CEO Blog

GSA members will find a copy of Public Policy & Aging Report on “Lack of Social Connectedness and its Consequences” in their mailboxes soon thanks to a special distribution of this issue made possible by AARP Foundation. I have been honored to represent GSA on the Executive Council providing input on the AARP Foundation’s Connect2Affect campaign since its launch. This consumer-directed campaign has had a wonderful impact already and 2018 activities are well underway. In addition to bringing this consumer directed campaign forward, AARP Foundation is helping promote the evidence base around what works and engaging researchers along the way. This special distribution of Public Policy & Aging Report is a wonderful example of that.

While the 24/7 news cycle keeps us constantly informed of events unfolding globally, it sometimes prevents us from fully appreciating important events along the way. One such event relates to the recent federal government shutdown. Although short-lived by most measures (three days), the shutdown carried the potential of causing enormous disruption in the aging research arena as it overlapped with the three-times-per-year meeting of the 16-member National Advisory Council on Aging (NACA).

The NACA advises the secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the director of the National Institutes of Health, and the director of National Institute on Aging on its mission, considers applications for research and training, and recommends funding for promising applications. The January meeting was set for January 23 and 24 (with experts traveling in on January 22), meaning the federal government shutdown would have forced cancellation of the meeting and disrupted the forward progress of important research.

I represented GSA this week at a listening session convened by Dr. Don Wright, the acting assistant secretary for health and director of the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), to kick-off planning for the just-announced 2018 Healthy Aging Summit. HHS convened the first Healthy Aging Summit in the summer of 2015 and it served as a valuable warm-up to the White House Conference on Aging held later that year.

The 2018 Summit will be using a social determinants of health lens to focus on prevention in healthy aging, with major programming tracks for social and community context, quality of life in aging, health & health care, and neighborhood & built environment.

As we age, we gain momentum in our professional lives — becoming better and more efficient at what we do. Knowing who to call and when to ask for help means we can get results faster. Simply put, we learn to focus on “what works” to drive our success whether in research, clinical practice or education.

GSA has adopted that mantra to focus on improving adult immunization rates, which was on full display November 7 at the GSA-sponsored Capitol Hill briefing, ”Adult Immunization: Successful Programs Leading the Way to Higher Rates.” In a room filled with representatives from stakeholder organizations, policy-makers, and congressional staff, three immunization champions showcased how they are taking charge inside their organizations to dramatically improve immunization rates across the life-course.

The pursuit of a treatment and cure for Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias is a top priority for researchers in the U.S. As a society, we have overcome other major challenges by creatively applying our resources in a sustained manner, and we’ll do so in this case thanks to our collective ingenuity.

This same passion for innovation was on display last week at the landmark National Research Summit on Care, Services and Supports for Persons with Dementia and Their Caregivers. The research and practice insights presented show that we are up to the challenge of ensuring the millions of individuals living with dementia and their caregivers receive the care, services and supports needed to navigate this disease.