Commonwealth Fund Article: Helping Older Adults Age Well in Rural America
The Commonwealth Fund, in partnership with the Bassett Research Institute, has released an article on, "Helping Older Adults Age Well in Rural America."
Rural communities in the United States struggle to care for aging adults: there are fewer healthcare providers, fewer professional caregivers, and fewer young people than in urban areas.
In this report, the authors showcase health care and long-term care providers working on innovative approaches to strengthen services for rural older adults. These focus on:
- Mobilizing local assets, through health and human services organizations,
- Helping rural older adults age in place, by increasing the feasibility of rural PACE programs,
- Making hospitals and other care providers Age-Friendly, and
- Bringing primary care to people's homes through home-based care and leveraging Telehealth.
Given that many rural providers face financial shortfalls and workforce shortages, they also consider what payment and policy changes might be needed to sustain and spread efforts to help older adults age well in rural America.
Read the article.
Watch this short video of lived voices on rural aging.
Learn more about the Age-Friendly Health Systems initiative.
Learn more about JAHF's support of the National PACE Association and Home-Based Primary Care.
