PORT TOWNSEND — Energized by Gov. Gary Locke’s appointment to the State Council on Aging this fall, Robert Stevenson seems eager to express his ideas about retirement.
Stevenson, 67, joins the 20-member board that advises the governor and state Department of Social and Health Services on policies, programs and services affecting seniors.
For the next three years, he will be the voice of seniors across the North Olympic Peninsula.
Retiring from his counseling career last summer, Stevenson moved to Kala Point with his wife, Janet. There he found himself occupied with the affairs of aging and disability services.
“As I grew closer to aging myself I was becoming part of it,” said Stevenson.
“The issues of aging are key issues to our society, especially right now with the retirement of baby boomers.”
With a significant portion of the population approaching retirement age, the current popular views on retirement will also change, Stevenson predicts.
“Baby boomers are not going to settle for the standard of care where a lot of older people are being warehoused into a retirement home,” he said.
Key issues
Developing alternative services to the retirement home system may be one of the key issues in the foreseeable future.
The question Stevenson hopes to address is how to help seniors retain independence without compromising their social interaction.
Stevenson, a United Methodist Church pastor with 42 years of experience, served Spokane residents with psychotherapy. This, as he points out, translates from Latin as “soul healing.”
The cleric sees church as one option to solve that problem.
The other: visiting nurse services.
“It made all the difference in my mother’s life,” Stevenson said.
“She lasted two years and I think those were her best years.”