San Diego Hosts Ideas@50+ AARP Convention

MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: Our top story on Midday Edition, the AARP new ad campaign challenges stereotypes of the organization, and ends with the phrase you don't know ARP. Well, San Diegans are going to get a chance to know AARP really well this week. The group, formally known as the American Association of Retired Persons, is holding a national convention and Expo at the San Diego Convention Center tomorrow through Saturday. Joining me to talk about the convention and what we need to know about AARP are my guests, Jeannine English and Terry Bradwell. Welcome to the program. One thing we do not know about ARP is what to call it. Is it still A-A-R-P? JEANNINE ENGLISH: I still call it A-A-R-P, but some people like to call it ARP, and that is fine. Because it is all about the products, services, and policies that AARP provides the 50+ publishing. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: When did this organization become more than a group representing retirees? JEANNINE ENGLISH: Probably about fifteen years ago, we recognized about 50% of our numbers were not tired. 50% of our members wanted to continue to work. We see more and more of that now. April are making choices. Some people need to work, some people need that income. We have longer life spans, but also, a lot of people want to continue. This is a boomer generation, and people are not going to sit in rocking chairs. They're going to continue and live a long and productive life. That is something we try to help them do. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: Give us an idea of what AARP does. JEANNINE ENGLISH: We help our members live their best lives, with dignity and purpose. We do that through policies that work with local communities and governments to make life better for people over fifty. We also identify products and services that we think will benefit members and help them access those products and services. We also listen to them, and find out what their concerns are, and try to respond to that. One of the people we will have at the event is the administrator of the SBA, the small business administration, is our members have said to us, they are interested in starting their own businesses, going to the next career. We want to help them answer that question, for what is next for them. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: What you have identified as some of the major interests and concerns of older Americans are part of the focus of this national convention. I believe it is broken down into four categories. There is, as you say, money in work, health and wellness, lifestyle and travel, and something that you are interested in Terry, technology and innovation. How tech savvy are older Americans? TERRY BRADWELL: Older Americans are very, very tech savvy. As soon as they start picking up devices and learning technology, they can be very tech savvy. But we have found there is a fear, a gap, a divide. We applaud the fact that 80% of Americans are leveraging technology and using it every day and living their best lives with it. But 20% are not. Half of that 20% are over the age of fifty. We found most of the reason has to do with fear, some of that has to do with access. You can look at that the same way as someone who's learning to swim for the first time, and jumping into the water. It's a scary place for that person. And people getting involved in technology are finding the same things as well. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: I imagine for people who have access to technology, computers, tablets, and smart phones, but are not using them or using the to any capacity, maybe they do not know how this device can fit into their lives. Do you come across that? TERRY BRADWELL: Every day. The reality is, technology is not just nice to have. It is essential to our lives. You don't find blockbuster across the street. Most brick and mortar is quietly going away. Amazon is replacing a lot of retail is disses now that are finding it a struggle to keep up. Without having technology these days, you can't get access to basic services that you need. It is not just about having fun, it's about access to basic services that you need to live your best life. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: Tell us about AARP tech. TERRY BRADWELL: I can talk for days about that. AARP tech is something we started about a year ago as an event similar to this. We were calling it like that fifty at the time. We had a group of individuals providing rudimentary support to any members were anyone who came to our workshops. We found it became the hottest ticket in town. When we moved from the start in Vegas and moved to Atlanta, you would have thought we were opening up an Apple Store in Manhattan. We had lines going around the building, basically. Folks were waiting not for a trinket, or something they would be able to take home in their bags, but for education, to learn more about technology. We found there is a huge hunger out there for the 50+ population. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: Some of that will be taking place at the Expo, right? TERRY BRADWELL: That's right. It will be taking place at the Expo, but we are already in the community. We have been here since Tuesday. There are three locations we have been in the community already, doing technology work shops in three different language, English, Spanish and Mandarin. We are already in your community. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: That is just one of the interactive opportunities at the Expo. Are there other things that can engage people so they can learn and have a hands-on activity with? JEANNINE ENGLISH: Absolutely. We're doing something a little different this time, we have salons. In addition to having people like Martha Stewart or Joan London come speak, there is an opportunity to go to a salon and have an intimate conversation with them about some of the issues. I think that will be an amazing opportunity for many members. In addition, on the exhibit floor, there are opportunities to talk to different vendors and actually try out the different types of products and services they have MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: You mentioned a couple of big names, Martha Stewart and Joan London, and you also have Academy Award Winner Kevin Spacey at the event. JEANNINE ENGLISH: He is our opening session speaker. It will be wonderful to have him there. I think many people are coming for that opening session is of that. TERRY BRADWELL: Including me. