The needs of Virginia's senior citizens are as varied as any other group of individuals. Meeting those needs, however, becomes more difficult as these citizens are faced with mounting health and shelter costs and other expenses on limited or fixed incomes. The Commission has had little difficulty in identifying many needs. It has concluded that they should be met by existing institutions and agencies, both public and private, wherever practicable.

As people grow older some are less able to support and maintain themselves independently, and the quality of their lives can be directly related to the quality and number of public facilities and services available to them.

The category of "elderly" or "senior citizen" is vague and defies an accurate and simple description. Normally, the term is used when a person reaches an age of retirement, whether arbitrarily fixed by statute or company policy, and the mental or physical condition of the individual is rarely of any significant importance.

As a person increases in age, his or her health problems and handicaps may or may not increase, but the necessity for maintaining suitable housing and other personal needs must all be met on fixed and reduced incomes. Retirement, and the death or disability of a marriage partner, often requires adjusting to life's daily demands under an entirely new and different set of conditions. These problems are frequently compounded by the loss of mobility and the resulting loneliness that follows as family and friends die or become more involved in meeting the demands of their own immediate family requirements.

Whenever possible, the General Assembly should fund necessary programs which cannot be financed by the private sector, but it must exercise restraint and not hold out false hopes by adopting policies or approving programs which are not funded to a realistic level.

Because we have a tendency to consider elderly citizens as a statistic within an arbitrary established age group and not as individual people engaged in the natural process of growing older, we have neglected to spend sufficient time and study on the aging process. We have now learned that there is m1.ich we do not know about aging and how it affects people and their behavior except in a physiological and perhaps superficial way.

Ways must be found to reverse the trend toward isolation as a person grows older. Few people can retain their vitality in a purposeless existence. Programs must be designed to provide senior citizens activity and employment tailored to individual needs, interests and capabilities. Our society needs their skill and experience.

With these broad principles and concepts in mind, the Commission makes its recommendations and comments.