Promoting Equity and Access
Systemic racism and historical inequities are woven into our country’s fabric. Whether the context is policy brutality or the COVID-19 pandemic, we continue to be confronted with the reality that racial injustice is a matter of life and death. The John A. Hartford Foundation denounces racism and all other forms of discrimination—from ageism to sexism—that diminish the well-being of others.
We are working to expand equal access to age-friendly care for everyone, regardless of background or ZIP code and will continue to place a concerted focus on reaching communities that historically face inequity in health care access and quality of care.
Addressing the Needs of Diverse Family Caregivers
Family caregivers face many common challenges, but history, culture and language play important roles in shaping caregiving experiences. Working with partners we brought information to providers and health systems about how to best support family caregivers from diverse communities.
Diverse Caregivers Resource Hub for Health Care and Social Service Providers
The Diverse Elders Coalition built on research it conducted in 2019 with diverse family caregivers to create resources, trainings and curricula for for health care and social services organizations to help them understand and address the unique needs of caregivers from the African American, American Indian and Alaskan Native, Asian American, Hispanic, LGBTQ and Southeast Asian American communities.
Lifting the Stories of Diverse Family Caregivers
We partnered with Next Avenue to raise awareness of the realities faced by caregivers from diverse backgrounds. The series explored individuals’ and families’ unique experiences and the issues they faced when interacting with a system that is meant to support them, but often fails to do so. As part of the series, JAHF Vice President of Program Rani Snyder and AARP Public Policy Institute’s Director of Caregiving Rita Choula co-authored an article detailing the problems with a one-size-fits-all approach to supporting family caregivers and exploring potential solutions.
Learning More about Specific Communities
AARP and the National Alliance for Caregiving published several briefs on caregiving in 2020, including ones specifically focusing on African American, Asian American, Hispanic and LGBTQ caregivers.
Equity Across the Care Spectrum
Inequities in health care are identifiable at every point in the care spectrum. This year, JAHF grantees produced resources to ensure equitable access and address racial disparities in outcomes.
Ensuring Equity in Serious Illness Care
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine Roundtable on Serious Illness & End of Life Care convened experts to review the evidence and produce recommendations on incorporating equity into serious illness care. The Center to Advance Palliative Care and VitalTalk, two JAHF grantees, produced important tools for providers seeking to address inequities and disparities and provide culturally competent care.
Age-Friendly Health Systems and Racial Data Collection
The Institute for Healthcare Improvement began a task force to advance equity in the Age-Friendly Health Systems initiative. The task force developed an equity aim and participants now track data such as readmissions, emergency department utilization and length of stay, segmented by race and ethnicity to identify and then address inequities in access and outcomes.
Age-Friendly Care en Español
Partnerships with influential media outlets such as NBC/Telemundo and WebMD allowed JAHF to provide information and guidance in Spanish to expand awareness of age-friendly care. We also established a dedicated Spanish age-friendly care page.
Age-Friendly Care at Your Local MinuteClinic
Case Western Reserve University School of Nursing and CVS Health incorporated the 4Ms of age-friendly care into care offered at all of CVS Health’s 1,100 MinuteClinic locations, including in rural and urban areas where access to care is often difficult due to availability, distance and demand. Increasing the number of easily accessible sites across the country broadens access to age-friendly care.
Other 2020 Initiatives
Responding to the COVID-19 Crisis
JAHF immediately aligned our work to respond to the crisis by providing support and flexibility to our grantees, disseminating guidance and tools from trusted sources and offering insight on how nursing homes can best protect residents and staff.
The Power of Our Collective Work
We continuously work across our three priority areas—
Age-Friendly Health Systems, Family Caregiving and
Serious Illness & End of Life—to increase the collective power of our work and maximize the value of
our investments.
Other Annual Report Sections
Grants
Our new and existing grants supported critically important work in 2020 to meet urgent needs for older adults.
Financials
Responsiveness and diversity enabled the Foundation’s financials to grow through an economically turbulent time.
2020 Milestones
We made significant progress through a year that required us to adapt quickly to ever-changing circumstances.