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: How interested are these celebrities in taking part in the convention? There used to be in ageism kind of thing. I noticed Julia Louis Dreyfus is one of your speakers. Is it something they are anxious to do? JEANNINE ENGLISH: Absolutely. We always have amazing talent it comes, and we have our Ambassador program. We have people like Samantha Brown from the Travel Channel. She will talk about different travel programs and adventure she has been on. We also have Dan Moreno to Mike he is one of our investors. He will be out tomorrow to talk to volunteers about some of the things he has been doing. We have Doctor Pepper Schwartz, who is our love and sex Ambassador. She will be there as well making presentations and talking to individuals. We have a lot going on. I think there is a lot of different interests that will be important to almost anyone. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: Terry, when you have these expos, or these tech events, where people are lined around the block looking for information, why can that help someone who's 50+ use technology and learn technology in a way that other courses can't? TERRY BRADWELL: What we have found is that language, terminology can be a huge barrier in life. Many individuals could not tell you a hashtag from a hard drive. I say that almost jokingly, but it is really no joke to individuals that are getting engaged with technology for the first time. We have customized our training around very plain language, no technological babble. Plain language in easy to consume workshops, so they can do the basic things, and connect to friends and family and essential services. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: Is this only for members of AARP? TERRY BRADWELL: No, it is for anyone. And you don't have to be over fifty years old either. If you have any problems embracing technology, these classes are for you. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: AARP is known for having a great deal of political clout. Does that come from donations the group makes to politicians? JEANNINE ENGLISH: No. Actually, we are nonpartisan organization, and we do not contribute to any political campaigns. What we do, we have policies that have been adopted by our Board of Directors. We have a volunteer national policy counsel that looks at the policies that affect the 50+ population. We will support issues that impact the 50+ population, but nothing we do is political. We are nonpartisan. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: You do back certain ideas that politicians may have, right? JEANNINE ENGLISH: We back specific issues and policies. For instance, we have supported and continue support Social Security, we think that is the bedrock for financial security. We also believe that there are other components of financial security that people need. They need to be able to save, to have employment, they need to have the opportunity to have financial resilience. So, we do all kinds of things to make it easier for people to have that type of financial resilience. With regard to health care, we supported the Affordable Care Act. We believe that everyone has to be able to live a healthy life, with dignity and purpose. To live the best life that you have, you have to be healthy and financially secure. Our policies are focused on being healthy and financially secure. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: As an organization, AARP represents people over the age of fifty years old. There are wide range of issues you have to cover. The concerns of the fifty-five-year-old can be very different from the concerns of an eighty-five-year-old. How do you cover all of the bases? JEANNINE ENGLISH: One of the things that is unique about AARP, we have offices in every state and in the territories in the District of Columbia. We have volunteers in the state, and we look to volunteers and members and what their needs are in the state. In some cases, we sponsoring or supporting legislation, and programs in the state, because those are meaningful in that state. In another state, we will be supporting other policies. We try to really get down to the community, and understand what our community needs and wants, and work on the policies that will benefit the community. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: How much input to the members have? He said that the board of directors come up with the policies, are there any votes taken or anything like that? JEANNINE ENGLISH: The Board of Directors does not just come up with policies. We have a twenty-six member national policy counsel that comes from all over the country. They deliberate on specific policies. We have a major policy book that is approved by the Board of Directors. The Board of Directors does deliberate, but is not to start from the board of directors. It starts from our members. We do pulling, and talk to our members about what their concerns are. We ask for input, and that is how we really develop our policy agenda, with our members. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: In reading up on these interviews for the AARP convention, I came across something startling. Everyone in the baby boomer generation it would have turned fifty this year, and next year, the oldest generation X'ers begin turning fifty. With that in mind, how do you see the concept of growing older evolving in the next decades? JEANNINE ENGLISH: It is changing dramatically. The things that we think and know we can do in our 50s, 60s, 70s, even 80s, are so much different than they were for our parents and grandparents. I know now I have changed my career two or three times. It used to be that you stayed in one career and retired. My father, though, is eighty-six years old and still working as a farmer. We have longer life spans, people are living longer and many people are living healthier lives. And they have financial abilities to try other things and try new things. Retirement is completely different than it was in the past. And aging is really healthy living. We do not think of it as aging, we think of it as healthy living throughout the span of your life. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: The AARP convention starts tomorrow, and it runs through Saturday at the San Diego Convention Center. Thank you both very much. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: This is KPBS Midday Edition, I am Maureen Cavanaugh. The legendary movie star Bette Davis summed it up nicely. Getting old is not for sissies. A big reason for that is the health issues that comes with it. In the second part of our focus on the AARP convention in San Diego this week, we will look at how that organization is working on health and wellness issues for older Americans. One of the major concerns many people have about getting older is staying mentally sharp. My first guest, neuroscientist Michael Merzenich has contributed to an AARP program called staying sharp. He is cofounder of the Post-it Science, a brain training system, and professor emeritus at UC San Diego. Welcome to the program. MICHAEL MERZENICH: It is nice to be with you, Maureen. