Abilene Christian University student Taylor Barham, 21, admitted Tuesday morning that he’d come to the Texas Silver-Haired Legislature Town Hall Forum at ACU’s Hunter Welcome Center to get chapel credits.

But Barham, among dozens of people of all ages and occupations who gathered for the event, left genuinely “interested,” he said, and even inspired to learn and do more to help.

ACU student Zach Wheat, 27, had a similar response, finding himself enlightened about the trouble some seniors face in paying insurance premiums, among other difficulties.

“It definitely opened my eyes,” Wheat said.

Sparking such insight was among the goals of the event’s organizers, especially since Tuesday’s event was designed to have a slightly different patina about it than the nonpartisan and nonprofit organization’s usual endeavors, said Walter Graham, former Silver-Haired Legislature speaker and moderator of Tuesday’s forum.

The goal of the Silver-Haired Legislature, said longtime member Chris Kyker, is to give older people an opportunity to become directly involved in the legislative process through a threefold path: identification of issues of relevance, formulation of solutions to those issues, and — ultimately — putting those ideas before the Texas Legislature itself for consideration.

But Tuesday’s meeting was the first time the organization has done a “truly intergenerational town hall,” Graham said, with five generations of men and women of all ages and occupations represented.

Graham was pleased with the input gathered, he said, from college students who attended, professionals working within the field of aging and from a wide swathe of seniors.

Some of the items the group hears about “pretty regularly,” he said, including transportation issues, the lack of doctors that take Medicaid, and the need for more geriatric training for doctors, and issues with taxation.

But there were less familiar points, he said, including the need to examine and refine power of attorney issues for the mentally ill.

Among other ideas floated by participants were the need for tax freezes for the elderly, better tools to help seniors “age in place,” tools to help seniors back out of reverse mortgages if necessary, improvement of transportation services, more funding for home health care, leveling access to available services, and help in controlling utility costs for seniors while removing the potential for financial exploitation by providers.

Important to many, and to Graham, was continuing to focus on nursing homes and “getting the best possible care we can for seniors” in such an environment.

“Too, we have the tax freeze for seniors and disabled (people) that we got passed several years ago, but there are some cities and entities throughout Texas that haven’t implemented that yet,” he said. “I’m hoping that will catch fire and some more cities, counties and school districts will take advantage of that.”

Priorities presented Tuesday will be available to Silver-Haired Legislature members for consideration as resolutions to file for the 15th TSHL Session April 28-May 2, in preparation for the 84th Texas Legislature.

The TSHL is currently made up of 116 representatives elected by older Texans 60 years and older to serve two-year terms, according to its website.

Kyker, who has been part of the organization, in certain respects, since before its birth, said that the upcoming baby boomer demographic represents a wholly different collective experience than seniors have had in the past, made up of individuals whose input will resonate for decades.

“If you’re in fairly good health at age 65, you can look forward to 30 years or more (of life),” she said, meaning the collective needs of that demographic will be of tremendous importance in coming years.

After the event, Graham said the TSHL will soon start pare down a huge collection of issues gathered from members and others to about 10 core goals.

“And then we start looking for a Texas legislator to sponsor (those goals) and carry them,” he said, adding that TSHL members themselves regularly testify on behalf of such resolutions when they come up for consideration.

Source: Brian Bethel, Abilene Reporter News, Tuesday, February 4, 2013