This week’s Healthy Aging Forum featured Dr. Walter Leutz’s results from his study on how to create an environment where people achieve healthy aging. The report, Healthy Aging in the Commonwealth:
Pathways to Lifelong Wellness (pdf) includes several recommendations to help all of us get there.
Importantly, Dr. Leutz equated health with ‘going and doing’ based on numerous surveys with older adults. The goal is patient-centered care. This is accomplished through organizing the community (senior centers, arts organizations, etc…) to be supportive of patient empowerment. The medical profession and the community then implement evidence-based programs that have been shown to benefit this population.
His recommendations are simple in theory, yet challenging to implement as was evident in the presentations of the remaining speakers. Nancy Whitelaw focused on the challenges of treating chronic conditions. She described a scenario where we usually think about the medical diagnosis and treat that, however in order to treat the whole person – and thereby increase the chances of healthy aging – we need to look at a whole host of community-related issues people face. These include the financial burden of aging, isolation, having less to ‘do’, pain and suffering, and not being asked for input about their own care. She drove home Dr. Leutz’s point that healthy aging is a systems change and it is our collective issue – it will not get solved by the medical system alone. Because it is a collective issue, it cannot be owned by any one person or entity – a profound statement made in the packed room.
The morning was rounded out by a panel discussion describing the current landscape in Massachusetts. Secretary Hartstein, of EOEA, emphasized that the status quo is not good enough. If we fail in this initiative the Commonwealth will lose not only lives, but employment growth opportunities. Anita Albright, from DPH, discussed DPH’s work in the community and their use of Stanford’s Chronic Disease Self Management Program, entitled “My Life, My Health.” Dr. Robert Schreiber, from Hebrew Life, drilled down into the details of what the community needs to offer people to encourage healthy aging. He noted that the community needs to work together and that the health system needs to embrace the community. Interestingly, he highlighted the need to market the programs smartly- as simple, accessible and available. Lastly, Rosa Palacios from Commonwealth Care Alliance described another aspect of the work being done in the community- training people to be champions in a culturally competent way.
There will be a second installment of the Healthy Aging Forum in 6 months- this time focused on how we build on the successes we started.
-Georgia Maheras
