Message from the President

Phil Peters

KAG President Phil Peters discusses issues at a recent Board Meeting.

I’m much honored to serve this year as the President of KAG. I have been on the Board for several years and have been so impressed by the quality of folks who have worked to make KAG an Association we can all be proud of. KAG provides a place, a forum, for all of those professionals across the state who are interested in the field of aging.  Whether a professor or a practitioner, an AAA director or a Senior Center Director, KAG is for you. Each year we try to provide information on what’s going on in aging around the state; advocacy on what we want to change, improve or build; and opportunities to connect with others who share our interests. 

As we look to the rest of 2008 and the first half of 2009, there are going to be lots of challenges for the field of aging and the older Kentuckians we all serve. There are big advocacy challenges at the state and national levels. Because of the economic woes of the state budget, many programs have faced cuts in their ability to provide services. On the national front, we’re going to be electing a President and a Congress who will be faced with major decisions regarding bedrock programs such as Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. There are planning challenges that all of us face on how to prepare for the tidal wave of boomers that are approaching the age when they are going to need services from systems that are already strained to the breaking point. There are huge personnel challenges ahead for the aging and health care fields. How will we be able to meet the recruitment, training and retention issues that will continue to grow? 

These are the challenges we all face in our daily work. And these are the challenges that KAG tries to address: through information, through advocacy, through networking. Please choose to be a part of this great organization and help us work together to meet the challenges of an aging society.