cal director, Langley Porter Neuropsychiatric Institute, San In the case of economists gerontology is very much a fringe I believe that adequate financing and support for young persons doing research on the aged will both encourage them to continue in this area and will serve to induce new personnel to enter this area of research.-Dr. Sidney Goldstein, Department of Sociology, Brown University (Providence, R.I.). * * * The problem is to get the field recognized as one in which a man can make a career equally as promising as those offered by the other sciences. Dr. Fred Cottrell, Department of Government, Miami University (Oxford, Ohio). METHODS OF RECRUITMENT There are various methods of recruiting the needed research personnel to the field of gerontology. Efforts to attract individuals to gerontology should, obviously, center in the Nation's colleges and universities. There are four main approaches which have been recommended by the experts consulted by the subcommittee; that is, there should be programs to provide block grants, centers for research on aging within universities, career investigatorships, and graduate scholarship and fellowship programs. Block grants Large block grants made to the universities would provide a major encouragement to the stimulation of research at the universities. Probably a dozen or more of these should be made as soon as possible. Dr. Wilma Donahue of the University of Michigan's Division of Gerontology has stated the case for block grants: Universities like the block grant because it makes available to them funds which they can spend as they see developing needs. It permits long-term planning of research programs, frees the researchers from the time-consuming tasks of overfrequent reporting and of preparing new project applications, and makes it possible to attract better qualified personnel because longer tenure can be guaranteed. It also provides funds which can be allocated by the colleges to young scientists who have not yet attained sufficient stature to apply directly for research funds. The fact that the National Science Foundation is beginning a block grant program this year and that the National Institutes of Health have sought and received authority to give block grants to medical and dental schools gives testimony that there is a trend toward this type of grant program. The need is for the social sciences to have available the same type of grant program. This will require some University centers for research on aging One of the essential needs that would be served by block grants should be the establishment of a series of regionally distributed centers and institutes for interdisciplinary research on aging. The need for such centers appeared prominently in the questionnaire responses, in the seminar deliberations, and in the research and training sections of the White House Conference on Aging. The four university centers now being supported with NIH funds are providing useful experience that will soon point to desirable patterns of organization and procedures. The present centers are demonstrating beyond question that scientists from varied disciplines are ready to work together in teams and that specialists in gerontology will appear out of these research settings. One major deficiency, at present, is the lack of such centers within the field of social science or social gerontology. The NIH-supported centers are, as noted earlier, almost completely focused on biological and medical research. The effective encouragement of university research and teaching centers on behalf of the problems of the aged would, in addition to providing research facilities, serve as training centers for research. specialists and technicians and would afford an opportunity for graduate students to undertake work in the field of gerontology. Career investigators The establishment of positions for career investigatorships in gerontology at both the aging centers and within university departments would provide the means of drawing some of the highest qualified people into the field on a permanent basis. Typical of the proposals made on behalf of these positions were recommendations that "gerontological positions" be established for professors and associate professors. One of the recommendations noted that the— immediate establishment of 6 to 10 of these appointments across the Nation would lift the whole field of medicobiological investigation of gerontology to a new level at one swoop.17 Scholarships and fellowships Many of the experts replying to the subcommittee questionnaire emphasized that an adequate supply of researchers will not materialize until scholarships and fellowships are established in the field of gerontology. The participants in the seminars conducted by the subcommittee discussed the means of overcoming the deficit of trained researchers. They came to the conclusion that what is involved is an immediate and continuing process of recruitment designed to attract senior researchers and at the same time draw younger people into the field. Financial aid to the graduate students combined with an opportunity to work with senior men will serve this purpose. With the establishment of research centers and career investigatorships, students will be encouraged to commit themselves to gerontology with some expectation they will be able to earn a living in the field. 17 Dr. Geoffrey H. Bourne, Emory University (Atlanta, Ga.). In conclusion, it should be noticed that too often research in aging has been the byproduct and not the main line of research efforts. This factor was frequently mentioned by the seminar panelists and by the experts replying to the subcommittee questionnaire. The availability of long-term funds are essential to establishing gerontology as a field in its own right. BASIC AND POLICY RESEARCH Two kinds of research are needed if we are to find solutions to the problems of aging that are already weighing so heavily upon us and upon our economy. One is basic research in the biological and social sciences that will lead to a fundamental understanding of the processes of aging and of the numerous problems facing older people, their families, their communities, and society as a whole. There is an equally urgent need for detailed statistical and evaluative studies necessary to the formulation of policies and the determination of wise expenditures of public funds. Thus, in considering such major questions as medical care for the aged, it is essential to have complete and reliable information on the number and