The 58-year-old who now heads Iowa’s Department of Elder Affairs says his “Baby Boom” generation will be more demanding in old age, and that’ll mean changes in the kinds of services available for the elderly. Elder Affairs director Mark Haverland says there’ll be more in-home services available. And he believes retirement communities will become even more popular as people want to give up caring for their houses and yards, and no longer wish to cook for themselves. Haverland says the state’s already-existing retirement communities are very popular and always full, and they’re building more all the time. Haverland says living in a retirement home gives the elderly the freedom to escape the drudgery of cleaning gutters, mowing the lawn and scooping snow. He says that’s of particular appeal to the Baby Boom generation.Haverland says the current generation of elderly seem to want to “do for themselves” and stay, independent, in their own homes as long as possible. He says his generation of Baby Boomers is sort of the opposite, and think of freedom as “somebody else does all my work for me.” Haverland was born in 1946 — the first year of the so-called “Baby Boom.”