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: Many people say that today's six-year-old is in considerably better shape than a sixty-year-old a few decades ago. Is that true for the brain as well? MICHAEL MERZENICH: It really isn't, it should be, but it isn't. If you look at the average individual at sixty, they have declined substantially in cognitive ability, memory, and mental power, from the prime of life around the thirtieth birthday. Those changes are pretty significant in the average person. But they do not have to happen on that level. You can do things positively to change your outlook and your capacities at any age. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: So if we are healthier physically, why haven't our brains kept up? MICHAEL MERZENICH: It's how we use them. We basically have an active period of aggressive learning when we are younger, and we developed the skills that dominate our lives. And then, we rest on our laurels and don't engage our brain enough when we are older. I am talking about the average life, not the well spent life. If you continue to be aggressive about learning, changing, and engaging the world, you can substantially stall those losses. Most people do not do that, they do not understand that is what they should be doing. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: What are we learning about how age affects the brain? MICHAEL MERZENICH: We now have beautifully documented the physical and functional changes that occur, and it is a little complicated, as you can imagine, like most things in neurology. The brain just gets noisier in operation as we get older if we do not keep it sharp, if we don't do things to keep it operating in a sharp way. There are several things we can do to do that, but was people don't and we slowly slide downhill. In a well spent life, you would not allow that to happen. One of the exciting things about modern brain science, we understand it does not have to happen. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: Much of your research involves brain plasticity. It used to be thought that the brain's ability to learn decreases with age. Is that true? MICHAEL MERZENICH: Absolutely not. Things are slower in the brain, you are slower learner when you are older because in the average person, the process of control learning are down. But those processes themselves are all subject to change, improvement, and strengthening. When you improve them, and your capacities to learn when you're older are almost as good as when you were younger. You can look at skill after skill, or ability after ability, and if you appropriately engage it, you can drive it at any age to improve. You know instinctively if you could just get in the right mode, you can improve anything at least a little bit. If you add up those little bit day by day or week by week, they can drive you a long way towards your highest performance level at a young age. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: What are those activities that can keep our brains active and healthy? MICHAEL MERZENICH: One thing you can do is go to a training site and use the web and modern technology. The staying sharp program from AARP is an example, that is supported by a training site, brain HQ. Training has been demonstrated scientifically to be effective. The advantage of going to a computer for training is that it is highly efficient. But if you are behind or slowing down, it is a good way to get started. But you can do many things in everyday life, of course. One of the important things to think about how you are running or organizing your life. Your life should be a life of continuous learning. I don't just mean doing the things you have been doing all along, but acquiring new skills and physical abilities. It is also really important that you continue to exercise. Use your brain to control your actions, not just exercise mindlessly on a treadmill or stereotypically. Exercise where you are using your brain to control how your operating in the world and life. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: Are you saying when it comes to learning new things, it would be better for your brain do not necessarily just read a history book, but to actually learn how to speak a new language, or learn how to do a new kind of dance, that kind of thing? MICHAEL MERZENICH: Absolutely. Those are two wonderful examples of new activities that your brain would love for you to be engaged in. I also want to add if you want to continue with your growing assets in an older life that come from new activities, if you want to continue to advance yourself, you need to read history books, of course you need to get information from your PBS radio station, because you need to continue to grow as a person. Understanding, and operating things in the world as well. You need new, physical, functional activities like new dances or learning new language is. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: I think it is fair to say that people over the age of fifty are quite concerned about developing Alzheimer's disease is the age. Is there any research that shows that doing this kind of brain health work will stave off Alzheimer's? MICHAEL MERZENICH: There is a strong indication that it will. There is a pretty good demonstration or argument that it would delay onset. It is more difficult to improve because it takes a long period of time to be sure. A person can live a life to a longer life without Alzheimer's coming in, but certainly you can increase your resilience, and have a protective value. You can extend the time in your life in which you are safe. We are intensively working now with large populations of individuals in training at brain HQ, to see how will we protecting people, and how long we can keep people safe, and how what they do in our website and in their life has protective value. We are very optimistic that most people can live a long life without worrying so much about Alzheimer's disease, if that life is well spent. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: My last question for you, can you do brain health work occasionally, a game here, and exercise their, or is it best to develop a daily program? MICHAEL MERZENICH: It is best to think about your lifestyle and the lifestyle change that would promote your brain health. That relates to diet, exercise, and how you engage your brain in training. It is important that there be some level of regularity to it. When you are learning or changing your brain in a positive way, the brain needs exercises like the physical body needs exercise. It has to be serious, it has to matter to the brain. It is something to think about. