The Federal Council on Aging will undertake as an initial project, with the joint sponsorship of the Council of State Governments, the holding of a planning conference of State representatives and key Federal personnel.

The departments and agencies represented on the Federal Council on Aging are Department of Agriculture, Civil Service Commission, Department of Commerce, Office of Defense Mobilization, Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, Housing and Home Finance Agency, Department of Interior, Department of Labor, National Science Foundation, Small Business Administration, Department of the Treasury, Veterans' Administration.

Inquiries about the Council should be addressed to Louis H. Ravin, secretary, room 4358, Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, Washington 25, D. C. Inquiries about the program of a particular department or agency should be made direct.

FEDERAL COUNCIL ON AGING, Washington, D. C.

5.

A BILL OF OBJECTIVES FOR OLDER PEOPLE

AND

A PROGRAM FOR ACTION IN THE

FIELD OF AGING

FROM THE STATES AND THEIR OLDER CITIZENS A REPORT TO THE GOVERNOR'S CONFERENCE AUGUST 1955

THE COUNCIL ON STATE GOVERNMENTS

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS

Source: Appendix Table 1

A BILL OF OBJECTIVES FOR OLDER PEOPLE AND A PROGRAM FOR ACTION IN THE FIELD OF AGING

A BILL OF OBJECTIVES FOR OLDER PEOPLE

Officials, legislators, agencies, and committees dealing with the problems of aging can work most effectively, and with the largest degree of cooperation, if they are agreed upon certain common objectives.

The objectives, surely, should accord with the rights and privileges to which older people are entitled as human beings and American citizens. These are not, in fact, essentially different in many respects from the rights and privileges of the people generally. But it is evident that the majority of older persons are deprived of them to a greater extent than most people.

A bill of objectives for older people might consist of 10 points:

1. Equal opportunity to work. Our society recognizes the value of work to the person and to the community. The older person should have equal opportunity, if physically and mentally able, to be gainfully employed.

2. Adequate minimum income.-Older persons should have a retirement income sufficient for health and for participation in community life as self-respecting citizens.

3. Home living.-Older persons are entitled to the satisfactions of living in their own homes and, when this is not feasible, in suitable substitute private homes.

4. Homelike institutional care.-For older persons who need care that cannot be given them in their own or other private homes, they have a right to expect the institutions that serve them to be as homelike as possible and have high standards of care.

5. Physical and mental health.-Older adults should have adequate nutrition, preventive medicine and medical care adapted to the conditions of their years.

6. Physical and mental rehabilitation.-Older persons who are chronically ill, physically disabled, mentally disturbed, or unemployable for other reasons, have a right, to the fullest extent possible, to be restored to independent, useful lives in their homes and communities. 7. Participation in community activities.-Older citizens can expect encouragement and assistance to form social groups and to participate with those of other ages in recreational, educational, religious, and civic activities in their communities.

8. Social services.-In planning for retirement and in meeting the crises of their later years, older persons should have the benefits of such social services as counseling, information, vocational retraining, and social casework.