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That input received from our aging network does not support changes in the age formula for allotting Older Americans Act funds; and

Finally, that there is widespread agreement that the Older Americans Act must reflect a stronger commitment to the protection of older adults from abuse, neglect, and exploitation, to community based long-term care services, and to the support of family members and others who are providing care to older persons.

Thank you once again for the opportunity to comment upon the changing needs of older Americans as they relate to the reauthorization of the Older Americans Act.

[The prepared statement of Dr. Takamura follows:]

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Mr. Chairman and distinguished members of the Senate
Subcommittee on Aging:

Thank you for your invitation to appear before your Subcommittee today to comment on the changing needs of elderly Americans as they relate to the reauthorization of the Older Americans Act. I am Jeanette Takamura, Director of the Executive Office on Aging, Office of the Governor, for the State of Hawaii.

With its enactment in 1965, the Older Americans Act provided the impetus for the development and implementation of a full array of programs and services designed to meet the needs and interests of our older adult population. It ensured that concerns pertinent to our aging population would be on the national agenda through the establishment of a strong and visible single-purpose agency in the Executive Branch of our Federal Government.

Since 1965, Congress has amended the Act eight times and, in the process, has expanded both its scope and authority significantly. Undoubtedly, the 1972 and 1973 Amendments in particular are noteworthy because they established a national nutrition program and authorized the development of comprehensive services, area agencies on aging, multipurpose senior centers, and other aging programs and services.

The 1973

Amendments have been credited with providing the legislative mandate which facilitated the emergence and growth of a far reaching and vigorous aging network.

While a number of the current needs of our nation's older adults are similar to those which were compelling a decade ago, changes in the social, economic, and political context within which the aging agenda must be considered have cast a new light upon many of these concerns. This is not to say that we are without newly emerging or changing needs. Within the last several years, a number of factors, ranging from a growing awareness of the ongoing aging demographic revolution to the organizational maturity of the aging network, have called our attention to many of these emergent and changing needs. Thus, we in Hawail have shifted our efforts away, for example, from the testing of areawide model projects conducted in collaboration with Model Cities Programs. Our efforts now are aimed at the development and implementation of policies, programs, and services that address the long term care and other requirements of Hawaii's older adult population, which has an average longevity span that is the best in the nation and is among the very best in the world.

Factors Which Shape Continuing and Emergent Needs

A number of social, economic, and other factors are clearly shaping the continuing and emergent needs of our

nation's older adult population.

Growth in the number and

proportion of older people and the concomittant extension of human longevity have resulted in the significant expansion of the "old old" (85+) population. In this context, "aging" and

"long term care" have taken on new meanings, as has the

reconceptualization of our older adult population as constituted of "young old," "old," and "old old" persons. At

the level of the individual and the family, the sheer demographics of aging have suggested a shift in needs experienced by older adults and their families and have given rise to a host of relatively new pressing concerns such as caregiving and elder abuse. At the level of state government, it has called forth the need to recontextualize aging as a phenomenon and to understand its multidimensional, multidisciplinary requirements.

Some of

Many other social and demographic factors have held definite ramifications for our older adult population. these include the growth of female labor force participation, although limited advancement opportunities and comparatively lower salaries and wages have not removed the threat of poverty for women as a group. And, despite the fact that fewer older adults appear to be poor today, one out of eight or nearly 3.5 million still fall below the official poverty line, with almost three-fourths of the elderly poor being women. Changes in the

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