Health Awareness: Older Americans

The Administration for Community Living (ACL), part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, designated May as Older Americans Month. This year's theme, Powered by Connection, highlights the importance of social connections and positive relationships to one's health and well-being. In order to promote greater social connectedness, ACL recommends helping older adults stay connected to their communities and supporting them with the necessary resources to help them thrive. This includes providing information on volunteer opportunities to help them engage with others, directing older adults to transportation services which can be an obstacle in maintaining relationships, and sharing information on how meaningful relationships with family, friends, and neighbors plays a part in emotional, mental, and physical health. The National Institute on Aging, a division of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, provides information and resources on a variety of health topics for older adults such as loneliness and social isolation with tips to encourage their engagement with individuals of all ages and to maintain involvement in their communities.

Northwest Geriatrics Workforce Enhancement Center strives to improve the primary care of older adults in the Pacific Northwest by educating patients and their families on dementias and other gerontological health issues and by offering inter-professional training programs for health providers, faculty, and students.

Conscious Aging: Empowering Strategies for Working with Elders (40 min. video, 2017). A training video for therapists and counselors working with the elderly. The subject discusses loneliness and the difficulties surrounding fewer social connections as they age.

Frye Art Museum’s Creative Aging Programs present both in-person and online art-centered activities for older adults such as Alzheimer’s Café at UW Memory and Brain Wellness Center’s The Memory Hub.

Aging and Disability Services provides information for veterans, caregivers, and older adults with disabilities, including population data, area plans, a video portal, and a calendar of local events for older Seattleites and King County community members.