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SPECIAL REPORT
NORTH COUNTY BUSINESS JOURNAL
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FALL 2015
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vocacy group, said many seniors who leave
the workplace as employees will start their
own businesses.
"AARP has statistics showing that more
older people are starting businesses than
ever before," she said.
Sharon Hamill, a professor of psychology
and faculty director for the CSU Institute for
Palliative Care at CSUSM, said boomers –
however determined – won't be able to re-
main active indefinitely. When age and ill-
ness catch up with them, North County's
economy will be challenged by the task of
caring for them.
Also, many local employers will be im-
pacted as younger workers struggle to per-
form their duties at work while caring for
their aging baby boomer parents, she added.
"If you are at work and you get a call
that a parent has fallen, that will translate to
time off work," she said. "What happens at
home does impact the job."
Healthcare Challenges
Mary Ball, president and CEO of the
Alzheimer's Association of San Diego/Im-
perial Counties, said it's difficult for families
to pay for the care of relatives who suffer
from forms of dementia, a common illness
for the elderly.
"Of people who are 85 today, one in three
is living with a form of Alzheimer's or de-
mentia," she said. "With baby boomers
aging, we will have so many more people
impacted by the disease."
Following recent health insurance re-
forms, doctors are under mounting pressure
to find cost efficiencies. Dr. James LaBelle,
chief medical officer at Scripps Health, fore-
sees a transformation of the healthcare sys-
tem in North County and throughout the
nation, as medical facilities look for ways to
shoulder the cost of caring for the aged.
Boomers, with their longer lifespans, may
be more costly to treat than people of previ-
ous generations because they will be more
likely to have multiple chronic conditions.
"It really is an issue of how we drive
more efficiency into this system of care,"
said LaBelle. "It's a challenge. In terms of
acute care capacity in the county, we have
enough. We need to focus on how we
organize those services and get them to
work together."
Opportunities for economic Growth
Tim Lash, executive vice president for
strategy and successful aging for West
Health, a group that works to lower health
care costs, said North County should look at
providing care for aging boomers as an op-
portunity for economic growth rather than
as a drain on resources.
"We look at it as an opportunity to im-
prove care delivery and efficiency, and help
the healthcare system – which is about 18
percent of our (national) GDP – transform
for this wave of seniors."
HEALTHCARE SUMMIT TO
ADDRESS ELDERLY NEEDS
N
orth San Diego County is
well aware of the needs of
its community members, and
of particular concern lately are the
area's baby boomers. This
concern is why the
North County Health-
care Summit, to be
held on September
29, 2015, will be fo-
cused on "The New Econ-
omy of Aging Baby Boomers."
The summit will feature two panels:
one on the clinical status of the na-
tion, state, and region from a health-
care perspective, and the second on
how North County is preparing for
the future economic impact of the
area's growing elderly population.
Panelists will include Mary Ball
from the Alzheimer's Association of
San Diego, Kapua Conley from Tri-
City Medical Center, Leslie ray, Epi-
demiologist from the County of San
Diego, Sharon B. Hamill, Ph.D., from
the CSU Institute for Palliative Care,
and Tim Lash from West Health.
An informative, encouraging, and
timely summit, this event is ideal for
both baby boomers themselves and
the businesses that support them.
SAVE THE DATE!
CLICK
HERE TO
REGISTER
FOR THE
EVENT
