May 13, 1985
During National Nursing Home Week, I urge all Americans to remember the contributions our older citizens have made in building America. These men and women are an important link with traditional American values for our young people today. Continued contact between older and younger Americans helps to strengthen these values for our future.
I support the goals of the nursing home industry to provide the highest standards of medical and social services for the elderly, but institutional care is not enough. We must also encourage everyone to include the elderly in their lives. Wisdom, memory and life experience can help us all to better understand this complex and changing world.
Throughout the year let us visit our elderly relatives and friends in nursing homes to share our love and caring. We owe them our help, understanding and, above all, respect. In return, they will give us their experience and sense of continuity. Together we can enrich all of our lives.
Ronald Reagan