Last week, our staff attended the annual conference of Grantmakers in Aging (GIA), a membership organization for foundations like ours that are trying to make our nation better by improving the lives of older adults. It was so heartening to be with people who devote their time, intellect, and organizational resources to developing innovative solutions that are building a future in which we can all age with the dignity and care we deserve.

The agenda was packed from beginning to end with compelling, interrelated sessions on topics such as rural aging and social isolation. At breakfast roundtables and in the hallways at breaks, I saw staff from local family and community foundations, regional funders, and national foundations learning from each other and forging new collaborations.

For our readers working in the field of aging, you should know that there are passionate grantmakers across the country who are there to support the work you do for and with older adults.

Here are three highlights from the conference.

Reframing Aging

John Feather, CEO of GIA, delivers his State of Aging address.There was much buzz about the exciting Reframing Aging communications project that we and eight other funders are currently supporting. The initiative aims to change the way people think and talk about aging issues and older people, in order to garner more support for aging programs and policies.

Our longtime colleague John Feather, CEO of Grantmakers in Aging, spoke about the project in his State of Aging opening remarks, which as always were incredibly insightful. He began by noting the nearly absolute silence on aging issues in the presidential election campaign, despite having two of the oldest presidential nominees in our history. He rightly tied this to the pernicious ageism that we continue to see all around us. He told the audience:

Now, if you’re sitting in this room, I probably don’t have to convince you that ageism is a reality. The more pressing point is, what can we do about it? This question crops up in many, many different ways. I find that I ask it of myself every time a waiter or cashier says, “How can I help you, young man?” I know that he probably thinks he’s paying me a compliment, and is almost certainly not trying to insult me. Yet it is a deeply ageist thing to say, because I am NOT a young man, and what he’s really saying is that being young is good, and being old is not.

The Reframing Aging project holds the potential for us to overcome this pervasive ageism by helping us understand the cultural values and norms that perpetuate it. At the session, we received a preview of the messaging tools that will help us launch a campaign to create new norms that reframe aging. John used the evolution of our country’s views on smoking to illustrate our goal.

We no longer say, “I know the risks and it’s my right to smoke where I want…” Instead, the prevailing attitude is, “Smoking damages not only smokers, but all those around them.” Smoking just isn’t socially acceptable anymore. I want ageism to become just as socially unacceptable as smoking.

I do, too.

Families Caring for an Aging America

Lynn Friss Feinberg of the AARP Policy Institute delivers the keynote address on family caregiving.Terry Fulmer, president of The John A. Hartford Foundation, introduced the excellent keynote presentation from Lynn Friss Feinberg of the AARP Public Policy Institute, who was a committee member for the important new report, Families Caring for an Aging America, released by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Interweaving her own experiences, Lynn made the case that the demands placed on family caregivers, while intensely personal, are a major public health issue.

She highlighted The John A. Hartford Foundation’s support for an AARP Public Policy Institute report several years ago that revealed nearly half of caregivers are performing complex medical and nursing tasks, like wound care and injections. Quoting another colleague, Lynn said, “Family caregivers are taking on tasks that would make nursing students tremble."

She shared the National Academies report’s important findings and recommendations, which include pressing for better policies that recognize and provide assistance to caregivers. Tax credits, paid sick leave, and the CARE Act are a few examples of policy solutions that can make a real difference in the lives of people caring for an older loved one.

Geriatric Emergency Departments

Dr. Fulmer also participated in a panel organized by our good colleagues at the Gary and Mary West Foundation and their West Health Institute on the topic of geriatric emergency departments (EDs). Together, we are supporting the development of a learning collaborative of EDs that are working to improve the care of older adults.

Dr. Fulmer shared some of her own experiences as a nurse who has delivered care in EDs, and our fabulous grantee leaders, Drs. Kevin Biese and Ula Hwang, shared what they have learned as emergency medicine physicians who are passionate and expert in the care of older adults. With support from us and West Health, they are working to test and spread best practices that can meet the needs of older adults in the ED and keep them from returning to the ED unnecessarily. Through work with EMTs and other stakeholders, we can potentially keep older adults out of EDs in the first place, too.

Those are just three examples of the important work being made possible by members of Grantmakers In Aging. There are many more. This is truly an exciting time for the field of aging, with opportunities to make significant improvements across the spectrum of care for the historic number of people age 65 and older. Spending time with our philanthropic colleagues who care so deeply about older adults was not only a true pleasure, but strengthened our commitment to work together to make the needs and concerns of older people and their families the center of our health care system.