Aging Forward: A New Path for Health, Technology, and Community

America has an aging challenge. As baby boomers enter advanced age, the shortfalls of our current care delivery systems are increasingly clear. If nothing changes, we are woefully unprepared for a world with more older adults than ever before. Aging Forward confronts this inconvenient reality and provides a life raft—a vision for the future with achievable solutions.

In this new era of human history, the leaders who will bring us safely to better shores are already among us—perhaps you are one. In this book, discover what will be needed for the journey. It begins with a deep look at how we got here—delving into the economic, political, and cultural forces that created America’s aging services model—and exposes the unsustainable trajectory of these services and policies given the state of health and aging today.

By focusing on the growing need to manage chronic health conditions versus waiting for medical crises, the authors explore how to restructure incentives, network communications, use data-driven solutions, and embrace existing and emerging technologies to reshape the infrastructure of aging care. The result: Better access to supports that will more easily—and economically—keep older adults safe, independent, and in their own communities for longer, avoiding the burdens and fears so many endure now.

The good news of Aging Forward is that “we are not bankrupt.” The solutions are all around us waiting to be applied. Yes, a radical change in every sector of society is needed—in government, public health, business, technology, urban planning, culture, community, family, and individuals—but this book shows it is possible. Examples of businesses and technologies performing successful transformations on very short timelines are occurring before our eyes. The tools we need are already available to us, but their enormous potential for caring for older people has barely been tapped.
 
Aging Forward illuminates the way to get started when the future of aging is now.