Three in four Virginia Boomers (77%) expect to live to age 80 or beyond, and 38% say they expect to live to at least 90 years in age. Source: 2008 Older Dominion Project Residents' Study
Partners
Partner Profiles
Name: F. Ellen Netting
Title: Professor and Samuel S. Wurtzel Endowed Chair in Social Work
Company/Organization: Virginia Commonwealth University
ODP Partner Since: September 15, 2008
ODP Committee Affiliation: Civic Engagement Work Group
Summarize your professional background relevant to Age Wave preparedness.
During my undergraduate and graduate days, I took as many courses on aging as were offered at the time. Upon graduating with my MSW in 1975, I taught social gerontology as an adjunct faculty member at the University of Tennessee School of Social Work while I worked at the first director of an Office on Aging in Loudon County Tennessee. I directed the first Foster Grandparent Program in Knoxville-Knox County Tennessee, followed by working at the East Tennessee Area Agency on Aging.My scholarship has been primarily in the area of aging for the last 25 years that I have been teaching in schools of social work. My colleagues and I have a textbook on Elder Advocacy published by Cengage Learning.
What expertise or other strengths do you bring to the Older Dominion Partnership?
My background is in macro social work practice, so my skills are primarily in the area of program planning and development, organization and community practice, and administration and planning.
What do you believe are the most pressing issues in Age Wave-preparedness in Virginia today?
The most pressing issuesmay be shiftingwith the recent economic crisis in that persons who thought they could retire or planned to recareer may be reevaluating their ability to do so.The increasing needs for quality long-term carein various settingsand who pays for it will continue tochallenge us as a country if we can't addresshealth carein the broadest sense. The diversity among the aging population andour capacityto respect difference will be an increasing challenge, particularly in terms of multiculturalism.
What advice do you have for age wave planning in Virginia?
Reaching out to diverse communities is a continual need, along with the use of flexible planning approaches (not simply prescriptive models, but emergent and alternative approaches are needed).