Title: Scope of Public Health and Aging: Framework to Help Guide Aims of the Task Force on Aging
Author:
Section/SPIG: Chiropractic Health Care
Issue Date:
American Public Health Association
March, 2004
Population of interest
· All adults aged > 65 years; adults aged < 65 years with
chronic illnesses and disabilities
· Population diversity must be adequately documented and
considered based on:
o Ethnic identification
o Socioeconomic status
o Age, particularly adults aged 75-84 years and
those aged > 85 years
Orientation to health and disease
· Place strong emphasis on healthy aging by maximizing
health promotion, disease prevention, and injury risk
reduction initiatives at individual, community, state,
and national levels.
· Encourage initiatives and solutions that recognize the
scarcity of public funds, but also strongly advocate to
creatively maximize access to health and supportive
services according to need in the least restrictive
environment.
· Encourage the development and maintenance of strong
familial and/or friendship networks.
· Promote the value of intergenerational programs to
expand social networks.
· Infectious disease prevention and control:
o Encourage prevention and timely detection of
influenza, pneumonia, and human immunodeficiency
virus.
. Chronic disease and injury prevention and control:
o Encourage use of all chronic disease screening
procedures insured by Medicare.
o Encourage appropriate assessment for risks of
falling.
o Minimize incidence of adverse drug events due to
polypharmacy.
o Encourage appropriate and indicated use of
vision, hearing, dental, and podiatric care
services.
o Encourage adoption of exercise regimens and
smoking cessation.
o Encourage proper nutritional habits and adequate
fluid intake.
o Promote awareness of the potential health risks
associated with excess alcohol consumption and
self-medication.
· Tertiary prevention to improve or prevent further
decline in function due to acute illness, chronic
illness, or injury:
o Maximize availability of rehabilitation therapy
services, including gait, balance, and strength
training.
o Maximize availability of mental health services.
o Promote recovery to resume prior activities and
maximize quality of life.
· Terminal illness care:
o Maximize access to palliative care to assure
death with dignity
o Increase involvement of public health
organizations in end of life care initiatives.
Community orientation
· Encourage uniform surveillance methods to monitor and
report trends in acute and chronic diseases and injuries
at state and local levels.
· Promote partnerships among public health departments,
Area Agencies on Aging, State Units on Aging, and disease
specific voluntary organizations in carrying out health
promotion, disease prevention, and injury risk reduction
programs.
· Maximize availability of alternative living arrangements.
· Promote awareness of the critical role played by family,
neighbors, and friends (i.e., informal caregivers).
o Enhance efforts to educate informal caregivers
about chronic disease management and available
community resources to promote their own health
and well-being.
Population-based interventions
· Encourage replication or adaptation of “best practices”
aimed at health promotion, disease prevention, and injury
risk reduction.
· Encourage intergenerational social and recreational
activities.
· Promote public policies for chronic care oriented toward
consumer choice and service delivery in home and
community-based settings.
· Encourage expansion and adaptation of existing service
delivery models that pool diverse public and private
funding sources to serve chronically ill adults living at
home but at risk for nursing home admission (e.g.,
Program of All Inclusive Care to the Elderly, or PACE).
· Encourage adoption of evidence-based interventions to
minimize the incidence of elder abuse and neglect.
Environmental issues
· Maximize opportunities for repairing and retrofitting
private residences to promote aging in place at home.
· Maximize protection of the nation’s food supply.
· Encourage development of transportation and mobility
alternatives.
Regulation, consumer protection, and access to services
· Simplify eligibility and application procedures to
maximize access to publicly financed health and social
services.
· Improve opportunities for consumers with literacy
limitations to learn about services.
· Ensure physical access to all available health and long
term care services.
· Empower consumers to communicate more routinely with
their health care providers about diagnosis and treatment
options.
· Maximize safety and quality of care in supervised living
environments.
· Maximize financial access to, and awareness of quality
of, privately financed living arrangements and
supplemental health/long-term care insurance products.
· Encourage evaluation of Medicare benefits to reorient
focus on healthy aging and maximization of independence
rather than to disease treatment.
· Encourage vigorous investigation of elder abuse and
neglect complaints, and strict enforcement of regulations
protecting older adults from abuse and neglect.
Health care workforce
· Promote education and training initiatives to increase
the supply of health care professionals and
paraprofessionals with proven expertise in geriatrics and
long term care practices and policies.
· Promote education and training initiatives to increase
the supply of administrative personnel with proven
expertise in geriatrics and long term care settings.
· Encourage all Schools of Public Health and Masters of
Public Health programs to expand curricula to maximize
opportunities in aging and public health careers.
· Strongly encourage existing health care providers to be
proactive in explaining benefits under the Medicare
program.
Research
· Promote research efforts with funding from public sector
and private sector sources to continue building
scientific evidence about:
o promising public health interventions that could
improve health status and quality of life;
o quality of care in existing health care services
and service coordination programs.
· Encourage the development and dissemination of state of
the art approaches to measure the processes and outcomes
of new interventions and existing services.