National Resource Center on Native American Aging director Twyla Baker-Demaray (left), project coordinator Kim Ruliffson (center) and administrative secretary Ann Miller work to empower Native people to develop community-based solutions to Native elders’ health and social issues (not shown are research director Richard Ludtke, PhD, and associate professor Marilyn Klug, PhD).

You worry about how to get to the doctor’s office and how long you will wait after you arrive. Worst of all, after your drive and wait are over, your doctor tells you that, based on your health, he or she considers you to be ten years older than you really are. 
      This is a discouraging prospect for anyone at any age; however, for North Dakota Native elders, this is reality. Native elders (those ages 55 and older) are more susceptible to a number of chronic diseases and incur more barriers to receive health care. In the results from a survey completed in March 2008, North Dakota Native elders in comparison to the general elder population were found to be 29 percent more likely to experience a stroke, 57 percent more likely to experience congestive heart failure, 168 percent more likely to experience diabetes and 165 percent more likely to experience osteoporosis. To reach their health care provider, Native elders have to surmount greater hurdles—getting an appointment, finding transportation, traveling farther and waiting longer—than their non-Native counterparts.
      According to Laura Carstensen, PhD, professor of psychology at Stanford University and director of the Stanford Center on Longevity, “The challenge today is to build a world that is just as responsive to the needs of very old people as to the very young.
      “The conversation under way in the nation changes from one about old age to one about long life, and this is a far more interesting and more productive conversation to have.”