In an effort to centralize long-term care resources and information, the Obama Administration recently launched a new website, aging.gov. The website, which curates a broad range of information on topics ranging from healthy eating habit suggestions to Medicare enrollment, aims to be a one-stop hub to all the available federal government resources for the aging population. The launch comes in tandem with the White House Conference on Aging and amid many new government initiatives to address America’s challenge of caring for aging Baby Boomers—a whopping 20 percent of the population is predicted to be over the age of 65 by 2030.
Although intended to provide a wealth of information to all Americans, not just the elderly, the website is designed with simplicity in mind for those who may not be as tech-savvy as the millennial generation. The layout is focused on functionality rather than design, with simple buttons and tabs to navigate the various topics of interest such as ‘Long-Term Care’ and ‘Retirement Planning & Security.’ Each tab redirects to a page that contains a brief summary of important sub-topics and links to the pertinent government website for that topic. Despite its easy to navigate design, actual information on the website itself is scarce and it is clear that the intended purpose is to be a curator, rather than a generator, of knowledge. And that it does well, for example, providing direct state-by-state links for finding caregivers and senior support and access to tips on retirement planning, long-term care options and staying safe from abuse, discrimination and/or exploitation. In recognizing the often difficult task of maneuvering the myriad of federal, state and local resources, the Administration is quite surely taking a step, albeit a baby one, in the right direction in regard to tackling this nation’s pressing elder care matters.