Public Policy and Education
- History

Present Circumstance

The Twentieth Century has been witness to an experiment in social conditioning resulting in circumstances that have placed quality of life at risk for all people, regardless of where they are on the continuum of aging. The nature of family support systems have changed. Burdens placed on Livelihood needs gave rise to two family wage earners causing the family to become redefined. Changes in the nature of the family has forced the care of children and elders to be delegated to strangers. Children are sent to public day schools and our elders live in circumstances where they become out of control and plagued by the consequences of uncertainty. More often than not, our elders are forced into dependency on entitlements to survive, including social security and medicare.

In younger years, wage earners are taught to believe that their livelihood is subject to compliance to the rules and forces for social good. Competition, free will, self-determination, personal choices, individuality, family unity, pride, national identity, privacy and religious preferences have come under new guidelines and rules. In many ways, life for the family has become complex and fails to reward according to the expectations that are built by the new social order. As we learn to live with new rules and expectations that seem beyond our control, there is a constant effort to strive for balance.

The consequence for Americans on their aging pathways is a measurable change in quality of life that is characterized by confusion, depression, anxiety and anger at every stage. The momentum that naturally propels humans to competitively strive, thrive and seek livelihood are suppressed and discouraged. And, in retirement, at a time when we are most vulnerable, we are expected to accept entitlements. In many ways, we literally become wards of the state.

Elder LifeCare Foundation is interested in supporting and advocating the dialogue to restore people's understanding and appreciation for aging as a circumstance that brings us together, and that does not separate us into age determined victim groups whose destinies are pre-ordered by arbitrary notions of social good harmful to human need to strive and thrive.