Building Older Adults' Resilience by Bridging Public Health and Aging-in-Place Efforts

The increasing frequency and intensity of weather-related and other disaster events combined with the growing representation of older adults in the overall population have created a new environment in which public health and prevention planning and programs will need to actively promote the resilience of older adults. Resilience-building efforts of public health departments to support a range of emergency response issues are not always tailored for older adults and thus may not make accommodations for their needs. Relatedly, aging-in-place efforts (specifically age-friendly communities and villages), which have arisen to support older adults' social, economic, and residential needs, often do not focus on aspects of resilience-building.

The goal of this toolkit is to bring together those involved in aging-in-place support and those involved in disaster resilience efforts to improve the ability of older adults to withstand and rebound from the effects of natural and human-caused disasters. The toolkit endeavors to bring together these two fields that are currently engaging in separate, yet complementary, work; to identify their shared interests and functions; and to help them plan, implement, evaluate, and improve their independent and collaborative activities designed to promote older adults' resilience.