Serving an Aging County

Now that baby boomers’ hair is rapidly thinning and the paunches are thickening, there is much talk of the “graying of America.” Now that medical breakthroughs have allowed people to live longer, and baby boomers often have delayed having children, the term “sandwich generation” has entered the vocabulary.

Many may be tired of a tendency of those born from 1946 to 1964 to act as if they were the first ever to have back pain or to worry about simultaneously paying children’s college tuition and parents’ nursing home bills. But the sheer numbers of the baby boomers means they have to be listened to.

The oldest of the boomers are now 52. In another dozen years many will have retired and will help constitute the expected half million Orange County residents who then will be 60 or older. That’s an increase of more than 40% over the current figure of 386,000.

As people age, their bodies wear out. Saddleback College has recognized that and has moved to start filling a need.

The school is the only community college in the county with a program to train home caregivers, the people in demand now and increasingly so in the future to tend to the needs of the frail elderly.

Saddleback’s program is run by the gerontology department. Graduates can receive a state certificate designating them as home health aides. It’s an advantage in finding a job and shows that the bearer has been trained in the special requirements of caring for seniors.

When students start the program, they go through one exercise in which they have their wrists, elbows, shoulders and knees bound with tape. They stuff cotton in their ears, wear glasses that blur vision and are told to walk downstairs and get a snack.

A project coordinator, Sandy Marzilli, says the students wind up with a “better understanding of the plight of seniors.” The loss of hearing, eyesight and mobility is temporary for the students. But adults coping with those losses often become angry at the refusal of their bodies to act as they once did. It’s important for home caregivers to understand the source of that anger.

The college course teaches students how best to move a senior to avoid injury. There are lessons in bathing someone unable to get out of bed and how to perform other personal chores while still respecting a senior’s privacy and modesty.

Ethics, nutrition, sanitation and ways to avoid infection also are topics. So are ways to communicate with those receiving the help. And there’s instruction in the psychology of aging.

The Irvine Health Foundation has funded Saddleback’s program, which is expected to be replicated in other community colleges in the state. That’s a good example of training students for high-demand jobs. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics says home health aide is among the top 10 fastest-growing occupations in the country. Projections are that the field will keep growing.

The program also provides a good example of preparing to meet the needs of an increasing segment of society.

In the next 30 years, the percentage of those 65 and older in America will increase more than those in other age groups. A new study by the American Assn. of Retired Persons found that 80% of baby boomers believe they will continue to work during their retirement years. Some will work because they choose to, others because they have to.

Some of those over 65 could well wind up enrolling in programs like Saddleback’s, being trained to take care of members of their own families or to work professionally as home health aides.

Well-trained aides will be a boon to families, who now spend large amounts of time interviewing caregivers to assist loved ones but who sometimes learn that they have picked the wrong person. Having a well-trained, trusted aide in the house is an important asset for seniors and their loved ones.