Senator Collins Selected as a Top-50 Influencer in Aging

      WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senator Collins has been selected as one of Next Avenue’s top-50 Influencers in Aging for 2015 for her work as Chairman of the Senate Aging Committee and as an advocate for our seniors nationwide. Next Avenue is a national media service for America’s booming 50+ population that appears on the PBS system.
 
      As the Chairman of the Senate Aging Committee, Senator Collins has focused on three major priorities: investing in biomedical research targeting diseases that disproportionately affect older Americans, such as Alzheimer’s and diabetes; protecting seniors against financial exploitation and scams and improving retirement security.
 
      Upon receiving this recognition, Senator Collins was asked to respond to the question “If you could change one thing about aging in America, what would it be?” Senator Collins responded saying, “I would change attitudes so that America’s seniors are afforded the dignity, safety and security they have earned through lifetimes of contribution."
  
      Other leaders selected for this prestigious honor include: California’s former First Lady, Maria Shriver, for her work as an advocate for change in the lives of America’s women, notably in the areas of unpaid caregiving and Alzheimer’s disease; Dr. Atul Gawande, for his role in pushing for patient-centered care for the terminally ill; and Music legend Glen Campbell, for his participation in documentary Glen Campbell ... I’ll Be Me, the award-winning film depicting his final multi-city tour after his own Alzheimer’s diagnosis;.
 
      Senator Collins recently wrote a column describing her efforts to protect the well-being of our nation’s Seniors as Chairman of the Aging Committee. See below.  

Protecting the Well-Being of Older Americans
What the Senator and the Aging Committee are doing to help
 
By: Senator Susan Collins
November 13, 2015
 
Editor’s note: This article is part of Next Avenue’s 2015 Influencers in Aging project honoring 50 people changing how we age and think about aging. Here, Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), one of the Influencers, blogs about the work she’s doing to protect older Americans.
 
      As a Senator representing the state with the oldest median age, I am particularly focused on the well-being of America’s seniors. It has been my privilege to serve on the Senate Special Committee on Aging since my first days in the Senate and an honor to have been elected chairman for the 114th Congress.
 
      The committee has three major priorities: investing in biomedical research targeting diseases that disproportionately affect older Americans, such as Alzheimer’s and diabetes; protecting seniors against financial exploitation and scams and improving retirement security.
 
Increasing Alzheimer’s Research Funding
 
      In my work as chairman of the Congressional Alzheimer’s Caucus, I have learned much about our nation’s most costly disease and the devastating effect it has on more than five million Americans and their families. Although promising research is underway, there currently are no means of prevention, effective treatments or a cure for Alzheimer’s disease.
 
      The good news is that the Senate Appropriations Committee, on which I serve, recently approved a 60 percent increase in Alzheimer’s research funding. I am delighted that the Senate is finally recognizing the need for a greater investment in Alzheimer’s research and will work for this funding to be retained in the final version of the appropriations for the National Institutes of Health.
 
Helping the Nation’s Family Caregivers
 
      A national plan to combat Alzheimer’s and other debilitating conditions must include assistance for the family caregivers on the front lines.
 
      The bipartisan RAISE Family Caregivers Act that I have introduced would help us to leverage our resources, promote innovation and promising practices and provide our nation’s family caregivers with much-needed recognition and support.
 
Attacking Diabetes

      Investments in biomedical research not only improve the health and longevity of Americans, but also provide ongoing benefits to our economy and the federal budget. For example, nearly one of three Medicare dollars is spent treating people with diabetes, and the incidence and costs of that disease are projected to go up as our population ages. Advancements in the prevention and treatment of diabetes can save lives and help extend the solvency of Medicare.
 
      Since I founded the Senate Diabetes Caucus in 1997, funding for diabetes research has more than tripled from $319 million to well over a billion dollars this year. As a consequence, we have seen some encouraging breakthroughs and are on the threshold of a number of new discoveries.
 
Curbing Elder Financial Abuse
 
      The Aging Committee has taken an aggressive approach to fighting fraud and schemes targeting our nation’s seniors. Financial exploitation of older Americans is a growing epidemic that cost seniors an estimated $2.9 billion in 2010. It is very troubling that in as many as 90 percent of these cases, the senior is victimized by someone he or she knows well. Financial abuse of seniors can jeopardize their physical and emotional well-being as well as their financial security.
 
      Maine is on the cutting edge of helping to combat financial abuse through a program called “Senior$afe,” which is a collaborative effort by Maine, financial institutions, regulators and legal organizations to help educate bank and credit union employees about how to identify and help stop financial exploitation.
 
      Based on that model, Senator McCaskill and I have introduced the “Senior$safe Act of 2015,” which would put in place a commonsense plan to help protect American seniors from financial fraud. This bipartisan legislation would encourage financial institutions to train their employees and shield them from suit when they make good faith, reasonable reports of potential fraud to the proper authorities.