Implementation innovations and insights shared at January 22 convening
Attendees from across the state came together last week for an Age Friendly Rhode Island convening at Rhode Island College. The program featured presentations from two established age-friendly initiatives.
Sylvia von Aulock, executive director, Southern New Hampshire Planning Commission, shared her experience coordinating a regional age-friendly initiative spanning 14 New Hampshire communities. Sylvia highlighted several innovative approaches to alleviating transportation challenges and shared other key milestones from the past decade. Access Sylvia’s slides HERE.
A team from the Office of Health Equity and Community Impact (OHECI) at Yale New Haven Health, which serves as the backbone for Age-Friendly Westerly, offered insights on engaging community and sustaining engagement. Lindsey Greene-Upshaw, senior manager of OHECI and her colleague Melissa Sigua, the community health project coordinator, outlined how they leveraged the hospital’s Community Health Needs Assessment to guide the work. Access their presentation HERE.
The second part of the program featured a conversation with Carmela Geer, executive director, Edward King House Senior Center in Newport; Kathy Jackson, senior fellow at Newport for All Age; Sue Ogle, Westerly resident and board member of The Village Common of Rhode Island; and Christina LoPresti, a student at Salve Regina University, who is the intern for the Newport project. The group presented on their work to develop local “pocket books” to complement the Pocket Guide: Resource Guide for Older Adults and Adults with Disabilities published by the Office of Healthy Aging.
Other resources mentioned during the event
- Community Health Needs Assessments (CHNA)
- Conducted by nonprofit hospitals
- Updated every three years
- Available on hospital websites
- Brown University Health – https://www.brownhealth.org/sites/default/files/2022-09/EPBHCommunityHealthNeedsAssessment2022.pdf
- Care New England – https://www.carenewengland.org/community-health-needs-assessment
- CharterCARE – https://www.chartercare.org/locations/rwmc/for-patients–caregivers/community-health-needs-assessment/
- Landmark – https://landmarkmedical.org/about-us/community-health-needs-assessment/
- South County Health – https://www.southcountyhealth.org/about-sch/about-sch/community-health-needs-assessment
- Yale New Haven Health – https://www.westerlyhospital.org/about/community-benefits/Community-Health-Needs-Assessment
- Housing Works Rhode Island Fact Book – https://www.housingworksri.org/research-policy/publications-reports/fact-books
- Rhode Island Life Index – https://rilifeindex.org/
- Rhode Island Healthy Aging Data Report – https://healthyagingdatareports.org/ri/rhode-island-healthy-aging-data-report/