Age-Friendly Care: A Crucial Approach for Indiana's Aging Population

Age-Friendly Care: A Crucial Approach for Indiana's Aging Population

As Indiana's aging population grows, understanding the medical, psychosocial, and lifestyle needs of older adults, especially those with multiple chronic diseases and functional decline, becomes increasingly critical. Traditional, disease-centered care often proves inadequate in these complex situations, leading to frustration for care teams, patients, and families. With a combined seventy years providing geriatric medical care in Indianapolis, as geriatricians we have frequently witnessed this disconnect. Our experience has demonstrated the power of adopting an Age-Friendly Care approach to overcome the significant challenges present for older adults and their families seeking care and support. Taking an Age-Friendly Care approach improves satisfaction, reduces harm, and lowers costs for patients and families, with additional positive effects for care team members. 

This session will emphasize the importance of Age-Friendly Care and its core framework: the 4Ms. Each “M” principle provides a common language to empower proactive decision-making and shifts the focus from individual treatments to a broader, more holistic perspective. We will explore each of the 4Ms:

• What Matters: Understanding and prioritizing the patient's goals is paramount. This involves actively eliciting their priorities and ensuring care aligns with their values and preferences.
• Medications: Carefully reviewing medications to ensure they are helping, not hindering, and are in line with the goals of care. 
• Mentation: Realizing changes can stem from various causes, including depression, dementia, or delirium.
• Mobility: Appreciating the patient’s opportunities to maintain and maximize mobility, a fundamental element of independence and quality of life. 

The 4Ms provide practical, logical scaffolding for Age-Friendly Care, but success requires understanding and collaboration from everyone involved in the patient's care. This session will equip attendees with the foundational skills to pursue Age-Friendly Care on behalf of aging Hoosiers and their families.

Host or Publisher Center for Aging and Community- UIndy