Aging (and Aging Caregivers) and Developmental Disabilities

So we know that aging continues to be a big topic with a continuing increased life expectancy.

And of course, with a little blip around the COVID time, but overall, there's been a big increase.

So I'm going to cover a bunch of different areas and to give kind of a broad picture of sort of what it looks like in terms of aging and the supports out there as well.

So we'll talk about health and healthy living, about long term service supports and families, retirement, end of life care.

And then Bridging Aging and IDD.

For short, I'm using IDD for intellectual and developmental disabilities.

So taking a lifespan perspective, we're looking at, we really need to think about this as a whole lifespan issue.

We know that what happens earlier in life affects later in life.

And these are some of the things in the later life transition that we need to think about.

Certainly the development of chronic health condition, the changes in family, caregiver and support, what happens in terms of retiring from employment and receiving end-of-life care.

So these are some of the major life stages.

So what do we mean by aging well? You've heard about aging successfully, but what does it mean when people already, often they say aging successfully is aging without a disability.

What does it mean if you've already had a disability and Given the context of ableism and ageism, some people talk about compulsory usefulness.

We often blame people if somehow they don't age successfully, that maybe they didn't do the right health behaviors, et cetera.

So we're gonna talk about what that all means for people with IDD.

And how do we think about aging well? Well, living on your own terms, you know, what do people want? They say, as you get older, you get more and more like yourself and more different from other people.

So if you like being alone, you'll want to continue being alone.

You want to add value to society, family, or friends, and of course, maintaining health and function.

So we did a bunch of interviews with people with IDD to really see what does growing older mean to them.

So these are just some examples.

It means that you are settled and know what you are doing.

I am more kinder.

I get along a lot better.

I have friends I'm happy with and what I do things with.

For the future, I wish that I keep going happy and that I don't feel old and that I'm not in a wheelchair.