The Silver Boom: Aging in Rhode Island

This is a special documentary version of RIPR's 'The Silver Boom: Aging in Rhode Island" coverage hosted Dave Fallon. 

Topics include:

-Remembering the Gorham manufacturing plant,

- Being gay as a senior citizen,

- A 91 year old still teaches tap dancing,

- Older learners in higher education,

- The safety net for seniors,

- Issues with being older and in the prison system,

- Multi-generational family living,

- The cost of longterm care,

- Mental health care,

- Substance abuse among the elderly,

In less than 20 years, a quarter of the state’s population will be older than 60. Rhode Island Public Radio is looking at this growing demographic in a series we call “The Silver Boom: Aging in Rhode Island.”

Rhode Island Public Radio’s Bradley Campbell talked with Warwick’s, Ken Fish. He’s spent most of his life in Rhode Island, and is a leader for gay rights. They started their conversation examining how has life changed for the gay community over the decades.

Listen to the Series:

In less than 20 years, a quarter of the state’s population will be older than 60. Rhode Island Public Radio is looking at this growing demographic in a series we call “The Silver Boom: Aging in Rhode Island.” Weekend Edition Host Bradley Campbell sat down with the Program Coordinator at Sage Rhode Island, Sally Hay, to talk about issues facing the aging gay and lesbian community.

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Explore more stories in our series, The Silver Boom: Aging in Rhode Island.

New Professions for an Aging Population | Create infographics

Theresa Landry is the owner of the Theresa Landry School of Dancing in Pawtucket. Here she is doing a castanet dance:

Two days a week in her second floor studio she teaches tap dancing. Here she is teaching a few steps to a preschooler.

A Brown University PhD student in epidemiology, Beth Lacy, is 28 years old. That means she’s a long way from retirement and plans to be working for decades to come. But the debate over the future of Medicare and Social Security is on Lacy’s mind even when she makes one of her regular coffee stops at the Cable Car Café in Providence.

In less than 20 years a quarter of the state's population will be older than 60. In a series we call "The Silver Boom: Aging in Rhode Island," we're looking at how the state will take care of this expanding older population .. and how it can benefit from it.  In this installment, we travel to Cranston to look  at the state’s aging prison population.

If you're over 60, have you decided to go back to school? Why?

Please join the discussion in our comments section!

Rhode Island's prison population is aging. Should we release old and frail prisoners? Should we keep them in special nursing homes for prisoners? Let us know what you think and why in the comments section below.

Data from: The Rhode Island Department of Corrections, The National Institutes of Health, and the Journal of Correctional Health Care