A Message From Our Leadership
We have lived through a transformative year.
Vaccinations are showing promise in controlling the COVID-19 pandemic that consumed much of 2020, and it is vitally important to take stock of what we have learned. From the harrowing experiences of frontline health care providers, to the pain felt by families who lost loved ones and were kept apart due to the virus, to the insidious structural racism and disparities continuing to harm our society, it has been a challenging time for all of us. Older adults and their families have disproportionately suffered the consequences, especially older adults of color and those living in nursing homes. As we reflect on the past year, our commitment to rapidly improving the care of older adults has only grown deeper and stronger.
Margaret Wolff, Chair of the Board and
Terry Fulmer, President
The John A. Hartford Foundation has been leading many efforts to counter the virus’ toll on older adults.
Along with our partners, we rapidly responded to support nursing home safety. We accelerated our work to identify evidence-based policies and practices that will completely reimagine long-term care in a way that best meets the needs of older people. We have been instrumental in leading a public health initiative to ensure vaccinations reach older adults who have limited ability to leave their homes.
We provided flexibility and support to our grantees who quickly produced urgently needed guidance and tools for care during the pandemic, with an emphasis on equity. Whether in the nursing home, emergency department or home, we saw the power of focusing care on what matters most to older adults – the essence of age-friendly care. Supporting family caregivers and improving serious illness and end-of-life care became more relevant than ever.
The foresight, wisdom and leadership of our Board of Trustees allowed us to be nimble in our response to the crisis, concentrating our attention on where we could have the greatest impact. In 2020 we welcomed Tripler Pell as a new Trustee, while recognizing with gratitude the decades of leadership and service from her father, Christopher T.H. Pell, who retired from the Board. The Trustees’ instantaneous understanding of the clear urgency of the moment helped us shift and keep our focus where it was needed most. We are grateful for their thoughtful, mission-driven guidance.
Our staff worked tirelessly over the last year, contributing their expertise, leadership and time to act with immediacy. We are grateful for their ability to ideate solutions, bring people together and blaze new paths for the urgent changes needed during the pandemic. The John A. Hartford Foundation always strives to partner with as many organizations and stakeholders as possible and our staff works diligently to cultivate and steward those deep, meaningful relationships. Despite the unique challenges of a socially-distanced world, 2020 was a year of even stronger connections and collaboration.
We are especially grateful for the longstanding relationships with our amazing grantees, fellow funders and government agencies working to improve care for older adults. Many are referenced in this report and each helped us move quickly toward solutions that will continue long into the future.
As we think about life this past year, we recognize and express our deepest thanks to our frontline workers. These truly essential people put their lives at risk, and in some cases lost them, as they fulfilled their vocation. They sacrificed seeing their families to help care for people with COVID-19, sometimes without the most basic protections. Their commitment, selflessness and leadership fill us with gratitude. We can thank them by continuing to follow public health guidance that can stop the spread of COVID-19 and ensure that, going forward, they receive the personal protective equipment, living wages and benefits they deserve.
The disparities we witness during the COVID-19 crisis remind us that we have many miles to go in the fight for equal access to quality care for all older adults.
At present, we are taking stock of all that we learned in 2020 and identifying how we can apply those lessons in the future. As we expand age-friendly care to a seamlessly integrated, age-friendly ecosystem, we do so with gratitude for our partners, our health care and public health workforce, family caregivers and older adults everywhere. Guided by our Board of Trustees, The John A. Hartford Foundation remains steadfastly committed to improving the care of older adults in 2021 and beyond.
Sincerely,
