LA is getting older. The percentage of the population over 65 is growing rapidly and by 2050, almost a quarter of Angelenos will be in this category. This will fundamentally change the city.
Will Medicare services become more accessible? Will stop lights give people more time to cross the street? What about housing and caregiving, friendships and family relationships?
At the LA City Department of Aging, general manager Laura Trejo is working on addressing these issues —from coordinating counseling services for seniors to providing support to family caregivers.
“Right now, LA County has a population base of more than 1.8 million older people over the age of 60, and we have a handful of geriatricians, comparatively,” explains Trejo.
“And even the distribution of physicians across the county is not equitable across all regions. So there are places like the West side that are overly saturated with physicians per capita, versus other parts like the Southeast or the East side that have very few physicians per 100,000 in the population. Those things give us pause.”
As the senior population increases, so will the need for geriatricians —and our current health care and housing disparities are likely to worsen too.
