National Senior Citizens Day recognizes older adults’ impact

August 21 is National Senior Citizens Day, a day that recognizes older adults and the impact they have had on society. The day was created in 1988 after President Ronald Reagan signed Proclamation 5847.

Ty Hill, owner of a local Caring Transitions franchise, spoke with Our Quad Cities News via Zoom to talk about the importance of day and the issues facing seniors.

“To me, Senior Citizens Day is a day to acknowledge those who have come before us and who have lived long enough to be of an age where they don't have to work any longer, and their biggest care is what am I going to do today, or what I'm going to eat for dinner today.”

He said while seniors deal with some of the issues other adults face, like rising prices, they have their own unique challenges to face. “I guess one issue that I come across with some of my clients is just the isolation. When they're living at home alone, they don't have that interaction with people. A lot of times their kids that we deal with are seniors themselves and so they're not necessarily mobile. I have clients, the guy said that he is 95 years old, so you can imagine his kids are in their 70s or late 60s.They don't have a lot of support sometimes and sometimes the family just isn't nearby, or when you get to a certain age, you've outlived all your family and friends.”

Hill said memory issues can be a concern, but it can be difficult to know when to seek medical advice. “If you see them every day, you may not notice it. But if you talk to them like once a week, those things become a lot cleaner. It's kind of like when you're losing weight. You don't see the pounds fall off, but somebody who hasn't seen you in two months says, ‘oh, you've lost a lot of weight there.’ It's the short-term things they typically start off forgetting. Sometimes it could just be chalked up to age, or sometimes it could be something where they're having a little bit of cognitive issues.”

He says the best way to celebrate National Senior Citizens Day is to spend quality time with older relatives. “I would say just give them a call, check in on them. That's a big thing, that somebody shows them that there’s somebody who cares, who's thinking about them. Like, ‘hey, it's Happy Senior's Day. I'm just giving you a call to say hi.’”

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