New Horizons Early 09

VILLAGE CARE OF NEW YORK EARLY 2009

NewHorizons EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Engaged Aging BY ARTHUR Y. WEBB, PRESIDENT AND CEO

LOUIS J. GANIM MANAGING EDITOR BRETT C VERMILYEA —————— PUBLISHED BY VILLAGE CARE OF NEW YORK 154 CHRISTOPHER STREET NEW YORK, NEW YORK 10014 CHAIRMAN DAVID H. SIDWELL PRESIDENT & CEO ARTHUR Y. WEBB WWW.VCNY.ORG (212) 337-5600

Researchers at the University of Iowa recently studied civic engagement as a retirement role for older adults. In their definition of “civic engagement,” they included both volunteering and continued working for at least one day a week. They found that seniors have these pursuits because they want to contribute to their communities and they want to stay socially active. Even if they continue to work in a certain capacity, it’s often not just for the money. You can read more about the civic engagement research in this issue of New Horizons, and you will also find some bundled articles dealing with the continued presence of older adults in the work force. You’ll hear from seniors, who talk about work’s “whys and wherefores” as they age, and from experts who look at the needs of seniors wanting to stay active — spiritually, psychologically and from a financial perspective. Having productive aging opportunities is becoming more and more important because we have large numbers of Baby Boomers just now starting to enter the traditional retirement ages. These are people in perhaps the most educated and fit older generation this country has ever produced. And it’s likely they are going to want to stay engaged. In Village Care’s SeniorChoices programs, we see examples all the time of the benefits of engaged, productive and purposeful aging. It can be someone like Bob Kelly, who’s featured in this issue and whose wigs you’ve certainly seen either on television or Broadway, still working at 85. Or it can be someone less heralded like some of the volunteers who lend a hand at Village Nursing Home. If we can keep older adults in the work force in some fashion, for example, it can’t help but be good for the economy, and the workplace. Production would be enhanced and we would continue to have the benefit of their experience as well as their institutional knowledge. By making sure we have ample opportunities, too, for seniors to volunteer and contribute their time and services, we can supplement paid workers. Meanwhile, retirees themselves will benefit from continued civic engagement and contributing to their communities. It is a classic “win/win” situation.

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F E AT U R E S

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VOLUME 3, NUMBER 2

8 The Makeover of Bob Kelly BY JESS ESPINOSA

A BROADWAY A LEGEND AND 46TH & TEN RESIDENT

12 Who’s Afraid of Edward Albee? BY JESS ESPINOSA

46TH & TEN ACTING GROUP PERFORMS FOR A VERY SPECIAL GUEST

16 Retirement Redefined

BY LUCAS MANN

AS BABY BOOMERS ENTER THEIR GOLDEN YEARS, SOCIETY RETHINKS THE CONCEPT OF RETIREMENT

20 They’re Still At It

BY BRETT C VERMILYEA

WHY FOLKS OVER 50 ARE THE FASTEST-GROWING SEGMENT OF THE WORK FORCE

28 Opting Out And Back In BY BRETT C VERMILYEA

USING A SECOND CAREER TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE

In the News D E PA RT M E N T S

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“Ask Medicare” Website W Helps Caregivers; T Tips on How to Exercise Safely; Healthiness in Old Age Requires Planning; When Words W Get Old: Ageist Language; V Village Care honored by SAGE; VA V DHC Celebrates Anniversary

Senior Perspective

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Elderspeak

Opinion

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Civic Engagement; Community Response to Dementia

The Last Word W Whence Coney Island

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In the News

“Ask Medicare” Website Helps Caregivers

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he Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has unveiled a new online initiative aimed at educating caregivers of seniors and people with disabilities. The new website — Ask Medicare — was developed by CMS with the help of several partner organizations. Ask Medicare features insights from caregiving professionals as well as representatives of the health care industry. The consumer-friendly Internet resource provides Medicare beneficiaries and their caregivers with a wealth of tools and materials designed to help them make informed health care decisions. Partners with CMS in developing the website included AARP, the Alzheimer’s Association, the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys and the National Association of Professional Geriatric Care Managers. The website can be found at www. medicare.gov/caregivers. “This truly is a one-stop site that will help lighten the burden on caregivers,” said Linda Aufderhaar, a licensed clinical social worker who is the past-president of the geriatric care managers group. 2 NE W HOR IZONS | E a r l y 20 0 9

“It was inspiring to see so many organizations come together, all united by a mission to help protect our nation’s most vulnerable citizens. This website will help put caregivers in touch with the experts and organizations that can help them address a myriad of challenges and concerns.” Many Baby Boomers today are a “sandwich generation,” wedged between the cost of caring for their children and their aging parents. There are nearly 45 million Americans — or one in five adults — who provide unpaid care to a loved one. This care is valued at a staggering $306 billion each year. That nearly doubles the amount spent on home care and nursing home services combined ($158 billion). CMS representatives hope Ask Medicare helps many of these people recognize their own role in the caregiver industry. “Many caregivers don’t even think of themselves as a caregiver in the traditional sense. All they know is that a friend or family member needs their help,” said CMS Acting Administrator Kerry Weems. “In addition to raising awareness

of Medicare benefits, we hope this site actually helps many of these caregivers self-identify. Their work is exhausting but essential — and often goes unrecognized.” Designed by and for caregivers, Ask Medicare seeks to shed light on the national insurance program by streamlining resources and bringing together several organizations that specialize in issues impacting the senior population and people with disabilities. The website — which links to a number of caregiver directories and advocacy organizations — will feature a bi-monthly electronic newsletter filled with stories about caregivers and how they responded to industry challenges. Medicare leaders also hope the site will clear up many misconceptions over what the federal health care program does and does not cover. According to a 2003 Kaiser Family Foundation/Harvard School of Public Health poll, for example, 39 percent of individuals aged 18 and older erroneously believe that Medicare covers the cost of extended long-term care, such as nursing home care and home care.

Tips on How to Exercise Safely Newswise — As Baby Boomers and older adults try to keep active and exercise, it’s important that they keep in mind that their bodies are not as young as they used to be and not overdo it. In 2007, more than 149,000 people between the ages of 45 and 64 were treated in emergency rooms, clinics and doctors’ offices for injuries related to exercise and exercise equipment, according to the U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission. “When you are 50, you may injure your body more easily than when you were 20,” says James Keeney, MD, an orthopaedic surgeon and member of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) Leadership Fellows Program. “Joints, tissues and muscles may not be as flexible as they used to be. So as you get older, you need to take extra steps to protect yourself from injuries when you exercise.” The AAOS offers the following tips to help boomers prevent exercise-related injuries: * Check with your doctor before beginning any exercise program. A physician will make sure your heart is in good condition and can make recommendations based on your current fitness level. This is especially important if you’ve had a previous injury. * Always warm up and stretch before exercising. Cold muscles are more likely to get injured, so warm up with some light exercise for at least three to five minutes. * Avoid being a “weekend warrior.” Moderate exercise every day is healthier and less likely to result in injury than heavy activity only on weekends. * Don’t be afraid to take lessons. An instructor can help ensure you’re using the proper form, which can prevent overuse injuries such as tendonitis and stress fractures. * Develop a balanced fitness program. Incorporate cardio, strength training and flexibility training to get a total body workout and prevent overuse injuries. Also, make sure to introduce new exercises gradually, so you don’t take on too much at once.

* Take calcium and Vitamin D supplements daily. * Listen to your body. As you age, you may not be able to do some of the activities that you did years ago. Pay attention to your body’s needs and abilities, and modify your workout accordingly. * Remember to rest. Schedule regular days off from exercise and rest when

tired. Baby boomers who exercise regularly are less likely to experience depression, weight gain, diabetes, high blood pressure and sleep disturbances, so it’s important to incorporate physical activity into your routine at any age. For more information about baby boomer exercise safety, you may visit http://www.orthoinfo.org.

Thriving in Old Age Requires Planning, Commitment If you plan to “thrive” when you are 65, you need to invest in your health decades earlier. A new study in a recent issue of The Journal of Gerontology finds that fewer than 10 percent of people aged 65-85 maintain exceptional emotional and physical health throughout their golden years. These so-called “thrivers” share specific behavioral and lifestyle characteristics that may hold the key to healthy aging, according to the study’s authors. “Important predictors of thriving were the absence of chronic illness, income over $30,000, having never smoked, and drinking alcohol in moderation,” said lead author Mark Kaplan of Portland State University. “We also found that people who had a positive outlook and lower stress levels were more likely to thrive in old age.” “Many of these factors can be modified when you are young or middleaged,” said co-author David Feeny of the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research. “While these findings may seem like common sense, now we have evidence about which factors contribute to exceptional health during retirement years.” This is the first research to evaluate which factors help older people maintain exceptional health over a long period of time. Most previous investigations have focused on factors that contribute to poor health, and they have made those determinations based

on one-time surveys. This study included 2,432 Canadian residents, aged 65-85, who filled out an extensive health survey every other year from 1994-2004. One measure asked people to rate their abilities in eight categories — vision, hearing, speech, ambulation, dexterity, emotion, cognition and pain. Thrivers were those who rated themselves as having no or only mild disability in all eight categories on at least five of the six surveys. If respondents reported moderate or severe disability on any of the six surveys, they were classified as nonthrivers. Just over half of the respondents started out as thrivers, but by the end of the ten years, only 8 percent of the respondents were considered thrivers. By the end of the study period, just under half (47 percent) of the respondents were classified as non-thrivers. The rest (36 percent) had either died or were institutionalized (9 percent). “Even though the study was conducted in Canada, the findings are certainly applicable to the United States and other industrialized nations,” said co-author Dr. Bentson McFarland of the Oregon Health & Science University. “Our population here in the United States is similar demographically to Canada’s, and both health care systems rely on the same underlying technologies.” The study was funded by a grant from the National Institute on Aging.

