Leading the Conversation
How do older adults and families define aging well? What steps to transform care delivery and financing will provide the greatest benefit to those living with complex needs? Building momentum for policy change requires a groundswell of conversation. Since our inception, we have funded diverse partners to elevate and give voice to issues of aging, person-centered care, and long-term care.
The Challenge
The media environment is oversaturated with competing issues. In addition:
- Aging stereotypes abound. It’s common for people to only reference older adults in extreme ways—either the “lonely, frail individual” in a hospital bed or “my amazing grandma” jumping out of an airplane.
- There’s no one-size-fits-all. COVID-19 put a spotlight on older adults, but the narrative remains narrow and not taking into account the immeasurable diversity of age, race, ethnicity, culture, and experience.
- This work takes time. Media coverage along with other social forces can drive policy change, but communications impact generally occurs over decades and, thus, requires long-term commitment.
The Opportunity
We focus on increasing demand for better policies and services for older adults and families. This means ensuring that the issues we care about are accessible across broad media platforms with tangible messages for a variety of diverse audiences.
Aim and Approach
We lead and encourage informed conversations on the future of care, services, and financing for older adults. We invest in communication projects to seed important topics and support enhanced storytelling. We fund polling efforts nationally and in California to better understand and share adults’ perceptions and behaviors related to aging well at home and in community.
Highlights of Current and Recent Thought Partners
Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research
tracks public opinion on aging and long-term care among English- and Spanish-speaking U.S. adults. Established in 2013, the Long-Term Care Poll currently unpacks the experiences of community-dwelling older adults, and overlays equity issues.
Hollywood, Health & Society
consults with the entertainment industry on aging-related content and conducts related analyses. Hollywood, Health & Society promotes accuracy and depth in aging and caregiving storylines and works to improve the diversity of portrayals of older adults to touch a variety of television and film audiences.
Kaiser Health News
is the premier health policy news wire service for California, national, and ethnic media. Kaiser Health News supports core digital, print, and video coverage on aging and long-term care issues, including deeper dives into government programs and the effects of policy changes.
Investigative Reporting Program
produces in-depth stories about community-dwelling older adults. Over the past year, the Investigative Reporting Program has unpacked key issues—from family caregiver burnout to wifi/broadband inequities and the rising rates of homelessness.
Reframing Aging Initiative
supports the long-term, social change endeavor to improve the public’s understanding of aging and ultimately change the narrative around aging in ways that encourage improved policies and programs. We co-fund The Gerontological Society of America to lead this work.
Univision
conducted formative research and produced multimedia content on aging with dignity and planning for long-term care for Spanish-speaking audiences across the country. Univision created Adultos Mayores to house digital content and resources.
Vox Media
developed and disseminated an explainer video on the contributions of and challenges experienced by millennial family caregivers. The video, which received 1.4 million views, and accompanying article empowered viewers to think about caregiving policies, such as flexible work hours and tax credits.
Next Avenue
produced original news coverage on person-centered care, long-term care, and federal policy issues for its online platform and social media channels. This multiyear project published 120 articles and seven original videos in 2017-18, alone, viewed by more than 1.4 million people on nextavenue.org.
USA Today
amplified aging and caregiving through several articles disseminated in California and nationally. One piece explored the experiences of three family caregivers during the pandemic. A second evergreen story encouraged readers to have conversations about aging with older loved ones during the holidays.
Trailer: Aging Well with Community
On the last day of our virtual 2021 Forum, we shared a trailer for our video project “Aging Well with Community.” The videos profile three older adults who are aging with dignity and independence.