Research
Equitable Healthy Aging in Public Health Toolkit Report
The USF School of Aging Studies and College of Public Health produced this toolkit to help public health departments promote healthy aging across the life course and give everyone a fair opportunity to optimize their health and wellbeing. This means no one is disadvantaged from achieving this potential because of social position or other socially determined circumstance.
This goal requires acceptance of the unique and cumulative factors that shape health and wellbeing in later life. It also means advancing inclusive and culturally-relevant policies and dismantling systemic and structural barriers that result in health inequities. This is particularly important for older adults, because inequities accumulate over time.
This report provides equitable healthy aging considerations in alignment with Mobilizing for Action through Planning and Partnerships (MAPP) 2.0 – the nationally-accredited planning and implementation model that guides community health improvement practice across the United States.
The toolkit begins by framing and defining the scope of equitable healthy aging vis-à-vis the roles and opportunities for public health. Foundational principles and frameworks are presented to tie practice to the models of age-friendly public health systems and age-friendly communities. The final section of the report identifies explicit considerations for departments of health to enhance equitable healthy aging across the phases and steps of MAPP 2.0. Embedded throughout the report are links to a range of resources to expand on content of interest.
The toolkit report was sponsored by AARP and developed by the University of South Florida’s College of Public Health and School of Aging Studies in consultation with the Trust for America’s Health and the National Association of City and County Health Officials. The content of the report was piloted with the Florida Department of Health Community Health Improvement professionals.