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When Words Get Old: Ageist Language

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Newswise — The wrong language — denigrating older workers, even if only subtly — can have an outsized negative impact on employee productivity and corporate profits, says Dr. Bob McCann, an associate professor of management communication at the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business. Demographic trends point to a more age-diverse work force, where worker shortages are imminent. According to McCann, older workers will play an increasingly important role in filling these shortages, and both management and workers will need to prepare themselves for this increasingly age diversified workplace. One often overlooked way to prepare for these new trends is by recognizing that the language we use at work can have severe repercussions for older workers. “Our research in the USA and across Asia has clearly shown links between ageist language and reported health outcomes as broad as reduced life satisfaction, lowered self-esteem and even depression,” said McCann. Given that people derive so much of their identity from work, the workplace is a particularly fertile and problematic area for ageist communication. Older workers often view their jobs as a tremendous source of pride and hope to continue working well past their early sixties. McCann feels that how we communicate with these older workers may go a long way toward creating a satisfying job experience. “It is quite plausible that retirement decisions may be hastened and work satisfaction affected by intergenerational talk at work,” said McCann, who worked on studies that show ageist language has played a major role in agediscrimination lawsuits. For American corporations, age discrimination can lead to significant expenses. In 2006, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission received nearly 17,000 charges of age discrimination, resolving more than 14,000 and recovering $51.5 million in monetary benefits. Costs from lawsuit settlements and judgments can run into the millions, most notably with the $250 million paid by the California Public Employees’ Retirement System under a settlement agreement a few years ago. For the plaintiff, the defendant’s ageist comments typically are perceived as clear evidence of the company’s discriminatory intent toward older workers. Defendants, by contrast, generally view these same ageist comments as “stray remarks.” Age-related comments such as “the old woman,” “that old goat,” “too long on the job,” “old and tired,” “a sleepy kind of guy with no pizzazz,” “he had bags under his eyes,” and he is “an old fart” are just some of the hundreds of ageist comments McCann unearthed in his analysis of age-discrimination lawsuits. Such language has become so common in age-discrimination cases that some groups of ageist comments even have their own names. “Young blood” remarks are perhaps the best illustration, including such examples as: “We need young blood around here,” “Let’s make room for some MBAs,” or “Let’s bring in the young guns.”

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SAGE — Services and Advocacy for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual & Transgender Elders — has honored Village Care of New York with the 2008 Community Service Award. The award was presented by Michael Adams, SAGE’s executive director, at the organization’s 30th anniversary celebration held at the Metropolitan Pavilion in Chelsea. Arthur Y. Webb, Village Care’s president and chief executive officer, accepted the award on behalf of Village Care. SAGE’s Community Service Award is presented to an individual or an organization that, through professional and volunteer service, advances the cause of the LGBT older community. The award also recognizes those individuals who provide specific services and assistance to LGBT seniors, thereby helping them to achieve and maintain quality of life. The anniversary dinner culminated SAGE’s Fourth Annual Conference on LGBT Aging. Village Care is a SAGE sponsor and was a conference “leader.” This year’s conference, entitled “It’s About Time: LGBT Aging in a Changing World” dealt with a variety of issue that the older LGBT community faces each day. Village Care provided information on care options for the LGBT community as well as presented a series of sessions on its most recent findings. Jan Zimmerman, director of Village Care’s day treatment programs presented Long-term Care Services for Village Care’s President and CEO Arthur Y. Webb accepts 2008 LBGT Older Adults. Community Service Award from SAGE Executive Director Michael Adams. “At Village Care, we train all of our program staff members to meet the needs of the LGBT community,” Zimmerman said. “The training, which is provided by the SAGE administration, include health needs, environmental issues and sensitivity training. All of our senior care programs are LGBT friendly.” The conference was held for three days at the New York Marriott at the Brooklyn Bridge in October.

© DONNA F. ACETO 2008

Village Care honored by SAGE

Village Adult Day Center Celebrates Anniversary

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illage Adult Day Health Center recently celebrated its 10th anniversary with a stroll down memory lane. Program participants, staff members and guests attended an anniversary lunch that featured a slide show of photos from past years. Village Adult Day was one of two such facilities opened by Village Care in the late 1990s. Part of the SeniorChoices array of programs and care for older adults, the centers are free-standing, state-ofthe-art facilities, providing comfort, safety and indepen-

dence through a full range of nursing, nutritional, case management and rehabilitative services along with social activities. “We are proud to say that many of our clients here today were charter clients ten years ago,” Herb Fillmore, executive vice president for SeniorChoices at Village Care, said. Mr. Fillmore told attendees about plans for future programs that will be part of Village Care’s SeniorChoices. “Village Care has always been at the forefront of care for older adults. We continue to develop new programs that are built around you and your family’s individual needs.”

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S E N I O R PERSPECTIVE

Have you ever been a victim of “elderspeak,” where people talk condescendingly or childishly to you because of your age?

HERBERT PECKHAM, West Village Many times when I go to the local grocery store or any other local merchant, the clerks, who tend to be much younger in age, act as if I am annoying or in the way. They will try to rush me through my decision process on what to purchase. I ignore it. There is enough aggravation in this world, and I don’t need to contribute to that. I believe this behavior is directly related to attitudes of most New Yorkers, who just don’t have any time for anyone else but themselves.

NANCY FONG, Greenwich Village I don’t usually get that treatment because I don’t look my age. I will say that I do see it all around me, and it makes me feel sad. It is disturbing to see people that have lived through so much and people who are responsible for making this world successful as it is to be treated as if they don’t matter. I honestly don’t recall disrespecting my elders when I was younger, and I really hope that I don’t ever become a victim of “elderspeak.”

KARL C. LAUB, West Village As a semi-retired man in my seventies, I work with many young people who call me “old man” or “papi chulo.” They do speak to me in a condescending way, and quite frankly I take advantage of it and have some fun. I mean if someone feels comfortable waiting on me hand and foot because I am older, and all I have to do is accept them speaking to me in a different manner, why not? Honestly, I feel most younger people that speak this way do not mean any harm, they just feel that for some reason that we have become incompetent. A quick message to my co-workers: Please don’t stop bringing me delicious meals and doing my chores, because I can’t possibly cook for myself.

CONNIE PRESTIA, Greenwich Village The crowd that I usually associate with does not partake in this act of elderspeaking. I can say that it sounds rather disrespectful, and I do know that if I was a victim of it, I would not hesitate to let the person know that they are doing it, and let them know that they are disrespecting me as a person. All that I can say for those younger folks who might be guilty of this, is that they will be older one day too, and they will get what’s coming to them.

THERESA PIZZO, Chelsea I have been a victim of it, and it is a sign of no respect for the older population. My normal course of action is to ignore the person and make them realize that they are not worth my time. I have accomplished a lot in my life and I feel I deserve the same respect that I got 20 years ago. 7

The Makeover of Bob Kelly

“I was stupid, that’s why!”

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hat is the simple explanation that 85-yearold Bob Kelly, a resident of The Village at 46th & Ten, has for his lack of formal education. Growing up in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn in the 1920s, he hated going to school, and he played hooky a lot, and for this he got a good licking from his parents. To become the recognized legendary Broadway wig maker that he is now — against whom other wig makers are measured Jess Espinosa — was not even a dot in the far off future in his young imagination. Kelly’s father, a native Brooklynite, was a trolley car motorman, and his mother was a hairdresser. As a result of Kelly’s aversion for school, he quit after the seventh grade and worked in a neighborhood grocery store in the mid-1930s, then signed up with the National Guard. After training in Brooklyn, he was sent to Burlington,

