Defining an aging Baby Boom generation

Newswise — Baby boomers, the generation born between 1946 and 1964, are facing retirement. They are changing the definition of aging, not just in the U.S., but around the world.

Laura Wilson, a professor in the University of Maryland's department of public and community health, and director of the University of Maryland Center on Aging (http://www.hhp.umd.edu/AGING/), has been looking at the boomer generation for a number of years. She says, "Boomers want to continue to learn, they want purposeful social networks and meaningful roles."

The Center on Aging researches aging and public policy. The Center also conducts a number of educational and service activities for adults over 50, including the Legacy College for Lifelong Learning and The Legacy Leadership Maryland Institutes.

Several of the programs are the first of their kind, and have expanded across the U.S. and around the world.

In April, 2005, the Center on Aging released a special resource directory just for baby boomers in the greater Washington, D.C. area. Copies are available from the Center on Aging.

Wilson is also co-editor of, and a contributor to, the newly published book Civic Engagement and the baby boomer generation. Wilson herself is a baby boomer. Recently, Newsdesk spoke with Wilson about how baby boomers view themselves and their future.

Q - What issues are most important to boomers?

"They center on employment-involved issues and delivery of health policy. Also, this is the first generation where women have been in the workplace for a lifetime. Who does the caregiving? Who volunteers? Older women have been the core of the volunteers. Non-profits are concerned about losing their volunteers."

Q - What are boomer employment concerns?

"You lose a lot of identity when you retire. We'll be facing that struggle for a while. Many baby boomers want to work part time. We're working on how to link skills from our Legacy programs to employment."

"Boomers want to continue to learn, they want purposeful social networks and meaningful roles. We are looking for ways to integrate them into a new role in the community, into new models."

Q - Why does the Center focus on volunteerism?

"Early on I was surprised to find they (boomers) thought of being a volunteer as a negative thing. They were concerned that it meant not using their skills. If you put them inside organizations and don't prepare the organization, that will happen. We're working to make the organizations stronger, to use the skills of these people. We're having a wonderful time trying to figure out how to strengthen society with these skills."

Q - What are other issues facing boomers?

"Senior housing. Currently there just isn't enough. They don't see themselves in communities or activities that are age-segregated. We're developing new models that are multi-generational. If you say to a boomer, 'Will you move?' they are saying they won't choose a senior community. We also are working with builders, looking at new thinking about how those communities will work."

"Formal and informal care systems will also be an issue. How can we strengthen informal care systems?"

Q - Besides your research and focus groups, are there other criteria for your programs?

"I have developed a program that passes the 'Laura test.' If I can't envision it for myself, it doesn't pass the test."

Q - Is the world ready for the boomers to retire?

"We've known for years the world wouldn't be prepared. No one has imagined what it will be like to lose this large amount of expertise and how to recapture it."

"Boomers have blinders on to a large degree, but that can be good. It allows you to do other things. There is the pull of expectation versus reality. Boomers will be influencing us for the next 40 years and beyond."

Maryland's searchable online database of faculty experts includes a "Hot Topic" on baby boomers at http://www.newsdesk.umd.edu/experts.