Scope of Public
Health and Aging
Framework
to Help Guide Aims and Objectives of the
Task Force on Aging, American
Public Health Association
.PDF
version 
Population of interest
· All adults aged > 65 years; adults aged < 65
years with chronic illnesses and disabilities
· Population diversity must be adequately documented
and considered based on:
o Ethnic identification
o Socioeconomic status
o Age, particularly adults aged 75-84 years and those aged >
85 years
Orientation to health and disease
· Place strong emphasis on healthy aging by maximizing
health promotion, disease prevention, and injury risk reduction
initiatives at individual, community, state, and national levels.
· Encourage initiatives and solutions that recognize
the scarcity of public funds, but also strongly advocate to
creatively maximize access to health and supportive services
according to need in the least restrictive environment.
· Encourage the development and maintenance of strong
familial and/or friendship networks.
· Promote the value of intergenerational programs to
expand social networks.
· Infectious disease prevention and control:
o Encourage prevention and timely detection of influenza, pneumonia,
and human immunodeficiency virus.
· Chronic disease and injury prevention and control:
o Encourage use of all chronic disease screening procedures
insured by Medicare.
o Encourage routine screening for risks of falling.
o Minimize incidence of adverse drug events due to polypharmacy.
o Encourage routine use of vision, hearing, and dental care
services.
o Encourage adoption of exercise regimens and smoking cessation.
o Encourage proper nutritional habits and adequate fluid intake.
o Promote awareness of the potential health risks associated
with excess alcohol consumption and self-medication.
· Tertiary prevention to improve or prevent further decline
in function due to acute illness, chronic illness, or injury:
o Maximize availability of rehabilitation therapy services,
including gait, balance, and strength training.
o Maximize availability of mental health services.
o Promote recovery to resume prior activities and maximize quality
of life.
· Terminal illness care:
o Maximize access to palliative care to assure death with dignity
o Increase involvement of public health organizations in end
of life care initiatives.
Community orientation
· Encourage uniform surveillance methods to monitor and
report trends in acute and chronic diseases and injuries at
state and local levels.
· Promote partnerships among public health departments,
Area Agencies on Aging, State Units on Aging, and disease-specific
voluntary organizations in carrying out health promotion, disease
prevention, and injury risk reduction programs.
· Maximize availability of alternative living arrangements.
· Promote awareness of the critical role played by family,
neighbors, and friends (i.e., informal caregivers).
o Enhance efforts to educate informal caregivers about chronic
disease management and available community resources to promote
their own health and well-being.
Population-based interventions
· Encourage replication or adaptation of "best practices"
aimed at health promotion, disease prevention, and injury risk
reduction.
· Encourage intergenerational social and recreational
activities.
· Promote public policies for chronic care oriented toward
consumer choice and service delivery in home and community-based
settings.
· Encourage expansion and adaptation of existing service
delivery models that pool diverse public and private funding
sources to serve chronically ill adults living at home but at
risk for nursing home admission (e.g., Program of All Inclusive
Care to the Elderly, or PACE).
· Encourage adoption of evidence-based interventions
to minimize the incidence of elder abuse and neglect.
Environmental issues
· Maximize opportunities for repairing and retrofitting
private residences to promote aging in place at home.
· Maximize protection of the nation's food supply.
· Encourage development of transportation and mobility
alternatives.
Regulation, consumer protection, and
access to services
· Simplify eligibility and application procedures to
maximize access to publicly financed health and social services.
· Improve opportunities for consumers with literacy limitations
to learn about services.
· Ensure physical access to all available health and
long term care services.
· Empower consumers to communicate more routinely with
their health care providers about diagnosis and treatment options.
· Maximize safety and quality of care in supervised living
environments.
· Maximize financial access to, and awareness of quality
of, privately financed living arrangements and supplemental
health/long-term care insurance products.
· Encourage evaluation of Medicare benefits to reorient
focus on healthy aging and maximization of independence rather
than to disease treatment.
· Encourage vigorous investigation of elder abuse and
neglect complaints, and strict enforcement of regulations protecting
older adults from abuse and neglect.
Health care workforce
· Promote education and training initiatives to increase
the supply of health care professionals and paraprofessionals
with proven expertise in geriatrics and long term care practices
and policies.
· Promote education and training initiatives to increase
the supply of administrative personnel with proven expertise
in geriatrics and long term care settings.
· Encourage all Schools of Public Health and Masters
of Public Health programs to expand curricula to maximize opportunities
in aging and public health careers.
· Strongly encourage existing health care providers to
be proactive in explaining benefits under the Medicare program.
Research
· Promote research efforts with funding from public sector
and private sector sources to continue building scientific evidence
about:
o promising public health interventions that could improve health
status and quality of life;
o quality of care in existing health care services and service
coordination programs.
· Encourage the development and dissemination of state
of the art approaches to measure the processes and outcomes
of new interventions and existing services.