Vermont, and then to the jungles of New Guinea. “When you are as young as I was, it was kind of fun,” he recalled. When he came home, he worked for about a year doing odd jobs, such as driving trucks and working for Standard Oil, filling small cans of oil and earning a dollar an hour. He soon got tired of that, and, on a whim, he enrolled in a beauty school. “I don’t know why I went to a beauty school,” he said. Then he started “fooling around” with wigs. His first job was with the owner of a string of beauty parlors on 57th Street. Kelly’s big break came when he worked for a man named Ira Sands who made wigs for the Metropolitan Opera. “I learned everything, got my whole education practically from him,” he said. He had the opportunity to work for famous singers like Robert Merrill, Jan Pearce, Risë Stevens and Richard Tucker. He had found his niche in life. In 1958, after ten years as Sands’s apprentice, Kelly quit and opened his own business. Thus was born Bob Kelly Wig Creations, and then Bob Kelly Cosmetics ten years later. His first Broadway work was for a show called “Good Soup” with Mildred Natwick. That was in 1960. From then on, it was one Broadway show after another. Some include “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum,” “High Spirits,” “The Rothschilds,” “King Richard III,” “Chicago,” “42nd Street” and “Beauty and the Beast,” as well as the original productions of “South Pacific” and “Carousel.” These days, his small shop on West 46th Street is a beehive of activity as his staff of 15 prepares wigs for shows like “Legally Blonde,” “Shrek,” “Little Mermaid,” “The Lion King” and “Mary Poppins,” with shelves full of wood blocks identified by the character’s or the actor’s name. “Saturday Night Live,” one of the most popular and long-running television shows, has been Bob Kelly Wig Creation’s client since its first episode on October 11, 1975, creating and designing the wigs worn by each cast member in each skit, spanning a total of more than 600 episodes. The likes of Gilda Radner, Dan Ackroyd, Chevy Chase and John Belushi from the original cast to Fred Armisen, Will Forte, Bill Hader, Darrell Hammond and Amy Poehler from the current season have been bewigged by Bob Kelly and

his crew. In a recent episode, Poehler and guest performer Tina Fey did a widely watched opening skit in which they impersonated Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin, respectively. Their wigs were by Bob Kelly. “SNL,” relying on late-breaking news for laughs, demands much from its production and creative crews, of which Bob Kelly’s is part. It is not unusual for changes to be made minutes before the show airs live at 11:30 p.m., necessitating late-night work for the wig makers and hairstylists…and its owner, until recently. In early 2008, Kelly was in the shop when he got ill, fell and passed out. At that time, he was living with his daughter Tracy in her 4th floor walkup apartment, and on Friday and Saturday nights, when the shop is busy preparing for the “SNL” show, he would sleep on a couch in the backroom. His condition after the fall, on top of his triple bypass operation in 1989 and pacemaker operation in January 2008, required a radical change in his living and working conditions. Upon his doctor’s advice, Kelly has at long last drastically cut down his work schedule. To add to that, walking up his daughter’s 4th floor apartment was no longer advisable. His doctors advised his moving to a place where he would have some assistance. An online search led Kelly’s other daughter, Barbara, to The Village at 46th & Ten. After visiting, Kelly and his two daughters unanimously expressed approval of the place, and in April, Kelly became a resident. “I like the people, I have my meals with them in the dining room, and I find many intelligent people there,” he said. Kelly continues to run the wig shop that has become a mainstay of Broadway and “SNL,” with the able assistance of Bill Urban, the shop manager who has been working with him for 52 years, and Margaret Mettles, director of finance, who has been around for eight years. The women who make the wigs, who were inexperienced when they came on board, can now do the whole intricate process of producing a hairpiece — from making a pattern, drawing a hairline, ventilating, sewing, preparing a lace front — with minimal supervision. However, the process itself has gone through very little change. Although some wigs found on the market today are made in China by machine,

“The oldest and most reputable wig maker in New York.”

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using synthetic or yak hair, this isn’t the case for the wellrespected Bob Kelly W Wig Creations. A traditional wigmaker, Kelly continues to make wigs by hand and use 100-percent human hair, imported from developing countries where women sell their hair to make a living. Certain styles of wigs are re-used and refashioned. A wig can cost as much as $2,300. Having coiffed and brushed and set wigs on the heads of hundreds of famous people, meeting some of them on a perr sonal level seems unavoidable. Three of Kelly’s most memorable celebrities were Gypsy Rose Lee, Ethel Merman and Mary Martin, whom he considered his friends. When Hal Holbrook played Mark T Twain on Broadway, his hairpiece and facial hair were Bob Kelly creations. Alan King, for whom Kelly made a wig when the comedian appeared on the “Ed Sullivan Show,” was memorable for another reason — he gave a $10 tip, something unthinkable from an actor. These above-the-title names, Kelly said, “did not make me feel any different, I always felt I belonged.” Bob Kelly has had a full life. He has been widowed once (and is once-divorced). Of two sons and two daughters, his daughter Tracy T has followed his footsteps into the wig business and daughter Barbara has been a makeup artist for movies and TV. V Kelly has gained an impeccable reputation in the art of wig-making, so much so that his company is considered the “leading theatrical hair and makeup company” and he has been referred to as “the oldest and most reputable wig maker in New York.” Y Kelly’s doctor has made him swear off his trademark big cigars, which all his Broadway clients recognize. Those who work with him say he’ll still occasionally sneak a puff or two. He has hobnobbed with some famous people and has started the careers of a young generation of wigmakers. One of them, Maurice Neuhaus, said in an interr view, “If you want to become one of the best, you have to learn from the best.” The Bob Kelly W Wig Creations catalog lists the names of his clients, a virtual Who’s Who of theater, movie, music and television stars, spanning many generations. For a boy who once thought of himself as being not so smart, he certainly has gone a long way. ! 10 NEW H O

 

 

We’re here for you.

Who’s Afraid of Edward Albee?

M BY JESS ESPINOSA

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edea had a sore throat, and she was worried. When she faces her Greek chorus in two weeks, she does not want them to outshout her or to out-sing her. That would be a big fat Greek tragedy. She abstained from talking, drank a lot of liquid, took some medications with Greek-sounding names, and had plenty of rest. By sheer will power, Medea, or Peggy Keating in real life, recovered, because, well, the show must go on. And it did. When the imaginary curtain rose in the dining room of The Village at 46th & Ten, Keating and the other members of The Village Players were ready to show their audience the fruits of three months of intense rehearsal and preparation, accompanied by passion, dedication and hard work. They’ve come a long way from the group’s early start three years ago.

s catche Albee erman d r a dw Silv LEFT: E ” . Ruth FROM t 46th & Ten rse for “Lost. a a e h w a sho ia Husar re al histor y n or oph and S an during a l Swif t ae lm h e ic S sM Ruth irector D . e is exerc Goldberg. nice n a d Ja

A few years ago, Keating had just moved to 46th & Ten, Village Care of New York’s senior living residence, and was facing an uncertain change in her life. Having had the notion of an acting career in her younger days, she thought joining a drama group would revive her spirit, but there was no such group. She confided this to her new friend, Ruth Silverman, who challenged her: Why not start one? With the help of another resident, Ruth Selman, who had some theater background, and with the help of Claudia Teller, the residence’s recreation and activities director, they invited other residents, and they came. Some who had done some acting wanted to share their experience; others who had secretly imagined themselves performing saw an opportunity to see if they really had it in them, and still others thought it would be

a fun thing to do on lazy afternoons. At first, the two Ruths and Keating took turns directing, but, as they described it, the results were “chaotic.” When Selman’s friend, theater director Evalyn Baron, dropped by to give some acting tips, the group liked her so much that she was hired to be their acting coach. Members of the group started getting together to read plays, thus awakening, and satisfying, their inner DeNiros and Streeps. The Village Players was born. “They are very remarkable when you remember that they are dealing with hearing loss, vision issues and movement problems,” said Teller. After coaching the group for a year, Baron announced that she was leaving to become a theater director in a prestigious Virginia theater, and she brought Michael Swift and Janice Goldberg to the atten-

tion of Teller as potential substitutes. With Swift and Goldberg’s theater experience and complementary strengths, the fit was perfect. Swift and Goldberg put the seniors through a rigid but fun regimen of exercises, starting with breathing exercises to warm up and get the class focused and relaxed. The other exercises seemed outright silly, such as “the swoosh” in which actors make a swooshing sound as they pretend to pass at random an imaginary ball to the person next to them or the one across the room. Other activities were quite revelatory, including an oral history exercise where each person is asked to talk about such thought- and emotioninducing topics as first love, first job, wedding, children and other aspects and adventures of their lifetimes. All these exercises were meant “to get 13

their bodies moving, blood flowing, and concentration working” and “to have everyone get used to standing in front of an audience and for us to get to know the students,” according to Swift. “Memory is a muscle that needs exercising.” Each session ended with readings of plays written by known and unknown dramatists to test the members’ acting chops. Finally, they were ready, and the group proceeded to the next crucial step — selecting the plays to be performed. The criteria were: there would be parts for everybody, everybody could be actively involved and they would have a good time performing. Finally, the choices were narrowed down to the ones the actors liked the most, where they laughed the most or connected to the most. Five one-act plays were selected — by Mary Louise Wilson, Carol Hall, Earl Reimer, Wendy Wasserstein and one of Swift’s own. The resident cast would consist of Harry Davis, Warren Halliday, Sophia Husar, Peggy Keating, Lucille Rosenblum, Ruth Selman, Ruth Silverman and Marilyn Wohltman. Whether intentionally or not, four of the five oneact plays chosen have a real-life quality to them as they depict real-life situations common to men and women of a certain age, much like the men and women of a certain age who were going to enact them. “Lost” is about two friends going for a drive who, because of memory loss, confusion and lack of coordination, forgot the key, the water bottle, the shoes. “The Fairest Sex” depicts a couple that has lost interest in each other and yet still shares a passion for only one thing — sex. “Vacation” relates a plane trip taken by a still-active, still-in-love retired couple who witnessed with glee the games that the cheating man and woman across the aisle from them were playing with their respective spouses. “Golden Arches” is about a woman with a put-down remark ready for all occasions for her gentle, patient husband until a chance encounter with an old friend brought about a change. The fifth choice, “Medea,” is a modern-day spoof of the Greek tragedy with references to such un-Greek icons as the TV shows “Home Improvement” and “Designing Women,” which gave the cast a chance to overact, be silly and have fun. There was a feeling of excited anticipation as the audience, consisting of residents and staff of 46th & Ten and friends of the cast and directors, awaited the start of the performance. Seconds before the first play began, a slim, older, distinguished-looking man with very dark glasses came 14 NE W HOR IZONS | E a r l y 20 0 9

