The world commemorated U.N. International Day of Older Persons this week, which in the state of Israel is marked as Senior Citizens' Month. This is an opportunity to spotlight the demographic process happening just under our noses. This process has not received nearly enough attention. Over the past three decades, life expectancy in Israel has dramatically risen, lengthening life spans by almost nine years. This shift, which means our senior citizens now live much longer, is the result of incredible technological and medical advancements. It is interesting that despite our difficulties as a young state surrounded by enemies, the state of Israel is among the world's leaders in extending life expectancy. Since the founding of the state, the senior citizen population has almost doubled. If we speak about numbers, in 2030 we can expect 1.4 million people in Israel to be over the age of 65. Essentially this is a demographic revolution, and thus the responsibility is on us, as a state, to be aware of it and conduct ourselves appropriately. So far governments around the world, among them the Israeli government, have offered mainly welfare and nursing services to this population. Therefore senior citizens who are not defined as being either needy or sick are not institutionally recognized as having special needs and do not receive services suited to their needs. More than this, today's senior citizens are very different than they used to be. Diseases connected to aging have been pushed off by nearly a decade, and people can now look forward to living for many years after retirement. At the age of 65 or beyond, many people are healthy, in good shape, independent, knowledgeable and have a fair amount of free time. Eighty percent of the senior citizen population, despite some special attributes, are not currently recognized as a unique sector of society regardless of the fact that their numbers are constantly growing. We must create a fresh agenda for this issue. We must prepare for a demographic revolution leading to massive changes in all that is connected to our way of thinking about senior citizens to ensure that we provide each and every one the services he deserves. It is absolutely necessary to adjust the complex mechanisms to deal with their growing numbers. If we don't do anything -- if we turn a blind eye -- it will likely drive Israeli society into a serious crisis over the next few years. Israeli authorities are occupied today with building kindergartens, mandatory pediatric care centers and schools; but within just a few years, the financial burden created by the needs of the elderly population is going to increase and the authorities won't be able to afford it. Distress is looming for the senior population and Israeli society as a whole. The solution lies in proper preparation and long-term planning. The Senior Citizens' Ministry, however, has a plan. They are heading up a program that analyzes senior citizens' population demographics and leverages mechanisms already in place for the aging population. This program will establish a system of services and an infrastructure for housing, transportation, occupation and health, in order to accommodate the massive growth of the elderly sector. As for volunteer, leisure and culture services, we are working diligently on a system that will encourage and create social activities that take steps to integrate this population into society. If we do not prepare in advance, we will find ourselves in a situation with hundreds of thousands of aging citizens, fading away slowly and constituting a threat both to the individual and society as a whole. In the state of Israel today there are 750,000 senior citizens. These elderly people are the founders of the state, the builders of infrastructure. First and foremost, our values and principles teach us that we are obligated to these people. But at the same time, we also have an obligation to the future of the state and need to adjust to the changing demographic. The tables must be completely turned. We need to shift the old, negative attitude that sees elderly citizens as a burden on society and start thinking of them more as a human resource and an asset to society. If we adjust and prepare the services and the infrastructure, and discover how to leverage existing resources to integrate elderly citizens into the existing social circles and professions in the state, we will all -- senior citizens and Israeli society as a whole -- reap the benefits. The writer is the Deputy Minister for Senior Citizens' Affairs.
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