Reframing Healthy Aging as a Journey and Adventure [Podcast Series]
[:55] Dr. Bantham introduces her guest, Vicki Shepard
Vicki Shepard is Founder and President at Healthy Aging Coalition.
She is a consultant on healthcare strategy and healthy aging.
[1:12] May as older Americans month
“It's a time to rejoice on aging, to respect and appreciate our caregivers, who are also engaged in taking care of older people and perhaps disabled people.”
[1:55] Healthy aging definition
“And so when you are born, you start your aging process, and that process as part of a longevity of looking at your aging process. And so what becomes important is, every single day, how do you live your life to assure that it's healthy?”
[7:11] Valuing older adults
“We have to stop, as a society, taking older persons and putting them in a corner and not recognizing the value, the knowledge and the expertise they bring.”
[11:38] Owning your age
“Well, then, after reading the book, I said, dang it, I'm going to embrace and own my age, which is why I tell people how old I am, because, you know, I'm going to own it. I feel proud of it. I've lived a long life, and I plan to continue making contributions as I go in this aging process to new adventures.”
[16:01] The importance of movement to healthy aging
“There is nothing as significant as continuing to exercise and working through that, because you're going to feel psychologically better and physically better.”
[18:17] Healthy Aging Coalition history
“One of the other outcomes was this is awesome for these stakeholders to meet, because everyone goes in their own swim lane, and no one communicates across different industries and different disciplines. That was the birth of the at that time, we called it the Rural Aging Advisory Council, and we had several summits that we did, one on social determinants of health, another one on social isolation and loneliness. And then later we changed the name to The Healthy Aging Coalition.”
[23:20] The art of advocacy
“So the concept of the art of advocacy is, how do we need to reposition ourselves to be effective advocates, as this constant churn changes, and I'm going to say chaos is taking place? And so one of the things in our meeting was the ability to stay calm and not to panic and not to feel despondent or to feel depressed about what's going on.”
[27:23] Advocating for reimbursement for supervised exercise therapy
“We have to have good evidence, good outcomes, good messaging, meet with the right people. And I think Physical Activity Alliance is actually extremely well positioned for that.”
[30:41] Call to action
“I say that because when I was working with Silver Sneakers, I had every single one of our Congressional and Senate staff visit one of our Silver Sneakers sites. Put a face on what you're trying to do. It isn't just a program. It's a person. It is a face. They can make all the difference in the world.”
