Gen Now | June 2022

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GEN

NOW

June 29 - July 5, 2022 c-ville.com

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C-VILLE’s Monthly Guide to Navigating Senior Living Options in Central Virginia

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RIGHT TIME, RIGHT PLACE,

Right Move

AnthologyCharlottesville.com

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ANTHOLOGY OF CHARLOT TESVILLE Independent Living Assisted Living / Memory Care 343 Archer Ave. / Charlottesville, VA

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When is the best time to move to a senior living community?

When you want a more rewarding life with engaging activities, nutritious meals, compassionate support and fellowship. Most residents will tell you they wished they’d moved here sooner. Right now is a good time for Anthology of Charlottesville and the best move you can make.

LGBTQ elder pioneers face new challenges

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Premier Assisted Living and Memory Care

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At Our Lady of Peace, the health and well-being of our residents remains—as always—our top priority.

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What Residents Are Saying

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“Here I feel safe, loved, respected, and not alone.”

Barbara Allison, Our Lady of Peace Resident

Residential Living • Assisted Living Memory Care • Nursing Care

434-973-1155 our-lady-of-peace.com 751 Hillsdale Dr. | Charlottesville Coordinated Services Management, Inc. Professional Management of Retirement Communities Since 1981

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June was chosen for LGBTQ+ Pride month because in June 1969 there was an “uprising” at the Stonewall Inn in New York City that sparked a liberation movement.

That was over 50 years ago. Many of those who have struggled in the fight for LGBTQ+ rights are older adults now, which comes with a host of new challenges. As author Dave Singleton put it, decades after Stonewall, “We’re still in the early stages of grasping what it really means to be LGBT and older.”

According to SAGE and the National Resource Center on LGBT Aging, there are 3 Million people identifying as LGBTQ+ over the age of 50, and that number is projected to be 7 Million by 2030. These older adults are two times more likely to be single or live alone, a major challenge for older adults in general; also, they are four times less likely to have children to provide support. In essence, LGBTQ+ older adults deal with the most difficult issues that all seniors face – isolation, living alone, lack of caregiver support - but also face additional challenges.

For example, despite advances in LGBTQ+ rights, over 34% still worry that they will need to hide their identity to access senior housing or nursing home facilities. Indeed, a third of LGBTQ+ people have experienced victimization at least three times during their lives, and as older adults now many live in fear of acknowledging their true self, which can feel like a frustrating step backward.

According to an AARP “Maintaining Dignity Survey” several years ago, 76 percent of LGBTQ adults over 45 worried about having adequate family and social support systems to fall back on— and most worried about abuse, neglect and harassment in long-term care settings.

As a result, 53% of LGBTQ+ older adults feel isolated from others, and caregiving challenges fall

heavy on the community 21% of older LGBTQ+ people have provided care to friends, compared to only 6% of non-LGBTQ+ older adults. Generally, LGBTQ+ people become caregivers at a higher rate and make up 9% of all caregivers in the United States. What’s more, without strong family and social support, older LGBTQ+ adults are faced with relying on our system of outside care providers, a system not as equipped as it should be to meet their needs.

Statistics show us that LGBTQ+ older adults and caregivers are more likely to face poverty, homelessness and have poor physical and mental health. While Pride Month is a time to celebrate how far we’ve come, it is also a time to recognize how much still needs to be done.

“Of particular concern to JABA are the struggles that older LGBTQ+ adults must deal with,” says Marta Keane, CEO of JABA, a local non-profit that serves older adults and caregivers. “Those statistics highlight the issues that we address with all seniors, but they can be especially challenging for LGBTQ+ older adults. That’s why we’re always seeking opportunities to celebrate the value in diversity and strive for equity and inclusion in our programs and services.”

Indeed, for those who came of age during the modern gay rights movement, there’s another frontier to conquer aging with dignity.

“Our LGBTQ elder pioneers are fierce,” Lynn Faria, executive vice president at SAGE, told AARP in 2019. “They’re the ones that lit the spark that ignited the modern LGBTQ rights movement, and they’re the fighters on the front lines today saying, ‘We refuse to be treated this way; we refuse to be invisible.’ “

David McNair handles communications, media relations, and social media efforts for JABA.

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ROSEWOOD VILLAGE

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