Age-Friendly Cities
Age-Friendly Cities: Keeping Older Adults Engaged with Civil Society
By Carly Berke
On Thursday, May 3rd, Boston University Professors Bronwyn Keefe and Ernest Gonzalez came together with James Fuccione of the Massachusetts Healthy Aging Collaborative to discuss their work on age-friendly initiatives that help communities provide for their aging populations.
According to the Pew Research Center, roughly 10,000 Baby Boomers turn 65 every day – and will continue to do so for the next 11 years, at the very least. The number of global older persons will double from 600 million to 1.2 billion by 2025, and double again by 2050, according to the United Nations.
But as the number of elders in our society continues to grow and multiply, many have begun to worry that our communities are not prepared to provide for their physical, mental, and social well-being, a concern shared by those who pilot the age-friendly city movement.
Fuccione spoke on behalf of the Massachusetts Healthy Aging Collaborative, a dynamic community of leaders across multiple disciplines who work together to promote healthy aging and advise communities as to how to implement healthy mechanisms for their aging populations. The effort originates from the global movement led by the World Health Organization, who created the Age-Friendly Communities Framework in 2005. The WHO launched the initiative with the intent to help cities and communities accommodate their aging citizens and provide the necessary services and care. The AARP is a national affiliate of the WHO Framework, and it works with city councils and organizations across the country to provide advising services, resources, and training.
“What we’re trying to do is get away from the term ‘silver tsunami’,” said Fuccione. “This is an opportunity; this is our chance to reshape our communities for everybody.”
Fuccione reviewed a number of services that the Healthy Aging Collaborative offers to community leaders and municipalities, including providing connections with organizations that can help with the age-friendly process. Fuccione emphasized that making a city more age-friendly is a process that each city must evaluate and pursue differently – every community has different needs, and it is important to determine what will effectively benefit the elders of the community. That’s why working with the Healthy Aging Collaborative and the AARP is not an enforced contract that requires cities to fulfill every age-friendly goal across the framework, but rather is a commitment from city and community leaders to determine how they will start to account for their aging demographic in the policy making process. He cites key focus areas, including policy and advocacy, and access, equity, and inclusion, and placed an emphasis on addressing social, physical and emotional environments that surround elders.
Fuccione also emphasized the relative ease with which local councils and municipalities can integrate age-friendly items with their existing agendas, and he recounted strides taken by communities in the Berkshires and Cape Cod to become more age-friendly, as these regions currently house more older residents than any other region in Massachusetts.
Bronwyn Keefe, a professor in the School of Social Work, is also the Director of the Center for Aging and Disability Education and Research at Boston University. Keefe and her team at the Center for Aging received a grant from the Tufts Health Plan Foundation to pursue a project that promotes age-friendly practices in New Bedford, Massachusetts.
New Bedford, a town along the South Coast, is home to 19,000 older adults. Keefe is working alongside the New Bedford Council on Aging and Coastline Elder Services to develop and implement age-friendly practices.
Although items on her agenda include walkable streets, accessible transportation, and better housing for older residents, Keefe’s primary focus is the behavioral health and mental wellness among older persons, specifically regarding depression, dementia, and Alzheimer’s.
One thing that prevents older generations from receiving treatment for behavioral health is the stigma that accompanies mental wellness. Lack of knowledge, fear of prejudice, and anticipated discrimination are all common anxieties that prevent older citizens from seeking mental or emotional healthcare. In response to a depression survey that she conducted in New Bedford, Keefe found that 65% of older adults struggled with mental health issues, but only 10% had actually sought help for them.
In her effort to open a dialogue about mental health and wellness amongst the older citizens of New Bedford, Keefe has led a three-tiered approach. Her first item aimed to enhance the community’s knowledge of these issues, and the effort included the distribution of pamphlets and articles concerning the topic. Through partnerships with local papers, television channels, and radio stations, her message reached about 10,000 community members. The second tier, which is currently underway, hosts workshops in New Bedford for older adults to discuss mental health issues and to educate seniors on the resources at their disposal.
“Part of the learning is getting the community together to discuss what they learn and how they might do things in the future,” said Keefe, who is eager to change the perception of depression and mental health and is positive about the feedback she has been receiving in her workshops.
The third tier, which she plans to launch this year, is training for providers and first responders. She hopes to target the police and fire departments, housing services, clergymen, and councils on aging in order to provide the knowledge they need to protect their aging community members.
Lastly, Gonzalez, also a professor in the School of Social Work, spoke of intergenerational engagement in order to keep elders engaged with society, and, as Keefe discussed, reduce the effects of depression, dementia, and alzheimer’s.
“At the societal level, we have not created social institutions to engage our older adults,” said Gonzalez.
Funded by a grant from the AARP Foundation, Gonzalez is currently working with a team of researchers and advocates to develop an intergenerational homeshare project. They have designed three models, two of which place students in the homes of aging citizens. The classic homeshare model enables students to live rent-free in exchange for services (i.e. snowplowing). The income model permits students to live in the space at a discounted rent, also in exchange for services. Alternatively, the civic engagement model places students in neighboring residences, where they receive a reduced rent in exchange for services and contact with their neighbor. Students who apply to participate in the program will undergo a rigorous interview, and the program itself will be overseen by a licensed social worker in each city.
Gonzalez cites enhanced social capital, age integration, and reduced loneliness as strong benefits of the program, but he also believes it could have a ripple effect on the surrounding society.
“We think these programs could have multiple benefits, not just with the students and the older adults, but also with the related family, university, and society,” said Gonzalez.
Gonzalez has received positive responses thus far, most notably from the AARP, who wants to bring the program under their national umbrella and launch in New York and St. Louis in addition to Boston.
The strongest takeaway from the entire discussion, as Fuccione initially emphasized, is the ease at which age-friendly initiatives can be integrated with current projects and developments. Easy walkability, access to mental health resources, and civic engagement are all items that positively affect the entire community, and many age-friendly initiatives can be woven in existing policy plans.
While Massachusetts has made great strides to become an age-friendly state, the rest of the United States remains further behind. But the onset of aging is an inevitable occurrence, and as our population ages, it is our duty to take care of it.
“[Aging well] means being at peace with myself and keeping myself physically, emotionally, and spiritually balanced,” an older adult responded when prompted with what aging well meant to her at a workshop hosted by Keefe in New Bedford. After all, this goal is not all too uncommon to the rest of the living population.