About Us

The New Aging Partnership is an evolving union of professionals and advocates dedicated to the advancement of institutional opportunities and practices aimed at promoting a quality experience for all age groups; and, thus all members of society.

We are specifically committed to improving the aging experience of current older cohorts and simultaneously paving the way for better intergenerational experiences and greater optimism for the future for younger segments of the population.

Ageism is a problematic aspect of life throughout most, if not all, cultures. Discrimination on the grounds of aging is multi-faceted and well documented. Ageism which refers to age discrimination is a largely ignored component of discriminatory behavior, because in many ways, as a society we largely accept the stereotypes that praise youth and denigrate age. It’s as simple as that.

Ageism penetrates every institution, particularly, at least in western society — health and commerce. There is a wide span of concern that falls under the umbrella of age discrimination. In particular, age discrimination involves treating persons in an unequal fashion due to age in a way that is contrary to human rights. For example, the Ontario Human Rights Code prohibits age discrimination in: employment, housing accommodation, goods, services and facilities, contracts and membership in trade and vocational associations.

The New Aging Partnership continues to focus particularly on the intersection of ageism and health care; and specifically, the caregiving crisis that remains largely invisible to those not immersed in the burdens of providing care to their loved ones.

The connections between ageism and caregiving are legion. This website contains blogs and invites commentary regarding the various discriminatory aspects that range from caregiver bias against older care recipients to bias against caregivers themselves, e.g. workplace failure to support caregivers. However, perhaps the most troubling aspect regards denial of the major issues associated with caregiving, including recruitment of qualified staff; inadequate training and supervision; low salaries; inconsistent funding and lack of any formal certification opportunities — all of which result in the overwhelming inattention to this growing crisis, which at its root is essentially alarming and discriminatory.

The caregiving crisis refers broadly to the increasing demands upon both informal and formal caregivers resulting from changing demographic trends (the aging of the population) and rising health care costs. More informal caregivers are likely to be adversely affected by the burdens of caregiving as a result of the relatively greater growth in older segments of the population in comparison to younger segments, as well as gaps in personal as well as social resources. The formal system of caregiving is not prepared to meet the growing demand for services, thereby placing unexpected strain on public health. The caregiving crisis is already upon us; but is likely to reach catastrophic proportions — if not properly addressed!

For further clarification of the crisis, click on this link which is a portal to numerous articles on the subject: https://www.linkedin.com/in/inathanson

The New Aging Partnership emphasizes the common denominators of ageism that impact all of us, young as well as old. Millennials are one of the fastest growing groups of informal caregivers in the US. This begs the question of how our dependency on younger people to care for family members may be related to limitations in social support deriving from discriminatory policies and practices, as well as to individual failure to plan.

Our Mission

The mission of the New Aging Partnership is to raise awareness of issues and challenges associated with caregiving, and by extension, the impact of caregiving challenges on quality of life and work. Our purpose is to identify best educational, administrative and legislative remedies for managing the caregiving crisis and advocate for reform predicated on state of the art knowledge and research.

Goals

To expand awareness of the issues associated with the caregiving crisis;
To consolidate information to provide for the cross-fertilization of knowledge;
To identify and advocate for the implementation of policies and practices to assist and ease the burdens of caregiving.

Our mission has been evolving since we first launched this website approximately nine months ago. We started out with a focus on bringing to light the issues and challenges that derive from what we perceive as ageist denial of the challenges of caregiving, as well as the implications of this denial for the quality of personal and work lives of caregivers, and public and health policy.

In a short time, and based on extensive research and communication with health administrators, public health authorities, health professionals and health and aging association leaders as well as research and funding authorities, we have refined our purpose and the path towards achievement.

Our purpose has not changed. It is to identify best educational, administrative, and legislative remedies for managing the caregiving crisis and advocate for reform predicated on state-of-the-art knowledge and research.

Our current perspective on how we can best help ease the burdens on both informal and formal providers of care stems from an appreciation of the influence of the transforming organization of home health delivery systems on the well documented rise in demand on caregivers.

Therefore, although our goals remain essentially the same, we have refined our purpose to emphasize additional educational and strategic planning components. One might say, we are adding specific objectives to our initial statement of goals.

Objectives

We are in the process of developing a pre-professional interdisciplinary educational curriculum for students from the various health, social, legal and business fields to prepare them for the transition from hospital to home care service delivery (an exponentially growing trend).
We are further focusing on developing a strategic planning approach to resolving fragmentation and duplication issues associated with the delivery of home services.
We are in the process of developing educational programming aimed at advancing individual and organizational solutions to the specific challenges facing caregiver-employees and their employers.
We are currently expanding our consultancy to include thought leaders from different areas of expertise for the purpose of enhancing understanding of the caregiving crisis and providing solutions.

So What Makes the New Aging Partnership Different?

By emphasizing the connection between ageism and caregiving, with particular concern for millennial caregivers as well as older caregivers, we are distinguishing this issue as one of great prominence and targeting our energies accordingly.
We will use this platform to disseminate state-of-the-art knowledge ranging from legislative, administrative, and organizational remedies that address informal as well as formal caregiving. Furthermore, we will review formal and informal in- home care delivery services as well as institutional initiatives, such as legislative and administrative policy reform.
We will maintain our advocacy for informal caregivers through specific programming aimed at reducing the burden on family members by advancing educational and strategic planning activities aimed at resolving professional role and institutional role conflicts.
Our regular blogs will continue to focus on raising awareness of the myriad issues associated with the caregiving crisis, as well as, those associated with state-of-the-art efforts to remediate the challenges.
We are incorporating a resource consultants section to highlight the particular expertise of our new partners.

We hope you will join us on our journey.