Through our course on diversity and aging, I explored the older adult population and

aging services network in the Native American community both on and off of reservations. This
writing process provided me with an education in how history, government, culture, and ethics
could be interwoven into the creation of large gaps in the aging services network and the
healthcare services field for this particular population. This experience served as a reminder that
even when policies like Medicare seem to be all-encompassing of older adults in our country
who need help, there are still pockets of the population who fall through the cracks, and require
a keen eye for community need and group diversity to advocate for their inclusion in these
services.
Also, the lack of research that was available to utilize while writing the paper was equally
was startling. I struggled to find current and complete research addressing the older adults
Native American population in order to support my suspicions that they were an underserved
group. overall, the group was treated more as a population afterthought in larger research work
than a priority. This lack of data is a reminder and a call to advocate for more holistic coverage
in academics of minority communities who struggle with the same late life stage issues as well
as caregiver burdens that are faced by mainstream population, in addition to the complexities of
the lifelong discrimination and struggles they face navigating their given service networks.
While I have chosen to seek out and study forgotten pockets of the older adult population,
this by no means lessens my concern or awareness for the need for change regarding larger
social programs for older adults, especially Medicare. As a member of the American Society on
Aging, I was very excited to see the summer issue of their publication, Generations, would be
focused on Medicare as we marked fifty years of the programs existence (Generations, 2015).
To my shock, much of the publication was celebratory and congratulatory of the success of
Medicare and the way it has stabilized over time (Generations, 2015). While there was
conversations surrounding change, I did not feel the publication or the organization itself did
enough when more eyes were on this program in the wake of an anniversary to call for
changes.
These changes should include simplification of billing and services, better safety measures to
avoid fraud by businesses and individuals, and support for low income and isolated community
members (Generations, 2015). I understand that change takes time, and that the victories we
have accomplished should be celebrated. I recognize a weakness in myself as a young
professional and a gerontologist that I am very impatient and anxious for change. Through my
work in this degree program, I have not been able to control my feelings of change coming too
slowly. the knowledge I have gain has caused me to feel a sense of urgency towards change
and activism that I feel those in power do not share. During my extensive work on the rights of
older adult prisoners and prison hospice, I have also felt that those who are older than me and
have higher professional positions do not feel my time and suggestions are of value because of
my age and lack of years in the field. While I do understand that over time one carries more
weight in the words from their experiences, I also feel the gerontological community needs a
better platform for acknowledging and growing the ideas of their youngest members. This is
something I will remember across my professional career, and vow to foster the growth of young
professionals when I am in the opposite role.
My development of my ethical sensibilities as a gerontologist has taken me from a focus
on the larger aging population to seeking out smaller subsections of the older adult population
who are left out of some of the most basic services and benefits afforded to those in our
community. I have heavily focused my studies and my personal advocacy work on the injustices
against older adults within the prison system, who live without access to equal health care,
safety, and resources that most in the outside have. I have advocated for legislation and political
enthusiasm to support remedies to these gaps in care and resources that impact these older
adults, and have learned that the battle is not easy. Part of developing ones sense of
professional ethics is knowing when you are right and true in your beliefs, and using your

