AARP Mass Director Credits Members With Legislative Wins, Including UAGPPJA

Mike Festa has a lot of experience serving the state’s aging community. He assumed the post of AARP Massachusetts’ state director in January 2013, and previously served as the state’s Secretary of Elder Affairs.

Before that he had been a state representative for Melrose and parts of Wakefield for five terms prior to that. In his 17 plus months at AARP, Festa has learned about the respect his organization carries when it comes to advocating for issues important to the lives of residents 50 and older.

“We’re engaged in a lot of big issues that affect people’s lives: financial security, health care, health security and just having a livable and fulfilled life in our communities,” Festa said of AARP. “When you have a non-profit organization as powerful and as well-perceived as AARP is, it gives you a wide swath of opportunities to speak on issues and it gives you a lot of credibility.”

One of those issues was the passing of the Uniform Adult Guardianship and Protective Proceedings Jurisdiction Act (UAGPPJA), which was signed by Gov. Deval Patrick last month and becomes law on Nov. 6., making Massachusetts the 39th state, along with the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. “Although it only affects a small amount of people, it will allow people to move from one state to another and not have a problem and not have to start from scratch with their guardianship,” Festa said.

He credits AARP Mass. members for playing an important role in convincing their elected officials to put the law into place. “There’s no way this law would have passed the house and the senate without a lot of people making the phone calls to their Legislators and the Speaker of the House, the Senate President and chairs of Ways and Means. There was a point a couple weeks ago we were getting a 100 plus calls into the legislature every day.”

It’s a key victory for the state’s 50 and older population. “It’s been a very good year for the state in terms of its government’s commitment to supporting family caregivers — whether it’s in the home care programs or quality of life things like increasing resources for fighting elder abuse. And there was a significant increase of the senior center/council on aging funding,” Festa said, noting it was the first time in six years there have been significant increases in some of those areas.

While progress has been made, Festa said, “We’re an aging state and we have to expand the resources to support people in their communities. There’s no question that people want to live at home, but you can’t do that without these kinds of supports, whether it’s Meals on Wheels or the home care program.”

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AARP Mass. Director Credits Members With Legislative Wins