The UCLA School of Public Affairs will be hosting a panel today that will discuss the issues facing the aging population in Los Angeles.
Julia Finkelstein, a social welfare graduate student and cochair of the Social Welfare Gerontology Caucus, said the event aims to address the shortage of social workers in the field of aging adults.
“Only 3 percent of social workers in the nation work in the aging field. There’s a huge need for more workers on the behalf of aging adults,” Finkelstein said.
The panel was put together by the student-run Social Welfare Gerontology Caucus and will be moderated by Fernando Torres-Gil, associate dean for academic affairs at the UCLA School of Public Affairs.
Finkelstein added that the state of California has a population of 3.5 million adults 65 years and older, with 950,000 of these older adults living in Los Angeles County. Los Angeles also has the most ethnically diverse aging population in the nation.
Tamra Thomas, a social welfare graduate student and cochair of the caucus, said planning for the event began in fall quarter.
Organizers wanted to make sure the discussion would be relevant to all public affairs students as well as the community as a whole.
At the panel, Torres-Gil will ask the participants questions that have been prepared by the caucus before opening the floor to questions from audience members.
Karen Lee, a field education faculty member in the social welfare department and faculty sponsor of the caucus, said the panelists will range from nationally recognized gerontology researchers at UCLA to those working in the field of social welfare locally in Los Angeles.
Finkelstein said the panel will also include speakers for the aging LGBT community in Los Angeles, an AARP representative and an older resident who can share his or her personal experiences as someone who has aged while living in the city.
Usually about 10 percent of social welfare students every year want to work in the field of aging adults, Lee said. But fewer students seemed interested this year, leading to the planning of the event as a way to raise interest in the field.
Thomas said she was also personally inspired to put on the event because she believes aging is not only an important yet overlooked concentration in social welfare, but also a phenomenon with far-reaching effects.
“Aging impacts every facet of social work and every facet of life, and oftentimes people don’t recognize that, or don’t want to,” Thomas said.
Lee said she hopes the panel will help people recognize that aging “isn’t something that is going to be the sole domain of people who are interested in working with older adults,” but a phenomenon that would affect everyone.
“It’s almost like putting out an alarm ““ the aging are coming, the aging are coming! ““ and L.A. needs to be prepared for it,” Lee said. “There’s not going to be anyone in L.A. in the future that won’t be affected by the demographic imperative, the booming number of aging adults.”