Countywide : Expo Draws Seniors and Care Givers

Linda Lee Simao scoured the displays Friday at an Anaheim exhibition for senior citizens services, hoping to find a security system for her mother’s mobile home.

Simao, like other middle-aged adults who attended the exhibition of more than 250 services, thought she was finished with care giving once her five children grew up. But Simao also has a financial and emotional responsibility to her mother.

“She lives on such a small income, she really depends on us,” the 43-year-old Stanton woman said of her 63-year-old mother. “It’s been a little bit more difficult for me. . . . When I’m working, it’s very hard.”

The Time of Your Life Expo, which opened Friday at the Anaheim Convention Center, is expected to draw hundreds of middle-aged attendees this weekend as more and more of them accompany their parents.

In previous years, the nationwide expo attracted mostly seniors looking for information on high-quality in-home care, affordable housing, medical insurance and emergency transportation.

“People are living longer and require more care,” said K. K. Kuettel, the expo’s coordinator. “The caring family has to come up with a way to care for their loved ones, and that can be very frustrating.”

More than 80 people have signed up to attend a seminar today on how to care for the elderly, she said. Many of them belong to the “sandwich generation,” a term referring to adults caring for their teen-age or college-age children and aging parents simultaneously.

On Friday, thousands of seniors danced to ballroom music, watched demonstrations on home improvement, chatted with representatives of health organizations and made three-minute phone calls to anywhere in the world courtesy of AT&T.;

From a business perspective, senior citizens are a growing group with a large disposable income. Countywide, the number of people 75 and older has shot up 30% in the past decade, according to the Orange County Area Agency on Aging. Currently, there are 23,000 people over the age of 85 and 68,000 between 75 and 85.