One of the Hartford Foundation's new grants will support an additional 44 Health and Policy Fellows over the next three years who will bring geriatric expertise to policymakers and in turn receive intensive training in policymaking through placements at key agencies and offices in the federal government. One of the Hartford Foundation's new grants will support an additional 44 Health and Policy Fellows over the next three years.

While the two new grants approved by the John A. Hartford Foundation Board of Trustees last week continue to move us forward in our new strategic direction, which includes a focus on health policy and practice change, they also build on partnerships and successful work we have engaged in for years.

The grants totaling $2.13 million will support an additional 44 Health and Aging Policy Fellows (HAPF) over the next three years and help co-support a new Institute of Medicine (IOM) study on family caregiving of older adults. Both projects also offer great opportunities for our new Hartford Change AGEnts to bring their talents, expertise, and skills to bear on important issues related to creating policy and practice change that improves the health of older Americans.

The new IOM study on family caregiving illustrates how the Hartford Foundation’s experiences in the aging and health field over the past 30 years help inform our efforts today. We saw firsthand the impact that an IOM study can have on policy and practice six years ago when the IOM released its groundbreaking research report on the geriatric workforce titled, Retooling for an Aging America: Building the Health Care Workforce.

The study, supported by the Hartford Foundation and nine other funders, outlined the critical need to recruit more geriatrics specialists, enhance the geriatrics competence of all health professionals, and expand evidence-based models of care that have demonstrated improved health outcomes for older adults. Following the report, the Hartford foundation and our partners at The Atlantic Philanthropies supported the creation of the Eldercare Workforce Alliance (EWA), a coalition of 29 national organizations that advocates for the reforms articulated in that influential IOM report. Recent EWA successes include convincing the U.S. Department of Labor to extend minimum wage and overtime protections for direct-care workers of older adults and people living with disabilities.

IOM_Logo_color_300With the current grant to the IOM, Hartford is partnering with the Archstone Foundation and other funders to support the creation of a consensus report on family caregiving similar to the study on the geriatric workforce. We will then identify ways of moving the IOM recommendations into action.

And why is this study and follow-up action needed? In recent years, we have supported the AARP and the Family Caregiver Alliance in research and policy work, including a series of public policy reports that have cast needed light on the tremendous burdens that caregiving places on families in America.

The Foundation's other new grant will help co-support a new Institute of Medicine study on family caregiving of older adults. The Foundation's other new grant will help co-support a new Institute of Medicine study on family caregiving of older adults.

More than 35 million Americans are family caregivers for adults age 65 and older with chronic and acute illnesses and functional, cognitive, and sensory impairments. Almost half (46 percent) of family caregivers perform medical/nursing tasks, including managing medications, for loved ones with multiple chronic physical and cognitive conditions.

Clearly, more needs to be done to ease the burden on spouses, children, and other family members caring for vulnerable older adults.

The grant provides $400,000 for the IOM to conduct a 22-month study that establishes a set of policy and practice-focused recommendations addressing the needs of family caregivers. As part of the work to move the IOM report into action, $130,000 will be awarded to the Gerontological Society of America (GSA) over two years. This will support the Hartford Change AGEnts participation in the IOM study process through the newly formed Change AGEnts Dementia Caregiving Network.

This Network of Hartford experts, which will soon be launching its own projects to improve the lives of caregivers of older adults with dementia, will suggest a set of issues to be addressed by the IOM study, provide expertise in the IOM’s public hearings, and join with GSA in mobilizing to disseminate report recommendations and move them toward implementation.

Health-and-Aging-Policy_300Effectively advocating for policy and practice changes to improve the health of older adults is also at the core of our Health and Aging Policy Fellows grant. The Hartford Foundation has had strong ties to the HAPF program since its inception, ranging from providing a two-day workshop to enhance fellows’ skills in communication, advocacy, social networking, and policy writing to collaborations between HAPF and the Practice Change Fellows/Leaders program.

Over the first six cohorts since The Atlantic Philanthropies began funding the program in 2006, 57 percent of the fellows have been alumni of Hartford programs. With the $1.6 million grant approved by Hartford’s Trustees last week, the Foundation will partner with The Atlantic Philanthropies to support an additional 44 Health and Policy Fellows over the next three years who will bring geriatric expertise to policymakers and in turn receive intensive training in policymaking through placements at key agencies and offices in the federal government.

Added to the 67 fellows who will have participated in the HAPF program’s first six cohorts, the new fellows will form a network of 111 aging-focused professionals who, individually and collectively, are poised to help shape policy that improves the health of older adults.

The HAPF program is the nation’s only fellowship that targets aging and health issues, and offers two options: a residential model that requires a year-long placement in Washington, D.C., and a non-residential model that requires a health policy project and brief placement(s) throughout the year at relevant sites. (For more information, read Fellowship Offers Opportunity to Hone Policymaking Skills.) Fellows have played key roles in crafting health reform legislation, developing policies on mental health, palliative care, and hospital transitions for older adults, and implementing critical provisions of the Affordable Care Act.

In addition to The Atlantic Philanthropies, which approved a $4.7 million HAPF grant in March, Hartford is joined in support of the program by the American Political Science Association, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institute on Aging, and the Administration for Community Living, among others. The fellows will coordinate policy change efforts with the Hartford Change AGEnts initiative, a program that also lives within the Foundation’s Leadership in Action portfolio.

Making needed changes in policy and practice that improve health outcomes for older Americans won’t happen overnight. But these two grants represent a step in the right direction.