Age-Friendly Care:
It's About What Matters to You
We all deserve health care that meets our needs as we get older.
We all deserve health care that meets our needs as we get older.
Age-friendly care is health care that addresses your unique needs and wants. It can help you enjoy a better quality of life.
It is care that is safe and based on what research shows are the most important things to pay attention to as we get older - the 4Ms: what Matters, Medication, Mentation and Mobility.
A growing number of hospitals, practices, clinics and nursing homes are delivering 4Ms care through the Age-Friendly Health Systems initiative.
Learn more about how you can ask for age-friendly care below. Más información está aquí en español.
Explore the 4Ms: What Matters, Medication, Mentation, and Mobility
Discover curated resources from JAHF grantees to support older adults and their family caregivers.
Use this guide to talk to your health care providers about the essential elements of age-friendly care known as the 4Ms.
And read below to learn about each of the 4Ms of age-friendly care:
As you age, your needs might change. It’s important for you to share your concerns, goals, wishes, needs and experiences with all of your health care providers.
You might take many medicines now, which can mean more side effects. Some drugs affect us in new ways as we age, too.
Older adults are at risk for dementia (problems with thinking, memory, and reasoning), depression (ongoing sadness or loss of interest) and delirium (sudden confusion), but there are steps you can take to lower your risk.
It’s important to think about how to get around safely as we get older. Staying active helps you maintain your health and independence.
On NBC's NY Live! Joelle Garguilo chats with JAHF to learn all about age-friendly care: health care focused on patient goals and preferences, to help us enjoy a better quality of life as we get older.
When providers ask about a patient’s goals, medications, memory and mobility, they feel heard, says nurse practitioner Sidney Hunt of MinuteClinic at CVS.
Watch more WebMD videos of age-friendly care in action.
We support the Age-Friendly Health Systems initiative. It is helping hospitals, doctor's offices, retail pharmacy clinics, nursing homes and home-care providers deliver age-friendly care.
Find a list of the growing number of recognized Age-Friendly Health Systems and go to an interactive map of recognized sites.
Programs of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE) programs coordinate and provide all needed preventive, primary, acute and long-term care services so older individuals can continue living in the community.
Learn more about PACE and use the PACEFinder to find a PACE program in your neighborhood.
Palliative care is specialized medical care for people who are living with a serious illness. Palliative care focuses on relieving symptoms like pain and stress, with the goal of improving quality of life for patients and their families and caregivers.
Dementia Care Programs for Family Caregivers
Best Programs for Caregiving free directory of top-rated programs that support family and friend caregivers of individuals living with dementia.
Get Online Help Navigating Caregiving
CareNav is a simple online tool from the Family Caregiver Alliance, which also has 14 fact sheets translated into Spanish, Chinese and other languages.
News Articles on Caregiver Support and Resources
A range of topics are explored on Next Avenue, public media’s news outlet for older adults. Read additional stories reflecting the diversity of family caregivers.
How-To Videos on Preparing for a Hospital Stay
AARP provides guidance on going to or leaving the hospital and on medical/nursing tasks like managing medications in a series of instructional videos for family caregivers; more tools can be found in their resource center.
Call for Help to Get Support
WeCare...Because You Do℠ provides telephone support to family caregivers from the Benjamin Institute Rose on Aging, which also has a searchable library of resources for family members and friends.
FAIR Health has created a dedicated section for older adults and caregivers with shared decision-making and treatment cost tools, educational content and other resources as part of its consumer website that promotes age-friendly care.
The film follows four millennials and their parents as they travel through time to meet their future selves.
Stream it: Watch it here. FAST-FORWARD is available on Prime Video, Apple TV and Google Play.
Tools and resources to help you prepare for aging are on Next Avenue's FAST-FORWARD webpage.
Email courses, guides, and a master checklist will help you build your health care team, create an advance care plan and more.
WebMD.com/AgeFriendly is an educational collaboration between The John A. Hartford Foundation and WebMD. The series includes articles on Age-Friendly Care and each of the 4Ms, stories, videos and related resources.
Age-Friendly Health Systems is an initiative of The John A. Hartford Foundation and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement in partnership with the American Hospital Association and the Catholic Health Association of the United States.
For more information and to join the Age-Friendly Health Systems movement, visit www.ihi.org/AgeFriendly.
To access resources, including The Business Case for Becoming an Age-Friendly Health System, click here.