FAIR Health Launches Healthy Decisions for Healthy Aging Campaign
January 25, 2024
With generous support from The John A. Hartford Foundation (JAHF), FAIR Health has launched Healthy Decisions for Healthy Aging. This is a national campaign to spread the news about FAIRHealthOlderAdults.org. This website has healthcare educational tools and resources for older adults and their caregivers. The campaign uses messaging and visuals to empower older adults and their caregivers to make educated healthcare decisions. The campaign presents the site as helping older adults make “healthy decisions for healthy aging.” For older adults, healthcare decisions are understood as “family decisions, life-changing decisions and shared decisions.” The campaign can be found here.
Through a prior planning grant from JAHF, FAIR Health launched tools and resources for older adults and caregivers in 2022. FAIR Health for Older Adults has shared decision-making tools that offer clinical and cost information for different care options associated with health problems that affect older adults. The health problems include early-stage breast cancer, hip osteoarthritis, hip replacement, spinal stenosis and fast-growing prostate cancer. In shared decision making, older patients and their caregivers/care partners talk with providers about the trade-offs involved in each clinical choice. This can help with choosing the option that lines up with their priorities and values.
FAIR Health for Older Adults also offers FH® Total Treatment Cost tools. These highlight a range of costs for health problems that may affect older adults. The health problems include Alzheimer’s disease/dementia, heart failure and major depression. Also, FAIR Health for Older Adults has educational content about many healthcare topics. Examples include how to plan for and manage healthcare costs, what questions to ask providers and where to find other helpful resources.
FAIR Health for Older Adults includes a video tutorial. The video orients users to the tools and educational content on the site.
Feedback from older patients, their caregivers and providers has shown that the tools and resources are useful. Sixty-seven percent of consumers said that FAIR Heath for Older Adults increased their knowledge and understanding of shared decision making. Sixty-five percent agreed that it helped them to better understand how to manage their healthcare costs.
Throughout the year, FAIR Health will direct the Healthy Decisions for Healthy Aging campaign to older patients, family caregivers and care partners, and providers nationwide. The campaign uses varied channels, such as audio, radio, podcast and TV ads, and interviews. Organizations, such as clinical institutions and community groups, can also share the campaign with those they serve.
As part of the campaign, FAIR Health will also spread the tools to older patients and family caregivers and care partners at the point of care. FAIR Health will do this by working with four Age-Friendly Health Systems across the country. The four sites will share a set of educational tools and resources with older patients and their caregivers and care partners. A national Project Advisory Board of experts in geriatrics and gerontology will provide guidance.
To access and share the Healthy Decisions for Healthy Aging campaign visuals, click here.