{"id":114077,"date":"2015-03-09T20:48:43","date_gmt":"2015-03-10T02:48:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/preparing-for-a-silver-tsunami\/"},"modified":"2015-03-09T20:48:43","modified_gmt":"2015-03-10T02:48:43","slug":"preparing-for-a-silver-tsunami","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/preparing-for-a-silver-tsunami\/","title":{"rendered":"Preparing for a \u2018silver tsunami\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Rep.
Rep. Jessie Danielson, D-Wheat Ridge, speaks at a news conference at the Colorado Capitol on Tuesday where lawmakers and home health-care professionals spoke of the need to address the state\u2019s aging population.<\/span>Peter Marcus\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

DENVER \u2013 Colorado state lawmakers are preparing for a \u201csilver tsunami\u201d as the state grapples with an aging population.<\/p>\n

A package of bills was highlighted Tuesday that aims to address the aging population, while protecting seniors from abuse and providing retirement security.<\/p>\n

Health workers said part of the issue is providing a stable job market, suggesting that wages should be raised for health-care professionals who assist the elderly.<\/p>\n

Ethel Ayo, a home health-care worker who is employed by Colorado Assisted Living, said she would like to see her wage raised to $15 per hour. She currently is paid slightly more than $9 per hour.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not enough to make ends meet,\u201d Ayo said. \u201cMy family and I depend on each other, otherwise we wouldn\u2019t make it. I depend on my adult children to survive, and I\u2019m not alone, there\u2019s many more just like me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lawmakers are pushing four pieces of legislation that they hope will address the aging population in Colorado:<\/p>\n

House Bill 1033, sponsored by Rep. Dianne Primavera, D-Broomfield, would establish a study group to examine and identify issues facing the state as a result of its aging population.<\/p>\n

House Bill 1235, sponsored by Rep. Brittany Pettersen, D-Lakewood, would establish a task force to specifically study retirement security and factors that affect Coloradans\u2019 ability to save for the future.<\/p>\n

House Bill 1018, sponsored by Rep. Jessie Danielson, D-Wheat Ridge, aims to protect seniors from abuse by adding additional mandatory reporters in the state.<\/p>\n

House Bill 1242, also sponsored by Danielson, would require hospitals to offer patients the chance to designate a caregiver within 24 hours after the patient is admitted to the hospital and before the patient\u2019s release.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have the \u2018silver tsunami\u2019 coming, and we really need to address these issues,\u201d Pettersen said.<\/p>\n

The ratio of working adults to seniors will drop by one-third in 15 years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lawmakers push bills to address aging population<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":114078,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[94,13,687],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-114077","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-colorado-state-government","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-senior-citizens"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114077","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114077"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114077\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/114078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114077"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=114077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}