education and articulate speech to support the causes you are supporting. The area of
prisoners rights is not popular, but the injustices are still very real and troubling.
When looking at the ethics and research involved in this issue. many barriers exist in
advocacy due to a lack of research and an unwillingness to share information between prison
authorities and professionals in advocacy organizations as well as academia. When
constructing my paper for our introduction to research class, I struggled to find complete and
detailed information on prison populations, the resources and programming that is available to
older adults in prison, and how officials feel about potential change to meet the needs of the
older adult prison population better. This makes it challenging to move forward with my desired
activism and support of legislation to modify current programming.
This brings back the full-circle conversation of the importance of education, both formal and
informal, when working in the aging services network. Gaps and barriers to care are often a
result of a lack of education by professionals, policy makers, and the public themselves (Rhodes
& Halm, 2015). Some of these gaps are intentional, and represent a long legacy of
discrimination and struggle to modify care system and resources to best serve outliers in the
population (Rhodes & Halm, 2015). Some are unintentional, and are only stumbled upon in
moments of crisis or increasing concern, as we will soon witness more frequently with the
increase of the older adult population (Rhodes & Halm, 2015).
The encouragement from the strength of my educational experience to encourage others to
pursue an advanced degree in gerontology will only further the abilities of professionals to
change the aging services network (Perkinson, 2013). I want to educate and advocate for the
very word gerontology to be known and common, instead of having to explain it constantly. To
have a wider breadth of individuals from many disciplines invited into the aging field is to make it
stronger and remove the stereotype that only medical professionals interact with older adults
(Perkinson, 2013). Not only is this incorrect, it also dismisses the value of whole-person
healthcare, which we are advocating for in all stages of the life course (Perkinson,2015). The
interweaving of older adults into non-field specific research will also help to promote and
advocate for the marriage of disciplines in helping older adults and their caregivers. My product
of further writing and information past my formal education is something I hope to use to
awaken a call to serve in others that perhaps did not know they had it in them, especially when
looking at the end of life space.
At end of life, African American are significantly less likely to have advance directives
and enroll in hospice services (Rhodes & Halm, 2015). Barriers that are common to this
seemingly normal part of old age and caregiving include a lack of knowledge about prognosis,
different desires for aggressive treatment, family members involved are resistance to accepting
hospice, and a lack of insurance (Rhodes & Halm, 2015). This information demonstrates a
need for specific program modification and creation of resources to better educate and serve
the African American community at end of life (Rhodes & Halm, 2015). Once again, the need
serves to demonstrate an interest in solving this problem, and will subsequently spur more
research to find the best remedies.
During my personal development and reflection across this course, I have had to ask myself
what it means to be the many dimensions of my person at my current life stage, and what that
predictively means for me professionally as well as during my own aging experience. I have a
passion and a call to work with those who have been othered by society and the aging
services network, yet by my personal traits I am far from qualified as being able to speak on this
phenomenon. Being white and raised in an upper class home, I have already experienced a
fairly privileged and sheltered life both by having bountiful resources and by always seeing
confident and successful images of my self in society and the media (Mehrotra & Wagner,
2008). These privileges and helpful starts in the form of education, money,and good health care
have given me a head start in life, and I want to use this opportunity to give back to others in
my community who have not been as fortunate (Mehrotra & Wagner, 2008).

One personal trait that I can use to help a specific subsection of the older adult
population is that I identify as being female. Women are the majority presence when looking at
the older adult population, but that does not mean they have an easier time navigating the aging
service network or accessing resources they need (Mehrotra & Wagner, 2008). I have identified
as a feminist and a strong advocate for womens rights throughout my life, and I am very proud
to have been raised in a family of women who promote this practice and advocacy. I feel there
was a gap in my gerontological education in that we did not have a women studies class offered
to us, but I also see how elements of gender and sexuality were incorporated in many of our
classes along the way. So often the conversation revolved around older adults being viewed as
having no gender or sexuality, or all older adults being viewed as effeminate (Mehrotra &
Wagner, 2008). I hope moving forward to seek out more opportunities to incorporate my love of
feminism into my aging services work and advocacy. In my work surrounding prison hospice, I
was shocked to discover that prisons that did have hospice programs were primarily for men.
Advocacy for prison hospice also focuses heavily on mens prisons, with no explanation from
advocates as to why womens prison are an afterthought at best. This is an inequality I struggle
with and I am actively seeking better answers to.
I have selected older adults and the end of life spaces for my professional path and my
advocacy energy because I personally believe that every older adult has a story that should be
listened to, validated, and passed on. I also believe that every older adult has the right to be
cared for as a privilege and a right earned by the passage of time alone. Where that care takes
place, what that care consists of, and who performs the care are all individual choices, but the
right to make them is something I feel is a basic human right. For too long this space has been
neglected and overlooked while other life course phase have been tended to and addressed.
The time is now, as the population shifts, to be on the right side of history by supporting a
revolution in aging by definition and appearance. It took a very long time for me to decide and
awake to the destiny that is now so clear to me, and I owe it to the future aged version of myself
to commit, continue, and persevere in protecting the older adults of our society.
References
Generations (2015), What Works and What Doesn't: Opportunities to Strengthen Medicare for
the Future, Generations, Summer 2015.

Mehrotra, C.M. and Wagner, L.S. (2008) Aging and Diversity An Active Learning Experience.
New York: Routledge Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.
Perkinson, M. (2013), Gerontology and Geriatrics Education: New Models for a
Demographically Transformed World, Generations 37 (1).Retrieved from AgeLine November 1,
2015.
Rhodes, R. & Halm, E. (2015), Barriers to End-of-Life Care for African Americans From the
Providers Perspective: Opportunity for Intervention Development, American Journal of Hospice
and Palliative Medicine, 32(2). Retrieved from AgeLine November 1, 2015.