help.
Older Americans Act of 1965 created The Administration on Aging, which is the only federal agency devoted exclusively to the concerns and potential of older Americans. Some of the concerns of this agency included the following for elders:
1. Adequate income
2. Good physical and mental health
3. Suitable, affordable housing
4. Access to restorative services for elders in institutions
5. Equal opportunities to employment
6. Retirement with dignity
7. Meaningful existence
8. Efficient, coordinated community services
9. Conduct and dissemination of relevant research
Help for the elderly under the Older Americans Act of 1965 is provided through programs...