and quietly took his seat. He observed the performance raptly, applauded at the end of each play politely, but watched the proceedings unsmilingly, even while the rest of the audience was laughing at the funny lines. An astute resident recognized him to be Edward Albee, the famous playwright of award-winning Broadway dramas, who was Michael Swift’s guest. Albee’s enigmatic critique of The Village Players: “They played like Beckett.” Swift said, “It was cool that he was here.” So, this group’s motto could very well be, “Who’s Afraid of Edward Albee?” Definitely not these talented, youngat-heart troupers, who, when told of the presence of this important personage, just shrugged it off. Basking on the success of the performance, The Village Players have more and bigger plans, including having the members write their own scenes and monologues, and reading Tony-awardwinning full-length and classic plays. “My ultimate objective is to continue engaging the students and to put up poignant, relevant theater,” said Swift. Added Goldberg, “We will keep looking for works, bring in original plays and have more of an originally tailored class that directly comes from our creation. We will continue to read in class to keep their skills up.” Teller commented, “My hope for the future of our drama group is that they continue to have great fun and learn more about working together as actors. Hopefully, more and more of the residents would join. I do not have a long-term goal in mind because I believe that creative endeavors have a life of their own and should be allowed to grow naturally, not forced.” !

The 46-Ten Drama Club By Shep H. Greenberg My Building has a Drama Club. It meets every seventh day. And once a year they open up And put on a little Play. The Directors are real, not amateurs. They are active in the Arts. And they told their colleagues to come and see Our Players play their parts.

tor : m TOP Peggy senblu .” Direc ss. M FRO Davis, ucille Ro rches 2 the cla A L ry to s. Har ng and ion den Gol ins tr uct gh note ti “ a r e o u f s K o e r e a rs s th t giv rehe el Swif m read front u a l in h b Mic Rosen earses h e l e l i r Luc Davis ass. cl ry Har of t he

So, at this afternoon’s performance Some strangers came to watch. One looked a bit distinguished Raised the audience appearance a notch. By a Cast member, he was greeted. Who introduced herself and said. “Pray, tell, Sir, may I ask your name?” And was told “My friends, they call me Ed.” He seemed to enjoy the Drama Club efforts. He stayed right to the end. Applauded at the proper points. Then homeward did he wend. The Drama Group was very good But they might have been dismayed To have known beforehand that Edward Albee Had come to see them, did, and stayed. As it is, they met their goals. For the lines of which they read. They did their best, pleased their Directors, The Audience, and a man named “Ed”. © 2008. Reproduced with permission from the author. Greenberg is a resident at The Village at 46th & Ten.

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Retirement Redefined By Lucas Mann

They’re living longer. They’re more active. They’re engaged. They’re not their parents.

As the largest generation in American history enters its golden years, Baby Boomers finds themselves rethinking the whole concept of retirement.

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F

Forty years after Woodstock, the youth of the Baby Boom generation that once belted out “I hope I die before I get old” are currently facing retirement square in the eye. These Baby Boomers, all 79 million of them born between 1946 and 1964, are skidding closer and closer to that age when they are expected to ride into the sunset. The oldest of the Boomers turned 62 this year and became eligible to collect partial Social Security benefits. Groups like AARP and the National Council on Aging, as well as local organizations and government, are trying to figure out what the future will look like as the largest generation in history retires. That’s a question especially important in an economy with dwindling financial security and more foreclosed houses accumulating each day. But a better question to ask might be what does it mean to be retired? “Right now, we’re looking for a chang-

ing definition of the word retirement,” said Lucy de Haan, a spokesperson for the New York office of AARP. De Haan says that “2011 will be the year that the first Baby Boomers turn 65 and begin collecting full Social Security. Our studies tell us that they won’t be retiring in at all the way we’ve come to think of it.” There are a whole batch of issues that are raised by this new type of senior — in some cases one that cannot afford to retire, in other cases one that has accumulated wealth but still wishes to stay connected to the workplace, and in some cases both. “As Madison Avenue sells the concept of the Baby Boom generation with all this money, if we look at the actual demographics it’s quite different,” said Susan

Stamler, the director of policy and advocacy at United Neighborhood Houses of New York (UNH). Stamler deals with the reality of aging for many people who are not financially secure as they age and need both housing and social services, a segment of the population that will spike along with millions of Boomers marching toward the so-called “golden years.” “Many of [the Boomers] will be poor, or living with a limited income,” Stamler said. “And there will be those that will want to stay involved in the workplace, whether it’s paid or not. It is very hard to paint older adults. We have so much delineation of people in their youth, before 20, and then after they turn 60. But there’s 40 years in there and we don’t really delineate it. So we need to remember that this isn’t a monolithic community.” The oft-overlooked population of the aging Baby Boomer demographic are those that will need to depend on public housing and on city senior centers that have already suffered funding cuts nationally in the past six years. Cuts to such

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centers have particularly affected seniors in New York City. City Councilmember Maria del Carmen Arroyo, from District 17 in the Bronx, chairs the City Council Committee on Aging, and she has been frank about the inadequacies in the city’s facilities for seniors that will be exposed when many of the largest age group in history begin to need them. “Our senior centers have not been revamped since the early 1970s,” Arroyo said. “Baby Boomers, in particular, will be expecting a different level of service. I’m concerned that we won’t be able to meet those demands. I mean, these people are looking for more than bingo and a hot meal.” Arroyo pointed to the completely different world that Boomers have worked in — one with rising levels of responsibility for aging employees, as well as computer and Internet literacy. “[Boomers] are involved in the workplace at a higher level of technology,” Arroyo said. The New York City Department for the Aging recently released a concept paper concerning the modernization of services. Chris Miller, a spokesperson for DFTA, described the questions that his organization has begun to ask in their concept paper and are continuing to investigate. “We’re looking at our three core services,” Miller said. “There is our individual case management, our food distribution service and our senior centers. How do we prepare all of them for the seniors of tomorrow? To help do that we are partnering with ReServe.” ReServe is an organization that connects experienced older adults with stipend-paying jobs that challenge them to use their lifetime skills for the public good. ReServe brings a passion not only for the need to assist senior citizens, but for the importance of listening to and respecting an aging point of view in the workplace. The organization brings a philosophy of “social engagement,” placing older adults into vital, paying positions at non-profit and public agencies. By tapping into ReServe’s philosophy and the network of groups that they have been working with since their inception in 2005, DFTA is taking steps toward redefining the potential of New York City’s 18 NE W HOR IZONS | E a r l y 20 0 9

older adults. (Read more about ReServe on Page 28.) “We are allowing our new seniors to give back to the city,” Miller continued. “It is not traditional volunteering or work. We allow for a flexible schedule — our seniors aren’t working 40 hours a week.” The nuances of where “social engagement” fits in the spectrum of full time employment and volunteer service are being worked out by other organizations within New York and throughout the nation. “A lot of Boomers are looking for new ways to take their knowledge and give back,” said AARP’s de Haan. “Consulting is one option, maybe starting a business. A lot of people might want to move into

“These people are looking for more than bingo and a hot meal.”

a type of work that they’ve never had the option to try. Now the kids are out of the house, they will redefine what we’ve typically termed ‘retirement.’” Programs similar to AARP’s are sprouting up in other organizations throughout New York City. UNH, which controls 35 agencies and 400 sites dedicated to improve housing and social services throughout the city, is focusing a lot of its attention on the changing tides of aging. “It’s thinking about utilizing older adults in a new way,” said Monica Serrano, senior project manager and colleague of Stamler’s at UNH. Funded by Atlantic Philanthropies, UNH is part of the New York City portion of a pilot program geared toward finding new ways for this newest aging generation to connect to their environment in innovative ways. “Last year was an assessment phase

— how are people connecting, are there barriers, that sort of thing,” Serrano said. “Another aspect is continuing education, specifically training opportunities for older adults to move into new fields. Finally, there is the advocacy phase. How do we change policy in the right way for these new older adults?” To be sure, many of the Boomers that will move into new fields or will continue to earn money by consulting as they age will not have the option to retire with the same ease and security as their parents may have had. But part of rethinking retirement is changing the traditional thought process that would define such responsibilities as less than ideal. In fact, many researchers are pointing to continued workplace interaction as not a mere product of a rising life expectancy that needs to be supported, but a cause of it, as well. Dr. John Beard is the senior epistemologist at the New York Academy of Medicine and focuses most of his research on creating a successful life model for productive aging. He thinks that any city that can produce the most responsibility, stimulus, and overall interaction for its seniors is keeping them healthy and alive. “We should think about how to help people live a productive life as they age,” Beard emphasized. “Increasingly, people want to work, want to be productive, want to be tuned in.” Beard is part of a new initiative run by the Academy, together with the Mayor’s Office and the New York City Council, called Age-Friendly NYC. Beard and his colleagues are dedicated to updating New York City to make it an overall environment that fosters engaged, longer-living seniors. “We are doing studies, now, where we’ve followed people over a couple of years and found that mental and physical health, like a person’s weight, are affected in the environment around them,” Beard explained. “If you live in an affluent neighborhood, no matter how much you yourself earn, you’re better off. As you are if you’re near a bus stop and can move around — anything where an older person is encouraged to be out and about and engaged.” Working, or even passionate volunteerism, fits into the model that Beard is

