One of the best parts of my job is getting to learn from our members. Parker Health Group, a member of the Quality Institute’s Leadership Council, has been quietly providing high level quality care to older adults in Central New Jersey for over 100 years. Parker’s CEO, Roberto Muñiz, is the current President of LeadingAge, an association of non-profit, community-based aging services providers serving older adults throughout the country.

As a member and vice chair of Parker’s Board of Trustees, I traveled to Nashville last week for the 2024 LeadingAge Annual Meeting. Amid the great music and food, I joined the Parker team and others from across the country to learn about challenges facing non-profit community-based organizations working to sustain themselves financially while also innovating for a rapidly growing population of older adults who want to stay engaged — and who want to age in place, but with the assistance they need. A variety of models can meet this demand. But, as a country, we have not lined up the needs, the options, and, critically, the funds to pay for the services needed. Our government insurance programs, Medicaid and Medicare, either do not cover enough of the people who will need the services, or simply do not cover those services. The situation leaves many families scrambling to just “figure it out.”

At the conference, Katie Smith Sloan, CEO of LeadingAge, highlighted pockets of excellence within her membership, where organizations are creating innovative programs to help people age in their communities, including:

• The Pryde, Boston, MA – serving and fostering communities of belonging for LGBTQ elders;
• Village to Village Network, – A national network of “villages,” which are community-based organizations that support older adults in their homes through mutual aid and volunteerism;
• Kendal at Home, Westlake, OH – providing a care coordination program to help families access the services they need;
• Wellspring Lutheran Services, Flint, MI – providing short-term respite housing for older adults to support them and their caregivers; and,
• Tabitha, Lincoln, NE – providing congregate housing for nursing students and older adults.

In New Jersey we also have programs of note that we can learn from and work with to advance aging in place and healthy aging.  One program is a visiting physician and clinical team program called Parker Advanced Care Institute. This home-based model of care focuses on those with an advanced illness and provides a broad scope of care that includes medical and social supports. The program is run in close partnership with the Visiting Nurse Association Health Group.

At the Quality Institute, we’re committed to supporting Healthy Aging and look forward to working with many of you, our members, on this critical topic. If your community or organization has innovations to support older residents that you would like to share, please contact Julie DeSimone, the Quality Institute’s Director of Community Health. We look forward to more partnerships and strategies to make New Jersey communities healthy, welcoming places to age in place.