AUGUSTA – “No senior left behind” was the popular theme of the Blaine House Conference on Aging, a daylong workshop held Thursday at the civic center in Augusta.

About 300 people gathered to advocate for public policies that support the well-being of older Mainers and recognize their ability to make important contributions to society as they age.

Maine was recently determined to have the oldest population of any state in the nation.

About half of the participants were elder delegates who attended one of 15 community-level public forums held last month to gather grass-roots information about issues of concern to older Mainers. Other participants included state officials, service agency staff and a handful of state legislators.

Gov. John Baldacci opened the event, regaling the friendly audience with tales of growing up in a large family and working in the family business. “It was drilled into me by my parents and my grandparents to make sure older Mainers are well taken care of,” Baldacci told the group. “For me, this isn’t politics; it’s important.”

Laurie Lachance, president of the Maine Development Foundation, set the context for the day’s work with a presentation showing that Maine’s population is aging rapidly. The median age has risen from 29.5 years old in 1960 to 41.2 years old in 2005, she said, and the percentage of Mainers over 85 years old has increased by 30 percent since 1980. The baby-boom generation of people born between 1946 and 1964, she said, is “a tidal wave about to crash on the shore of retirement,” a situation that “will touch every aspect of life in Maine.”

Lachance listed three reasons why Maine’s population is aging so dramatically. First, she said, non-Hispanic whites, who make up almost all of Maine’s 1.4 million citizens, have the lowest birth rate of any ethnic group. The state’s lack of diversity also makes it difficult to attract young immigrant or minority families, she said. Secondly, young adults between 20 and 29 years old have been leaving the state for college and careers over the past few decades, although that trend is beginning to shift. And third, a small but significant number of older people are choosing to retire in Maine, contributing to the state’s graying demographics.

The good news, LaChance said, is that, overall, baby boomers are living longer, healthier lives with better education and fewer disabilities and financial worries.

Participants at the conference broke into eight work groups and each group was charged with identifying three “action resolutions” – advice to legislators and policymakers to guide their decisions during the coming year. The groups considered the following topics: family caregivers; paid caregivers; community involvement and volunteerism; housing and services; elder abuse; employment; healthy aging; and transportation.

Carolyn Trask, 82, and her husband, Zeke, 86, drove from their home in South Paris to take part in the conference. Carolyn Trask retired from her nursing career in 1991. Zeke Trask said that after he retired from careers in automotive sales and real estate, he worked for four years at the Seniors Plus agency in South Paris, marketing their programs.

“They took advantage of my business experience,” he said.

He retired for good last September. The Trasks took part in the groups that were discussing employment and healthy aging, and both said they were satisfied their efforts would be put to good use.

“If you’re going to change the Legislature, you need a group like this behind them,” Zeke Trask said.

Pam Taylor, 66, attended the public forum in Caribou last month and traveled to Augusta on Thursday from her home in Forest City. Taylor, a retired geriatric social worker, said the conference offered an opportunity to support meaningful change on the state level. “People in Maine try very hard, but nationally, things are so rigged I doubt we’ll make any difference at all,” she said.

At the end of the day, the work groups reconvened to share roughed-out versions of their resolutions. Many called for significantly better access to information about existing services, including low-cost drug programs, public transportation, computer training and other resources. More ambitious groups demanded higher wages and more respect for their caregivers, incentives for elder-friendly employers, property tax breaks for older homeowners, and legal protection from abuse and scams.

This was the first Blaine House Conference on Aging in over a decade, according to Diana Scully, director of the Office of Elder Services in the Department of Health and Human Services. The events were traditionally held every two years until the early 1990s, she said, and were discontinued to save money. Scully said that, given the state’s aging population, she expects the conference will be a regular event in the future.

The resolutions arrived at on Thursday will be reworded for clarity and posted within a few days on the Web site of the state’s Office of Elder Services, along with details of the sometimes heated discussions within the work groups. The resolutions will be posted at www.maine.gov/dhhs/beas.