describing of a city in which people do not have to feel disconnected nor isolated as they grow older. This potential for activity does not only do the mind good, but can also transform the traditional view of a physical timeline of aging. “Evidence is growing that if you remain significantly active there doesn’t need to be much decline at all in physical health and body functions,” Beard said. “If we design our city right and encourage our seniors to stay active, health should hold up until the very last years of life.” Baby Boomers have shown, for the most part, to be the generation most suited to this model of continued activity and connection. As Councilmember Arroyo emphasized, this is a new generation of people that has been engaged in different ways than its predecessors. “We have seen that Boomers have different characteristics from previous generations,” said Tom Endres, vice president for civic engagement at the National Council on Aging (NCOA), in Washington D.C. “They always want to be involved; they are very conscious. One example is that people are much more conscious about their time being used well. [Boomers] will not continue to volunteer at activities if they feel like their time or expertise isn’t being used well, if their tasks don’t have meaning. They want to be really brought into the organization that they work with later in life. This will inevitably have a big impact on the workplace.” NCOA is working to ease companies into the new workplace that Endres sees as inevitable as the Baby Boomers turn 65 and older. The most important idea, according to Endres, is that companies realize that they are making necessary changes to maximize what could be a huge, mature and heavily experienced pool of employees. “We manage a work force program designed to support low-maintenance aging people moving into unsubsidized jobs,” Endres said. “We’ve just received a grant to remove some income restrictions. We’re looking at training for positions like nursing and pharmacy assistants. There is a major shift in attitude and policy going on regarding aging. Obviously, resources have still been focused on pro-

viding services to the elderly in need, but now there is a new dimension. At the same time as we care for people, we also have an aging asset potential that we have never had before.” Endres says that, through NCOA’s work force program, companies throughout the nation are realizing the benefit of turning the rapidly growing aging community from an assumed collection of retirees to a vital part of the workplace. There are, Endres pointed out, nearly 10,000 people a day turning 65. With so many of them healthy and passionate to stay involved, why shouldn’t corporations pay for their expertise? The management of NCOA encompasses 22 model

“We have seen that Boomers have different characteristics from previous generations. They always want to be involved, they are very conscious.” programs around the country that connect willing companies with elder adults. NCOA is studying the progress in their model programs — what are the roles that seniors are taking within the companies? What part of the traditional office culture and expectations must change for them? “We are also looking at whether or not the organization leaders are responding to tapping into this huge resource,” Endres continued. “Or are they still stuck in an old paradigm? Are they inclined to think, ‘These are volunteers, you can’t depend on them.’ That’s why we say, ‘civic engagement.’ It’s a redefinition of what to expect. At the end of our research, we will provide the companies a return on their investment, and we will compile hard, convincing data from our program. Anecdotal stories aren’t enough.” In a struggling economy with shrink-

ing security, economists see minimal possibility for any conventional retirement. “Many people have not saved enough,” said Professor Sharon DeVaney, from her office at Purdue University, where her she focuses her research on trends in retirement planning. “And most are not well-enough informed about Social Security. For instance, if you withdraw from your Social Security at 62, the earliest possible age, your benefits go down. If somebody continues to work until 70 and then collect, they get the maximum benefits. With this generation staying healthier for longer, why would you want to quit at 55 or 60?” But then there are the revolutionary ways in which the masses of aging Baby Boomers can counteract the very social and economic strains that many fear their numbers will bring. One issue where this necessity of balance is exemplified is the potential for a spike in Alzheimer’s cases. Jed Levine, executive vice president of the New York chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association said, “There are roughly 5.2 million people with Alzheimer’s in America right now and we estimate that there could be 11-16 million by 2050. We are trying to mobilize Baby Boomers — help them help us. This is a group that has historically been activists. They are also the first generation to see some of their parents stricken by Alzheimer’s. We think we can mobilize that energy.” Like Councilmember Arroyo and economist DeVaney, Levine is quick to acknowledge the strain that the aging of Baby Boomers will place on his area of focus, saying, “This is something that could overwhelm health care, Medicare, Medicaid — the cost of care is very prohibitive.” But he sees the activism of the generation as something that can perhaps defend its own from the disastrous Alzheimer’s effects that we see now. Most experts agree that there will be many people who, whether they cannot retire or do not want to, will continue to be a large force in corporations, nonprofits and social movements. Baby Boomers are expected to change the way all that come after them will see the word “retire.” ! 19

By Brett C Vermilyea

Reporter Albert Amateau in The Villager office.

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Why folks over 50 are the fastest-growing segment of the work force

They’re Still At It A

lbert Amateau has been a community reporter for decades. He’s covered just about everything a newspaperman could: sports, celebrities, meetings, sex, murder, community development and, even the news story of lifetime: the horrific morning in September, 2001. As a reporter for Lower Manhattans’ The Villager, Amateau had front-line access on 9-11 as the newspaper’s offices were otherwise in a no-travel zone, about ten blocks from the wreckage. “That terrible day!” he remembers. “I got to work just after the second plane hit and watched both towers go down from the roof of our building. It was deadline day for The Villager — of course we didn’t make it until two days later — it’s all a blur to me now. I still get anxious on mild autumn days when the sky is perfectly clear.” Amateau, 76, is still out pounding the pavement. “I still do it because I like to do it,” he says in the airy Lower Manhattan offices of Community Media, publisher of The Villager. “And my colleagues value my input. I don’t work as hard as I used to — I don’t think they mind — but I work hard enough. And it’s still fun. It’s like any newspaper job — it’s frustrating, it’s irritating, it’s horrible — but it’s still fun.”

Amateau is part of the fastest-growing population in the American work force: folks over 55. Between 2005 and 2007, the over-55 population of workers grew by 9.7 percent, according to a 2007 study by the AARP Public Policy Institute. By comparison, the under-55 worker population grew by only 1.7 percent. With people continuing to work deeper into life, Village Care of New York’s Human Resources Vice President Dorette Norris looks at it this way: “Really, there are two main reasons why people continue to work: either because they want to or because they have to. And then there are sub-reasons of why people want to work and why people need to work.” She says the people who just need the money fall into the “need to work” category, while those choosing to work are trying to stay busy, trying to stay connected, trying to keep meaning in their lives. Robert Conant, 72, who is a frequent drop-in visitor at Village Care’s Senior Inforamtion Center in Chelsea, has continued to work for a variety of reasons, he says, but income tops the list. “I absolutely need the money,” he said. “No question. The little bit of money I get from my Social Security and the little bit of money I get out of working, you know, keeps me going.

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Model Dina Paisner has graced magazine covers and been part of many ad campaigns.

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Four years ago, Conant inherited a home in Maine when his mother passed away. He uses the place in the summer, and he told some friends there who own an auction house that if they need any extra help to call him. Now he sorts through estates three days a week during the summer and prepares items for sale for the auction house. He says the small income from the part-time work is just enough to keep him in the lifestyle he’s become accustomed to. “Financially it offers me the opportunity to do some of the extra things I like to do. I consider myself living a very nice lifestyle on a very limited financial scale. As you get older, your wants and needs become less anyway. Y You don’t need an awful lot of anything nice,” Conant said. Conant said he didn’t spend much time planning for retirement. “And I’m not sorry,” he said, “I’m just not that kind of guy. I’ve been single my whole life. I’ve always lived alone. I spent all my money having a good time, doing what I wanted to do when I wanted to do it, not really worrying about things. And I’m still not worried.” Conant is far from alone in his need to work. According to a recent Ernst & Y Young study, nearly three out of five middle-class retirees are likely to run out of money if they try to maintain the lifestyles they maintained while they were working full time. “Financially, we’re simply not prepared for a longer lifetime,” Carleen MacKay, author of Return of the Boomers: A Leader’s Guide and one of a very few experts in recruiting, developing and retaining the mature work force, said. “We’ll W outlive our money. And that’s fully half the Boomers,” she said, if they try to continue the spending habits they’ve had all their lives. Earning the extra money to support his lifestyle is another important reason reporter Amateau still works. Y Yes, he loves the job, but the income factors into it. “I want to work,” he said “But I could use the money. I don’t really need it. I could get along if I lived in a retirement mode, but with the money I can spend what I want. It makes me very comfortable financially. My wife makes a good living, slightly better than I do, but my salary gives us an awfully easy cushion.” Besides, he said, giving yet another reason for still working, what would he do “in retirement mode”? Amateau loves to read and watch movies and enjoys his leisure time, but he can’t imagine making his leisure pursuits central to his life, saying he has interests, but nothing that would make me get up in the morning.” “I’m afraid,” he says. “I’m afraid to retire. I don’t know what I’d do. My wife says, ‘Oh, you could just go to the gym’ — I go to the gym a lot — ‘you could go to the gym a half a day and then go to the senior center and have lunch — and bring some home for supper — and this and that.’ It sounds like fun. For a month.”