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: Michael, thank you so much. I appreciate it, thank you for your time. MICHAEL MERZENICH: You are very welcome, Maureen. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: In addition to brain health, many people over fifty find themselves having to monitor other medical issues. But researchers involved with digital medicine say that technology is making that easier, from managing diabetes, to controlling hypertension, technology is helping to keep track of medical conditions, sometimes from the comfort of home. I would like to welcome Jody Holtzman, Senior Vice President of Thought Leadership at AARP. Welcome to the program. JODY HOLTZMAN: Thank you for having me. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: Tell us about the ways that technology is being used for patients outside of the doctor's office. JODY HOLTZMAN: It's interesting, there's been an explosion in general around digital health. A lot of it is stemming from where innovation usually does, from startups. In the last couple of years, we've seen not just a proliferation of companies that have become part of what is an ecosystem. You have startups, incubators, accelerators, and greater interest from investors, particularly in the venture capital community. They are doing these things in areas from medication adherents, to what we call eating with vitality. It's also about brain health, hearing, vision, staying active, areas of remote monitoring. You don't necessarily have to go to the doctor, you can do things from home. Part of that is also not just health in a narrow sense. It is really health and wellness. People over fifty, just like everyone else, are concerned about diet, nutrition, and ways to stay on a diet and have behavior change that sustains that behavior. It is things like meditation, things like staying active, but it is also connected living. You want to do things that keep your outlook on life positive. That is staying connected to your family, friends, community, and technology plays a role in that as well. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: When it comes to medical technology devices that are wearable, and some of them are called smart pills, obviously these devices might make for fewer doctors visits. But are there other ways that this kind of monitoring helps patients? JODY HOLTZMAN: I think the most important thing is together with concern about Alzheimer's, dementia, and cognitive ability declining. The other thing, after survey after survey that pops up, the people want the most, is to stay in their home. That is more than just a wish. It really speaks to familiarity. And interacting with people that you know. Being comfortable in your community. Those are other areas in this holistic sense that are really key. There are a whole slew of technologies, and companies. There's a company called lively that has very noninvasive monitoring, you put little monitors on the bathroom door, on the refrigerator door, on the utensil drawer and your pillbox. In a couple of weeks, it establishes a pattern of daily living. If the pattern breaks, on a website, your family members, your caregivers, however you designate, you can see and say maybe I should knock on the door and say Harriet, are you okay? Or give a phone call, something like that. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: I want to know how these devices work, because I know people have been hearing about monitoring devices that sent information about your blood pressure, diabetes, and other numbers to your doctor. How do they work? Are patients digitally monitored all of the time? JODY HOLTZMAN: That is possible. Typically, no. Certainly with the commenters of various types that have Wi-Fi connections, you are testing your blood a couple of times a day. That basically stays the same. The more interesting thing is what is in the future, that basically you will be able to test your sugar without blood, it will be something that can simply digitally penetrate your skin. The pain and constant sticking will be a thing of the past. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: Are most doctors in health clinics able to receive this kind of digital health information? JODY HOLTZMAN: It is still a bottleneck. In general, a phrase that has come into use the last couple of years is big data. That is all of these various tools, computerizations, they are producing tons of data. How you sift it to extract what you need is a challenge. Doctors are already overwhelmed. Figuring out how to give them usable tools, so that they don't just get data, but they see something visual. It is a graph over time, or something like that. There's a lot of activity in that space. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: How will AARP be highlighting this digital and medical technology at the Expo? JODY HOLTZMAN: We have been doing this for a couple of years. Tomorrow, on Thursday, we have from 2 to 6, a segment on the health states that my group is doing called health interactive at 50+. We are going to have three panels of startups who are going to we sharing technologies, one in the area of chronic care management, another in the area of physical fitness and wellness, and a third on diet and nutrition. That will be informing the audience about what is happening, but other activities that we do, we also put startups in front of our members to interact with them. The startups can actually get real-time market feedback to find out if the font big enough? Is the technology accurate enough? Is the messaging right, is the value right? We have been doing this for a couple of years now, and we've heard from startups in particular that they have, one in a survey that we just did described it as a focus group on steroids, because we gave them exhibit space over three days to interact with our members. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: Are there enough of these devices available on the market now, so you could go to your physician and say you know, I would like something that monitors my heart rate. I would like something that monitors my blood pressure and could send that information to you. JODY HOLTZMAN: There are not enough, but there are definitely a lot of these products. One of the challenges that a lot of the startups have is pre-revenue. They haven't really got traction in the market yet. They are still proving the efficacy and efficiency of these tools. They also do not have a lot of money to market. You're trying to get above the noise and say look at me. That is something that is going to take a little more time. We are at an early point in the curve. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: The AARP Convention and Expo takes place tomorrow through Saturday at the San Diego Convention Center. Thank you very much. JODY HOLTZMAN: Thank you.