(Albany, NY)—The network of aging services professionals and service providers are convening today and tomorrow in Albany for the 22nd annual Aging Concerns Unite Us (ACUU) conference, which presents 35
training workshops on replicable good practices in innovative programs
and service delivery to help older New Yorkers, families, and people of
all ages with disabilities live with dignity and autonomy in their homes
and communities of choice.
The conference’s opening session by
Marty Bell, executive director of the National Aging in Place Council,
features communities that are proactively changing through redesign and
future-based planning to help older adults successfully age in place. Bell’s presentation highlights dozens of innovative approaches being
implemented all over the country that will challenge what it means to be
age friendly.
Keynote speaker, Tom Kamber, PhD, is an
award-winning social entrepreneur, educator, and activist who has
created new initiatives in aging, technology, affordable housing, and
the arts, and is founding executive director of Older Adults
Technology Services (OATS). Since 2004, Kamber and his team have helped
more than 35,000 older New Yorkers through the creation of one of the
nation’s most powerful and successful models to harness technology to
change the way we age.
This year’s conference also offers a
variety of replicable practices and innovations from across the state’s
aging services network including workshops on advocacy, aging in place,
partnerships with disabilities organizations, no wrong door, the aging
mastery program, scams, telehealth, caregiving, and promoting healthy
aging and age-friendly models, among others.
Governor Andrew M. Cuomo’s 2017 State
of the State laid out a comprehensive plan to advance a “Health Across
All Policies” approach to incorporate health considerations into
policies, programs, and initiatives led by non-health agencies. This
includes making New York the first age friendly/livable state in the
nation as defined by the World Health Organization/AARP 8 domains of livability.
The Governor’s “Health Across all
Policies” approach systematically takes into account the health and
health system implications of decisions; seeks synergies; and avoids
harmful health impacts in order to improve population health and health
equity.
New York State Office for the Aging Acting Director Greg Olsen said,
“The value of older adults to their families and communities is
undeniable. This conference is another important step toward realizing
Governor Cuomo’s vision to create the first age-friendly state in the
nation and provide communities ideas and options to improve their level
of livability for people of all ages. Age friendly communities are
vibrant and in demand, and benefit the individual, the family, the
community, and the economy.”
Michael Romano, President of the Association on Aging New York and Director of the Oneida County Office for the Aging said,
“That we have outstanding participation again this year, with more 450
registrants, speaks to the value of ACUU for a growing group of
professionals who serve an ever-expanding population of older New
Yorkers. The annual conference continues to be valuable resource for all
who provide community-based long-term services and supports for older
adults. There is a great deal of new information the aging services
network must continually learn and retain in order to provide quality
services at the local level, and ACUU has always been vital in meeting
this requirement.”
The ACUU conference is a
collaborative professional development event for New York’s 59
county-based area agencies on aging (AAA) and close to 1,200
community-based service providers, and attracts professionals from the
community-based long-term services and supports sector, senior centers,
adult day services programs, caregiver programs, transportation service
providers, nutrition services programs, geriatric mental health
programs, consumer directed programs, individuals with disabilities
programs, and health care professionals, among others.
Source: The New York State Office for the Aging
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