health status of older people, their incomes, and their insurance coverage as well as on the number and kinds of professional personnel available and the variety and capacity of existing medical care facilities. Such data are now becoming available through such agencies as the Bureau of the Census and the National Health Survey. These and similar sources of basic information must be extended and their data widely disseminated if policies are to be decided on the basis of facts rather than guesses. A related type of policy research is that of evaluating the assumptions on which policy may be based. Thus, in considering Federal grants for the construction of geriatric hospitals, careful evaluative research must be undertaken to determine whether geriatric hospitals are useful in the first place. This, in general, is the area of policy research. The subcommittee, as members of a legislative body concerned with the problems of 16 million senior citizens, feels that this area of objective data collection and program evaluation is one requiring immediate emphasis. This type of research was well defined by one of the subcommittee respondents: *** Policy research refers to the pattern and principles of functioning whch are or can be followed by local, State, Federal, or private agencies in meeting their obligations to the aged. It is possible that policy research is similar to so-called evaluation research, which the effort is devoted to evaluating the success or failure of a program to achieve a stated objective.18 In response to the questionnaire Prof. Wilbur J. Cohen suggested questions for policy research in the economic and social welfare field: Should the retirement age be increased or lowered? What factors should be given weight in this area? 18 Dr. Ewald W. Busse, director, Center for the Study of Aging, Duke University, Durham, N.C. Should the "retirement test" in OASDI be repealed, modified, or retained? What would be the impact on individuals, and the economy? Is the test of total disability in terms of "inability to engage in any substantial gainful activity" satisfactory or unsatisfactory for older persons? Would an "occupational" test be more satisfactory? What is an "adequate" income for the aged? What is an "inadequate" income? What is the relationship of these levels to the level of the gross national output? What changes in tax policy are needed for the aged? How can these be evaluated in terms of the needs of other age groups? Participants in the subcommittee seminars also pointed to the need for policy research on such questions as: How would specified types of technological change affect employment opportunities and policies for older persons? In terms of the health needs of older people, urban transportation requirements and their social and recreational needs, what are the factors involved in providing “adequate" housing for the elderly? What are the psychological aspects of aging that have pertinence in relationship to the older person's ability to work, to live independently, and to achieve satisfactory relationships with other people? A Policy research is moreover essential not only in determining the role of Government in meeting the needs of the aged, it is concerned with the broader scope of these problems within the entire socioeconomic-political complex in which the problems are found. sociologist, in discussing family relationships of older people, commented that under "the impact of industrialization and urbanization the three-generation family has disintegrated as a household and as a unit of economic production." 19 The implications for policy research are clear. It would appear to the subcommittee that research on policy questions affecting our older citizens should long since have been accepted as a Federal responsibility. It has not been so accepted, except for token efforts. It must be accepted promptly, and fully, if we are to avoid the serious consequences that would be entailed by ill-considered or ill-informed actions directly or indirectly affecting the status of the aging in our society. 19 Ernest W. Burgess, "Family Structure and Relationships," Aging in Western Societies, op. cit., p. 297. FEDERAL SHARE OF RESEARCH_COSTS Through the enactment of the Social Security Act, through special provisions for the aged in housing legislation, through funds for the care of the medically indigent aged, and through the legislation which the Congress will undoubtedly enact to help assure access to health services for all the aged, the Nation has given ample evidence that the problems of the aged and aging are national problems properly calling for the utilization of national resources. It must, therefore, for many reasons, but primarily for its own protection, assume the responsibility for defraying a major part of the costs of such research. The subcommittee believes that perhaps the best guide to the role which the Federal Government should play in financing research on gerontology is to be found by analyzing the extent of Governmentfinanced research in its other areas of interest. In fiscal year 1960, federally supported research for all Government programs amounted to 2.2 percent of the total budget. The Federal agencies undertaking research programs are listed in the table on page 98, as prepared for the subcommittee by the Library of Congress.20 From the table it will be noticed that the Department of Defense spent $705 million for research, or 1.6 percent of its total budget; the National Aeronautic and Space Administration research budget amounted to 38.2 percent of its total expenditures, and the research share of the National Science Foundation (which, of course, is essentially an agency for research) expenditures was 61.7 percent. The agencies concerned with civilian, as distinguished from defense, activities, also have large amounts available for research. The Department of Agriculture is spending $114 million, or 2.1 percent of its budget, and the Department of the Interior is spending $51 million, or 7.3 percent of its total expenditures. The Department of Health, Education, and Welfare devoted 7.4 percent of its total budget to research. 20 This table shows the expenditures for the conduct of research, the total agency expenditures, and research expenditures as a percent of the total agency expenditures. Not included here are research funds appropriated for the Executive Office of the President, which usually has some special studies underway. The Housing and Home Finance Agency has no basic research funds. |