Time and again I find myself amazed and delighted at the sheer magnitude of recognition Hartford grantees continue to garner from both the public and their peers for demonstrating leadership in the field of aging.
Most recently, Partners in Care Foundation, under the direction of CEO W. June Simmons, received the prestigious Jack Ossofsky award from the National Council on Aging (NCOA) in Chicago at the annual Aging in America Conference. Since 2001, the award has gone every year to individuals or organizations who take a creative, new idea and develop it into a successful program, service, or policy that helps older people achieve vital aging. Our heartiest congratulations to June and Partners in Care!
The award is well-deserved. Partners in Care Foundation stands at the forefront of advancing proven, innovative community and in-home approaches to promoting good health and managing geriatric care, chronic disease, and end-of-life care. It also works to address issues of ethnic health disparities among older adults and to introduce positive practice change. And it continually partners with organizations, families, and community leaders through its work to change health care systems, communities, and the lives of older adults.
In the past, June and her organization have made good use of Hartford funding to develop and test two remarkable programs that support healthy aging. One, Healthy Moves for Aging Well is a simple and safe in-home intervention that can enhance the physical activity level of frail, high-risk sedentary seniors. The other, the Medication Management Improvement System (MMIS), addresses the challenge of reducing the number of medication errors that older adults suffer every year. Seniors are seven times more vulnerable to drug errors than any other age group, and the cost, both in human suffering and economic loss, is staggering.
I would also like to mention that in October 2009, June was appointed to the National Institute on Aging's National Advisory Council on Aging (NACA). The Council provides advice about pertinent programs to the Acting Director of the National Institutes of Health. She will serve on the council until December 2012.
Once again, our warmest wishes go to June and team at the Partners in Care Foundation. The effect of their work on the lives of older adults all across the nation is both important and profound.