Village Care’s Norris thinks this fear is common V among those older people who decide to still work. “They want to remain busy,” she said. “Actually, it’s socialization for them: to get up every morning, to come to work. They have an opportunity to socialize at work, to socialize after work.” MacKay agrees. “Work W has many benefits. One is, obviously, it helps you financially. It gives you the capacity to have a life and spend on something other than nondiscretionary items. But it also brings other rewards: social rewards; a sense of belonging to something; a sense of having to get up, get showered, get dressed and get out.” Conant said the interaction with people at the auction is important because a solitary existence just isn’t an option for him. “If I don’t have people around me, I miss it terribly. I’m not one to sit home and not get out and communicate with the world.” WORKPLACE OBSTACLES While the population of those over 55 is growing, older workers find themselves dealing with a lot of myths: They can’t learn new things; they are stuck in their ways; they can’t work a whole day; they’ll work a short time and retire. Gene Burnard, publisher of workforce50.com, takes issue with all of these myths “Even if the myth that older workers are going to be working two or three years and then leave was true, that’s not different than the average throughout the work force,” Burnard said, adding quickly that it’s a false belief. The average worker stays at a job only three-and-a-half years, while the average older worker stays for five-and-a-half years, Burnard said, which should add value and be an asset because it saves the company money in recruiting, hiring and retraining costs. He sees a deeper problem: “We’re W a society that’s fascinated with youth. All of our advertising tells us younger is better. It creates a passive age discrimination.” Recruiters need to see the advantages of having a balanced work force age-wise, he said. Brunard’s website provides services to older workers looking for employment — services like olderworker-centric job listings, search tips, blog, links, education resources. Oftentimes the problem lies with the work recruiters, Burnard said, even while companies and executives are becoming more open to hiring older adults. “A recruiter is typically a 25- to 30-year-old female. There’s nothing wrong with that, but a 25- or 30-yearold female, if I were in interviewing for a job, would have a difficult time talking to me, unless she has been well trained. There has been a lot of fallout of good, older job seekers not getting past the interview, or perr 23

haps not getting an interview at all, because the recruiter feels uncomfortable talking to older workers,” Burnard contended. MacKay said that companies can change their attitudes with better training of their leaders. By looking at who can do what best, companies might see that the older work force — the very experienced who have specific skills — are really good at projects. “You don’t have to hire them all at once; hire them as needed, which is a great way to keep costs down.” She agreed with Burnard that attitudes are evolving. “But I don’t think it’s changing fast enough. Where it’s changing are in the high-need organizations that are already suffering from retirement, for example: health care, aerospace, rocket science. All the things that take years and years of training are feeling the effects of a retiring work force,” she said According to the 2007 study “Preparing for an Aging Workforce: A Focus on New York Businesses” by AARP New York, 60 percent of the state’s businesses report they expect to face skilled worker shortages in next five years, while only 25 percent have taken steps to address the possible shortages of Boomer retirement. Losing experienced workers can leave a company weaker and vulnerable to competition because the retirees take important institutional knowledge and specific skills with them. When a person retires, 87 percent of businesses say it’s a loss because that knowledge and those skills have to be built back into another employee, which takes time and money. A full 95 percent of New York companies say retaining institutional knowledge is vital. “We want to try to retain as much of that intelligence as we possibly can because you pay for that going in,” Village Care’s Norris said, adding that she sees other values in retaining older workers. “They have a completely different work ethic, completely different. The person who’s 60, 65 is much more committed. That individual will come to work in the rain, in the snow, not feeling well. They are a lot more committed.” Retaining valuable older workers requires some adjustments, she said, such as understanding there may need to be some flexibility in work schedules. “For instance, if we have a registered nurse who’s 60 years old who’s working on the night shift and is ready for retirement because she doesn’t want to work nights anymore, we need to be 24 NE W HOR IZONS | E a r l y 20 0 9

able to entertain a request for a day shift.” Besides being open to easing into retirement, Village Care has taken a number of steps to retain the older workers they have. “You want to keep lots of options open,” Norris says. “You have to be open to requests to change a shift, to change a job.” Someone might say to her, “‘You know, I may be getting a little too old to do nursing, but I can do other things. I can do quality assurance. I can do risk management. What’s available for me?’ We have to keep our eyes open, keep our options open,” Norris said. Cornell University, which also is trying to hang on to its older workers, has been recognized by AARP, which named it the best employer in the country for workers over 50. “We were facing a loss of workers to retirement,” said Mary Opperman, vice president for human resources. This was especially troublesome for the university because of the specialized nature of the work and where that work takes place. “We are in a fairly rural area,” she says of the campus in Ithaca, New York. “We rely very heavily on long service. This is an area of the country with a fairly stable population and our work is very complicated. It’s very demanding work. So when we find the right people, we like to keep them, and we’d like them to make their careers at Cornell.” To entice people to stay, Cornell offers a number of benefits older workers find attractive: generous health care coverage and wellness benefits, including long-term care insurance; free or discounted classes each week targeting health and fitness issues facing older adults; free continuing education classes; accommodation of employees with special needs; alternative work arrangements such as flextime, compressed work schedules, job sharing, telecommuting, and a formal phased-retirement program. “We know that as our work force ages, flexibility is a big need,” Opperman said. “When someone has committed their career here, after a long period of time they might want to focus their priorities more broadly — maybe they want to do community work, maybe their family has moved around the country. They’re looking for more flexibility to meet other priorities in their lives besides just work.” She emphasizes, however, that while the AARP poll of its workers was a great confirmation of Cornell’s efforts, retaining older workers is not the sole goal of those

Cornell professor Henry Tye is part of the over-50 demographic that makes up 43 percent of the university’s work force. AARP named Cornell the best employer in country for workers over 50.

efforts. “We focus our programs holistically,” she says. “That does include the needs of all of our workers. And right now a large percentage of those workers are older.” In fact, employees over 50 make up 43 percent of Cornell’s work force. Publisher Burnard says some companies are starting to hire older workers because these companies realize that older workers possess something intangible, something younger ones don’t. He calls it “relatability.” “Some companies are looking specifically for older workers because a lot of the population is getting older,” he says. “Look at retail and the customer interface at a place like Toys ‘R’ Us. A customer at Toys ‘R’ Us is not a young person with children. It’s the grandparents who are the primary customer of Toys ‘R’ Us, and having some college student on break working at Toys ‘R’ Us and trying to sell to a grandparent just doesn’t get the job done as well as having someone the grandparents’ age.” CHALLENGES IN WORKING LONGER For the older worker, there often comes a time when he or she needs to have some control over the time spent at a job. Robert Conant, for example, planned the auction house work to be just a little side gig, but soon he found himself working five days a week, 14-hour days, and even going up in the winter. “Working too much. I didn’t want to work quite that much,” he said. He was expected to jump in when an estate came in. “It was stressful on me and it really wasn’t viable for me to try to do that,” he said. So he had to cut back. “It was disappointing for me to have to say ‘I can’t do that.’ I’m 72. I get tired. It’s supposed to be my time to smell the roses.” Reporter Amateau similarly has also slowed down. Still a full-time worker, he’s adjusted his pace at the office as best he can. “Occasionally I still come in on the weekend, but not much,” he said. Another frequenter of the Senior Information Center, Dina Paisner, says she’s also taking it a bit easier now. Working for decades as a professional actor and model, Paisner has kept a busy schedule appearing in various magazines and periodicals including the cover of New York Magazine, the front page of the Sunday 25

Art Section of The New York Times, in Joyce Tenneson’s photography book of women over 65, “WISE WOMEN,” and in a special Ellis Island project. And even though she still routinely auditions for acting roles and can be seen at Judson Memorial Church in early March in “The Red Thread,” a dance piece created by Lori Belilove of the Isadora Duncan Foundation, Paisner said she’s not eternally hunting for acting roles like she used to because the constant grind is just too much work and her priorities have changed a bit. “My pace is much slower. I used to have more energy. There’s no question about it. But when I’m called, then I sud-

Village Care’s Dorette Norris says employers have to be open and flexible if they want to retain older workers.

denly have the energy. When I have a job and I have to be somewhere at six in the morning, I’m up at four. But otherwise, I sleep late,” she said. Conant agrees that the work helps to keep a person active, and he, too, has noticed his priorities have changed. In fact, to him, the very nature of work has changed. “I was developing a career in those days,” he said of his younger, ambitious self. “I was in competition with a lot of people. I was managing a big photography studio. I’m just a worker now. I’m not in competition with anybody. I don’t have aspirations and goals or this and that. I’m just a worker, making a dollar and enjoying life. It’s a lot less stressful.” Many say, however, that older workers are going to have to retain their competitive nature if they want to keep working. The marketplace is changing and older workers are going to have to keep up. “If you’re not prepared for today’s market in some way that matters to an employer, you won’t be hired in any capacity,” MacKay said. “The first step is to look inside and see what you have, do a little bit of gap analysis of what you don’t have, and look at what the market needs, and the marketplace needs are 26 NE W HOR IZONS | E a r l y 20 0 9

