Age-Friendly Health Systems Initiative Informing this Toolkit

This Toolkit is informed by the Age-Friendly Health Systems Initiative, a movement to ensure that health systems — hospitals, healthcare practices, pharmacies, nursing homes, and home-care providers — deliver age-friendly care. The Age-Friendly Health Systems Initiative is supported by The John A. Hartford Foundation and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement in partnership with the American Hospital Association and the Catholic Health Association of the United States.

The Age-Friendly Health Systems Initiative follows four best practices, called the "4 Ms":

1. “What Matters
   Know and align care with each older adult's specific health outcome goals and care preferences including, but not limited to, end-of-life care, and across settings of care.
2. Medication
   If medication is necessary, use Age-Friendly medication that does not interfere with What Matters to the older adult, Mobility, or Mentation across settings of care.
3. Mentation
   Prevent, identify, treat, and manage dementia, depression, and delirium across settings of care.
4. Mobility
   Ensure that older adults move safely every day in order to maintain function and do What Matters.”

We used the 4Ms and a fifth "M" of Multicomplexity to guide our selection and organization of the evidence-based and promising program models presented in Module 2 of this toolkit. Multicomplexity, is adapted from the 5 Ms of Geriatrics, and recognizes the older adult as a whole person, managing multiple complex needs including those that extend beyond individual health such as housing, access to healthcare, and other social determinants of health.

There are ongoing efforts to develop resources and strategies to support age-friendly care in rural communities. The National Rural Health Association and its partners have developed a strategy for the implementation of the National Rural Age-Friendly Initiative. The initiative focuses on building age-friendly care for older adults living in rural communities through convenings, communications, educational activities, and trainings. This initiative is important because it addresses the unique challenges that rural communities face, with a focus on improving access to age-friendly care that is responsive to the needs of rural older adults.

Resources to Learn More

How to Help Build Age-Friendly Ecosystems
Document
Describes age-friendly health systems, public health systems, and universities. Shares strategies and best practices to help develop these age-friendly ecosystems.
Author(s): Currie, D.
Organization(s): National Council on Aging
Date: 12/2024

National Rural Age-Friendly Initiative
Website
Summarizes the National Rural Age-Friendly Initiative and shares strategies to advance age-friendly care in rural communities.
Organization(s): National Rural Health Association