Title: APHA Task Force on Aging Update
Author:
Section/SPIG: Aging & Public Health
Issue Date:
In 2001, the APHA Executive Board approved the establishment of a Task Force on Aging (TFA), with mandated representation from all APHA Sections, Caucuses, and SPIGs. Guiding objectives of the APHA TFA are:
1. Raise awareness and promote education about aging within the APHA.
2. Recommend ways to improve public health infrastructure in the context of aging.
3. Develop and advocate for public policies that will improve the health and well being of the aging population throughout the world.
TFA business is conducted via monthly conference calls and a meeting at the APHA Annual Meeting. As of January 2004, nine Sections, Caucuses, and SPIGs had active representatives on the TFA. Ongoing activities in 2004 include:
· Recruiting additional TFA representatives and surveying Sections, Caucuses, and SPIGs regarding aging-related activities and communication vehicles to facilitate transfer of news about aging and public health issues. Five new representatives joined the May 2004 conference call as a result, and survey results will be compiled and disseminated.
· Planning a TFA-sponsored session for the 2004 APHA Annual Meeting. TFA and GHS member Nancy Alfred Persily has organized the session “The Aging of America: A Crisis for the Health Care Workforce.” Speakers will include Nancy, Fox Wetle, and Robyn Stone; discussants will be Steven Wallace and Edward Salsberg. More information is available from Rick Fortinsky.
· Planning articles to appear in The Nation’s Health about current programmatic and scientific activities in the aging and public health arena: TFA members are prioritizing topics and have contacted the editor to arrange logistics of article submission.
· Linking with other national organizations. the American Society on Aging and the Gerontological Society of America have agreed to feature TFA-sponsored sessions originally presented at the APHA Annual meeting at their respective annual meetings. Other inter-organizational initiatives are in the planning stages.
Also of note: In 2002, the TFA produced the document: “Scope of Public Health and Aging,” which summarizes issues of importance at the intersection of aging and public health action, advocacy, and research. This document can be found on the GHS Web site, <http://www.ph.ucla.edu/ghsnet/>.
To find out more about the TFA, please contact Rick Fortinsky, TFA Co-Chair at <Fortinsky@nso1.uchc.edu>.