very clear.” Job seekers need to know what recent changes have occurred in the careers they are seeking. Have there been any recent technological innovations? Is there a new skill needed? Is there a new philosophy? “You have to look at the business setting and see what the needs are and be sure you go get them,” MacKay said. “The good news is, the community schools, the colleges, the fouryear institutions are there to help you get there fast.” Burnard agreed. “Most older job seekers are long on experience,” he said. And he advises them not to talk so much about work history. Instead, he said, “talk about what value you can bring to the company, not just experience. Experience is just one thing.” MacKay says curiosity is more important than experience, and it is one of the most valuable assets a person, young or old, can bring to a company. “When I work with recruiters to help them understand the benefits of hiring the older work force, I tell them one of the most important questions they can ask older workers is ‘What have you learned in the last year or two?’ And sit back and listen to what they say. If they’ve been learning and paying attention, they’ll be good employees,” she said. Significant hurdles face older job seekers. For anyone of any age, “job seeking gets pretty depressing,” Burnard said. “And for an older worker that recognizes that there’s age discrimination, it can be doubly depressing. But the only way to succeed is to be positive. The biggest turnoff for an employer is to talk to someone who isn’t positive.” MacKay takes a tougher stance. “That’s life,” she said. “The hurdle becomes the individual’s to deal with, not the company’s initially. You have to know what’s useful to an employer; you have to know how to present yourself; and you have to know, you must absolutely know, what you have to offer.” The onus isn’t exclusively on the older job seeker. “Companies have to think about what it is that is going to make their company successful, which they already do, but they don’t necessarily add into the equation the value an older worker can bring,” Burnard said. He counsels businesses that “there is a valuable pool of talent out there. Don’t just sit back and see what happens but aggressively take a look at [the older workforce]. They might be surprised. I’m not saying an employer should hire just older workers, but it should be intergenerational. An employer has an obligation to hire the best person, whether they’re 20 or 90. If they don’t actively consider the older work force, they may be missing out on finding that best person.” Paisner, who as a model and actor has to forever be auditioning for work, probably has the right attitude. “They just want someone who knows what they’re doing,” she said of the people who hire her. “It’s not a question of them respecting you if you’re older. The only time that does any good is to get a seat on the subway. I’ve never been treated badly. Never. And it has nothing to do with age. They just want somebody who does a good job, and I love working so I do a good job.” !

V age Care f New Y rk

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GIVING BACK

Opting Out And Back In

S

By Brett C Vermilyea

28 NE W HOR IZONS | E a r l y 20 0 9

cott Kariya retired early. He had spent 25 years recruiting programmers, systems analysts and network engineers into the IT field, and in 2006, at age 50, he opted out. But retirement wasn’t exactly what he expected. “During 2007 I putzed around, worked on my investments, whatever,” he said. “I did volunteer work as well — I still do volunteer work at the Red Cross. But I guess midway through 2007 or so I started getting kind of bored. Then at the end of 2007, I saw an article about ReServe.” One of many organizations launched in the last few years to tap into the growing number of retirees looking to give back to the community, ReServe matches older adults looking to offer their skills with nonprofits needing experienced help at low wages. Six months ago he came onboard and now uses the recruiting skills he developed in the private sector to aid and strengthen the nonprofit work force. He hopes to grow ReServes’s partnership list from 400 to 800 and has a large, talented pool of workers to operate with. This idea of older folks using their talents gained in a lifetime of work to give back is growing past being mearly a trend and becoming a full-blown movement, especially among the millions of Baby Boomers who are starting to reach retirement age. “The desire to give back through work is wide and ReServe’s Scott Kariya deep right now,” said Phyllis Segal, vice president of Civic Ventures, an advocay group calling for older workers to make a difference through employment. A joint study conducted by Civic Ventures and the MetLife Foundation found that fully half of all workers between the ages of 50 and 70 were interested in taking up, either now or in retirement, work that improves the quality of life in their communities. Civic Ventures founder Marc Freedman coined the term “encore careers” to describe this movement, and Segal said it’s driven, in part, by longer lifespans — if people are living longer, it should be expected that they will be working longer, too. “The idea that when you reach the age of 62 or 65, you retire from produc-

Using a Second Career to Make a Difference tive work was a social invention,” she said. “And while it may have been an invention that fit the needs of our nation and the needs of individuals in the ’50s, the ’60s, the ’70s, we are living in a different world. If you retire from work at the age of 62, the idea of playing golf for 10, 20, 30 years is not that appealing to a lot of people.” And this longer-living generation is the same one that grew up with President John F. Kennedy’s call of “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.” They’ve been taught that civic service is important. About 8.4 million older workers have entered encore careers and while approximately two-thirds say that they wanted to stay active, productive and challenged, a third say that they want to improve the quality of life in their communities or in society. “They are people that want to have an impact that helps strengthen our community and our world,” Segal said. An impressive 84 percent of people in encore careers say that they get a “tremendous amount” or “quite a bit” of satisfaction from the work they do, according to the Civic Ventures/MetLife study. But it’s not just idealism that keeps these folks working longer; there’s a practical side, too. “The economics of living for decades without any source of income is not sustainable for individuals or for society,” Segal said. ReServe tries to alleviate some of these economic pressures by requiring its nonprofits to pay a $10-an-hour stipend to workers it hires through ReServe. And while ReServe emphasizes that it’s the giving back aspect of these positions that is the most rewarding, Kariya said the organization is currently re-examing its workers’s financial needs and trying to address those needs because the original philosophy behind the stipend was meant to give more meaning to the work. It wasn’t meant to be an important source of income. “We wanted to include this in because we feel that, although volunteerism is a wonderful thing — and a lot of our people do volunteer work, and I do as well — that when there’s some monetary value attached to the relationship, oftentimes it gives that relationship more commitment and more significance on both sides,” Kariya said. “I’ve done many volunteer works,” he said. “Volunteering is a great thing. We all believe in volunteering. But sometimes organizations might not treat volunteers as importantly as they could. But in the ReServist positions, the organizations give us a job discription, they interview people for it, they want people with certain background and skills, and they hire them specifically for that position. So it’s really a part-time job.” But the difference is that in these jobs, people feel like the skills they developed in their careers are making a difference in their communities.

RESOURCES ReServe (212) 792-6205 reserveinc.org Civic Ventures (415) 430-0141 civicventures.org Experience Corps (212) 614-5499 experiencecorps.org Encore (415) 430-0141 encore.org

29

STANDPOINT

Civic Engagement

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ivic engagement is now being seen as a formal retirement role for older adults, with a beneficial impact on society. Many national organizations devote significant resources to studying the phenomenon. New research on the subject defines civic engagement as volunteerism and even paid work that is done for at least one day a week and which has a direct impact on the local community. The attention that civic engagement is getting stems from a belief that “retired older adults are an untapped resource, and increasing the civic engagement of retired Americans will correspond with increasing social capital,” according to Brian Kaskie, who collaborated with a team of University of Iowa researchers on the study. Kaskie authored an article published recently in The Gerontologist. Not only that, Kaskie says, but it’s important to look at civic engagement from its potential effect on individual health. “Several researchers have linked engagement with health, successful aging and have suggested that aging persons who continue to work, find a second career, volunteer, or become involved in local affairs maintain better physical and mental health as they grow older,” he wrote in the journal article. In a survey Kaskie conducted in 2004, he found that retired older adults considered themselves engaged if they were volunteering as well as working. Nearly all saw volunteer service as a form of civic engagement. Seventy percent of those who considered themselves retired, but were continuing to work in some capacity, said they did so “because they wanted to keep active, be engaged with other people and make a contribution to their local community.” Kaskie said that his research has led him and his colleagues to believe that civic engagement should be defined as a role that involves voluntary or paid participation in an activity that occurs within an organization that has a direct impact on 30 NE W HOR IZONS | E a r l y 20 0 9

their local community. A precise meaning of civic engagement is important to policymakers and program administrators and allows researchers to study its impacts effectively and consistently, according to Kaskie. The study found that engaged retirees differ significantly from those who volunteer less or who work in non-civic roles, or do neither. “Non-engaged” retirees were less likely to have finished high school, less likely to exercise and didn’t think their communities offered sufficient work and volunteer opportunities. Kaskie said that there is a need for persuasive campaigns and opportunities to compel older adults to become engaged regardless of level of education, health status, socioeconomic status and other characteristics. It’s likely that the civic engagement phenomenon will expand for several reasons, including the prospect of reduced financial support from government for education, health and social services programs, which are already being depleted by an aging work force, particularly in education. There is also a growing number of persons who are retiring from their primary careers but who may not be prepared to retire completely. Other retirees recognize that they will be spending more years in retirement and may wish to partake in a civic engagement role as a way to maintain their health and to contribute to the social capital of their community. In addition, retirees may have increased levels of civic engagement because there are a greater number of people with higher levels of education, good-to-excellent health and other characteristics that enable them to engage in activities. Kaskie said it’s important to differentiate more committed retirees who are engaged in a civic purpose from their counterparts who only occasionally take a volunteer role. Neither should we think that civic engagement roles cannot include retirees who have returned to work in particular jobs or organizations.

“As the population continues to age and the demand for voluntary and paid labor increases, discussions about the civic engagement of retired Americans will be come more common and more important,” he said. HOW OLD IS OLD? A while back, pollster Zogby International, conducted a survey to determine what age Americans believe is “old,” and asked participants how old they wished they were. A third of those surveyed said that an age between 71 and 80 is “old,” and about 19 percent said between 61 and 70, while 18 percent said between 81 and 90. About 30 percent of those under 30 placed the cutoff point for being old at 61, but most others chose the age of 71. Blacks and Hispanics are less likely than whites to choose a younger age as “old,” while Republicans are slightly more likely to choose a younger age as “old” than are Democrats and independents. Southerners are most likely to say that 61-70 is old, while those living out west are most likely to see old as being 71-80. Easterners, on the other hand, were more likely than those in other regions to say that 41-50 is old. As to how old they wish to be, one in three in the survey said they wished they were somewhere between 21 and 30, 17 percent wished to be between 31 and 40, 11 percent wished to be between 41 and 50, and 13 percent wanted to be under 21. The rest weren’t sure. Current age made a difference here too. Those 18-29 were the most satisfied with their current age, or close to it. Two in five 30-49 year olds wanted to be 21-30. Interestingly, among 50-to-64 year olds in the survey, they were closely divided between wishing to be 21-30 and wishing to be 51-60; among those 65 and older, the division was between those wanting to be 21-30 and those wanting to be 61-80. No matter what age group they were in, a goodly number of folks seemed satisfied with being their current age.

