SENIORS : Gerontology Professor Takes On a Constituency of 37 Million

By one way of reckoning, Fernando Torres-Gil has a larger constituency than any public official in America except the President and vice president.

Torres-Gil, 44, on leave from his job as a professor at UCLA’s School of Social Welfare, is the first assistant secretary for aging in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. His constituency is 37 million older Americans.

Since taking office in May, he has been assembling his own team--something President Clinton consented to during Torres-Gil’s interviews for the job. He has testified before a congressional subcommittee on the role of business in providing services to the elderly. He has made public appearances in half a dozen states, and he is planning a conference next month in Washington on the problems faced by elderly women.

He defines his mission broadly.

“I have a responsibility to today’s older people to see that what they ask from government is addressed,” he said in a recent interview in his office, “and for preparing future generations for a new idea of aging that is based more on self-reliance and taking care of themselves.”

Self-reliance is important to Torres-Gil, as it was to his mother, Maria, who raised nine children in the farming community of Salinas. All the children now have professional careers except the youngest, a former Marine who is still in college.

Fernando, the second oldest, developed polio when he was 4 months old. Five years later, school officials tried to place him in a school for retarded children. He said his mother refused, saying: “Polio won’t stop my child from using his brain.”

And, of course, it didn’t. Torres-Gil earned his bachelor’s degree in political science from Cal State San Jose and went to Brandeis University in Massachusetts for his master’s and doctorate in social policy, planning and research.

He taught at USC, then at UCLA. In addition to his professorial duties at the School of Social Welfare, he has chaired its Faculty Executive Committee. Through his affiliation with UCLA, he also served as vice president of the Los Angeles City Planning Commission.

He has been active on state and national levels and was a White House fellow and special assistant during the Carter Administration.

“He’s ideally suited for his new position by his academic background, his ability to think about problems and the fact that he is in touch with the public,” said Dr. James Birren, associate director of UCLA’s Borun Center for Gerontological Research. Birren hired Torres-Gil in the early 1980s as a professor of gerontology at USC.

In his new job, Torres-Gil says he is eager to broaden and use the network he has built over the years.

Mention his name to his former colleagues at USC’s Andrus Gerontology Center and he is described with affection as a visionary--but a visionary with political skills.

The political Torres-Gil sits behind his desk in his new office and describes his job responsibilities: overseeing the commission on aging; serving as leader on issues of Social Security and health care for the elderly; and being an advocate for older people before other departments, such as Labor, Treasury, Transportation and Veterans Affairs.

He is also cultivating relationships in Congress and traveling as much as possible, “meeting the people who are doing great things all over the country,” he says.

The visionary Torres-Gil, meanwhile, is thinking about the blueprint to guide the federal government to prepare for increased longevity. “What we see as ‘older people’ will change. What’s old? 70? 80?

“We also need to understand that older in America means more women than men, and strategic initiatives are required. Little or no attention has been given in the past to older women. But when we talk about aging we are really talking about women.”

Fortunately, he said, his boss, Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala, has a special place for this on her agenda.

“Preparing for old age while you are still relatively young is an idea that needs to be sold,” Torres-Gil said. “And that’s where the media come in.”

The media, he said, are responsible for perpetuating and sometimes creating myths about aging. Some of the myths have catchy names such as “granny-dumping,” “the daughter track” and the latest, “the greedy geezer,” but most of them have not been substantiated by any serious research, he said.

In fact, a recent national study conducted by the American Assn. of Retired Persons shows middle-aged Americans take care of their elderly parents rather than abandon them and help their grown children and grandchildren as well.

Another study, from the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research, found that older Americans give more money to their adult children than the other way around.

“Elderly are no different than you and me,” Torres-Gil said. “Some are not fair and many care deeply. I know from my background in research that there is no generational warfare.

“There are tensions of how we will pay for expensive services, yes. But nine out of 10 elderly are concerned about taking care of the kids, and after that, think it would be nice to have nursing care to protect them. But they are very worried about what we will be leaving behind for our children.

“But, let’s not forget that the senior population is our greatest source of expertise, and my job is to reach out and tap them and put them on the front lines for projects like the President’s immunization program for children, where they can be used as volunteers.

“We also need to look at getting retirees back into the work force part time and into the public schools, especially in inner city schools. Senior employment is one of the hopes I have.”

Torres-Gil chose the field of gerontology because he thought it was “the future of our country.” Recently, USC graduated the first person in the nation with a Ph.D in gerontology-public policy, Valentina Villa.

She said: “I had never even met a Mexican-American with a Ph.D. until I met gerontology professor Fernando Torres-Gil. I thought ‘he’s like me and he’s got a Ph.D, so why can’t I?’ He became an example for me to follow.”

When Torres-Gil heard about her statement, he said: “I am honored and humbled. I have served as a role model. Now it’s her turn to do it. I wouldn’t want to be the first in anything. Do unto others. Encourage others to move into the field.”

He may not want to be the first in anything, but he is. The future of aging is in his hands. By the turn of the century there will be at least twice as many retired people as there are today.

Count on the man from Salinas, who has already beat the odds, to challenge us to be prepared.