VIEWPOINT

Community Response to Dementia BY HERBERT H. FILLMORE

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here is an emerging crises in America, a crisis that exists because the health care system is biased against certain disease conditions. If you get cancer or diabetes or any other disease that the acute care or primary care system is designed to treat, well, no problem, come right in. But if you get a dementia, for which there is no pill, no surgery, and requires a different kind of care, sorry, you are tough out of luck. The incidence and prevalence of Alzheimer’s and other dementias is increasing. The impact of this on individuals, their families and communities is immense. Looking at the policy and provider landscape, I see a few responses that recognize this reality, but very little in the way of a comprehensive response. There is not enough going on. I cannot emphasize too strongly that we must respond and respond now — time is of the essence. What are the tools in our tool bags? Home care, nursing homes, social capital? Let’s take the last one. Most care delivered to seniors in this country, including care for persons with dementia, is provided by informal caregivers, usually family members and oftentimes their friends and neighbors. In the communities Village Care serves, social capital is not an abundant commodity. Many seniors live alone, many in walkups. There is a limit to what we can ask their neighbors to do. New nursing home beds, not the most desired, or even the best solution, are not being built. In fact, quite the opposite: Nursing home beds are being taken off line. Furthermore, the traditional skilled nursing facility beds that do exist are not optimally designed for a population with dementia. It could be argued, for that matter, that they shouldn’t even be used for persons with dementia because they aren’t appropriate care settings. Not to mention that Medicare and Medicaid have designed their reimbursement systems almost to

guarantee that the person with dementia will not be cared for in those settings. We need new thinking about clustered living solutions that maximize efficiencies of staffing and quality of life, both through physical design specifically for this population and reimbursement and regulations that promote quality specialized care. The mechanism for this may be enhanced Medicaid Assisted Living Programs, a relook at the old health-related facility concept, or some new version of apartment living combined with day care. We need to be exploring new answers now because we are likely to be faced with an exploding dementia population and I, for one, don’t want to look the other way as we use marginal nursing home beds as the solution and hope that the problem will just go away. We have to figure this out now because the lead time for these bricks and mortar solutions is at least five years. What about home care? Home care is definitely a part of the solution but it does not provide socialization, and it is extremely costly when around-the-clock safety and supervision must be guaranteed. What about technology? Aren’t there some technologies that combined with home care could enable many more persons to have a better quality of life and stay in their own homes within a budget our society could afford? That too is part of the solution, but we aren’t there yet. In fact we have a long way to go, while leadership at the state and federal levels is woefully lacking to promote an answer to this problem with technology. At Village Care, we have used what resources we have and explored concepts to piece together some solutions. We’re using our medical day health centers combined with home care and technology, and with close working relationships with primary care physicians, to take care of patients who have advanced Alzheimer’s and dementia symptoms while allowing them to continue to live in the community. Meanwhile, we are making the best we can of our nursing home beds through specially trained and selected staff in our person-centered therapeutic recreation program.

It is truly remarkable what can be achieved in Alzheimer’s community care but it is a constant effort to keep all parties working well together, especially in the coordination of home care and day care where money and regulations often work at cross purposes to serving and keeping persons in their homes. Our experiences in this area constantly reveal the problem with a system of silos where patients can easily be missed, while transitions between settings can bring their own crises. You need a team. If you are an individual provider of care you will quickly be overwhelmed by the medical and social complexities of dementia. Village Care’s response is to open a Program of All-inclusive Care for the Elderly, known as PACE, that will better allow us to coordinate care and target services, including technology where it is needed. We are also working on opening a purpose-built specialized Assisted Living Program for persons with dementia. Of course, these solutions will work for people with Medicaid but what about everyone else? We are doing much of our work under demonstration authority from the state and hope that that our efforts can help inform many of the conversations that are going on. Much needs to be done if we are going to adequately meet this looming care crisis. What will we say ten years from now? Will we pretend that no one could have seen this coming, or will we have seen what had to be done and risen up in the best traditions of our country to meet the needs of our parents, our spouses and our grandparents? It’s a fundamental choice: Are we willing to accept more misery in our midst, or will we care for each other? We at Village Care cannot look away, and we are doing everything we can to meet this crisis head-on. (Mr. Fillmore is the executive vice-president of SeniorChoices at Village Care of New York.) 31

THE L A S T WORD BY LOUIS J. GANIM

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he news was reported in all the major metropolitan newspapers just as summer was growing to a close in September: Astroland, perhaps the last vestige of what was once the most famous oceanside amusement park setting in the land — Coney Island — was closing for good. Astroland actually was relatively new by Coney Island standards, having risen up along the famous boardwalk only in 1962. Still, it was a part of old New York that’s been erased as the city has risen from the ashes of the good-old-bad-old-days of the 1970s. It had been some 15 years since I’d been to Coney Island, and that had been a business visit with the late Donnie Halperin, who was head of the state Division of Housing and Community Renewal at the time, to meet with Brighton Beach Mitchell Lama project residents over complaints at the state-supervised middle-income housing development. The announcement of Astroland’s closure brought back a slew of memories of my first visit to Coney Island as a 16-yearold, and spurred me to make a new trip to the island on the D train on a sunny and warm early fall afternoon. Four subways – the D, F, N and Q – terminate at the newish (2004) Stillwell Avenue Station at Surf Avenue in Brooklyn, and the D gives you probably the most scenic trip through the borough. It’s no accident that most everyone who visits Coney Island stops at Nathan’s for a hot dog on their first trip to the area. Nathan’s is right smack in your face when you exit the El onto the street. This autumn afternoon was no different. Although the crowd was smallish, there was a long line to the hot dog counter and a steady stream 32 NE W HOR IZONS | E a r l y 20 0 9

Whence Coney Island of folks wandering in. Strolling up to and down the boardwalk, however, can be a sad and depressing experience if your mind’s eye sees what once was and you are filled with nostalgia for a bygone era. To a 16-year-old those many years ago, Coney Island was a fabulous sight, even though the deterioration and downward slide had already been underway by the time of my first visit. The summer evening crowd was literally a throng and the spectacle of the rides — from the then-awesome Thunderbolt roller coaster, which was a more wild ride that its famous neighbor, the Cyclone, to the iconic Parachute Jump — was breathtaking. Bright neon lights, the hustle and bustle of the boardwalk, the noise level of the crowd, the harkening cries of the barkers from the booths along the boardwalk and the streets, the clatter of the coasters, the screams from terrified ridegoers, the aromas emanating from food stands — all were evident on that first visit. In 1955, a short few years earlier, 1.5 million people had visited Coney Island on July 4, setting the record for that holiday. But a mere decade later, a rise in crime and unsafe subways contributed to a stunning decline where only a few thousand people came during summer weekends; and by the 1970s, the area had become a ghost town, according to Coney Island historian Charles Denson. While the subways are safer today and there is little lingering fear of crime, the desolation of what had once been an escapist magnet for millions for more than a hundred years is well evident today. Sadly, the landscape is replete with plots of empty land, perhaps the most poignant being a large lot of overgrown greenery that stretches a block off the boardwalk and ends with a tumbling-down, one-story structure with its rickety “Playland” sign standing sentinel over the miserable sur-

roundings. The silence around Astroland is deafening. An empty Steeplechase Park abuts the renovated, reconstructed, but non-operational, Parachute Jump, which is a preserved New York City landmark, along with the still-working Cyclone roller coaster down the boardwalk. To think that we might ever recapture what’s been lost at Coney Island might seem a bit farfetched to anyone who remembers what the island was like “before the fall.” It should be noted that all is not lost — the beach is today a thing of beauty, the benefit of a mid-1990s restoration. The New York Aquarium, with its 14 acres between Surf Avenue and the boardwalk, draws thousands every year. Keyspan Park was built behind the old Steeplechase Park for the minor-league Brooklyn Cyclones baseball team. In mid-October, the City paid $11 million for nine acres adjacent to the Wonder Wheel in the latest move in a battle with a private developer as city government tries to fulfill its vision of a Coney Island that preserves the amusement park character of the island. The 150-foot tall Wonder Wheel, first opened in 1920 and another NYC landmark on the island, will continue to operate under lease until at least 2020. A new Coney Island will rise. Whether good, or bad, it won’t ever be the same. If you’d like a glimpse of the past, the 1953 Oscar-nominated (Best Writing) “Little Fugitive” is a black-and-white movie filmed on Coney Island that offers great scenes of what life was like half a century ago. If you would like to learn more about Coney Island and its history, try these websites: Coney Island History Project: http:// www.coneyislandhistory.org/ Coney Island amusement park history: http://history.amusement-parks.com/ coneyislandpages.htm Forgotten New York website: http:// www.forgotten-ny.com/STREET%20 SCENES/Coney/coney.html

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