Programs to improve quality of life and health: what do older adults and practitioners think?

Abstract Numerous programs and services are designed to help older adults improve their health and quality of life. Impact evaluations typically focus on health outcomes. Often, less attention is paid to the opinions of professionals tasked with administering these efforts or the older persons and caregivers about the need for the program or the way the program is administered. This panel addresses the question with four presentations, each of which uses data collected from practitioners and/or older adults to gain their perspectives on programs to help maintain quality of life and health. Sweeny examines the experience of older LTBTQ adults as they navigate the care and social service systems. Dictus and colleagues will describe a community level effort to develop a master plan for aging in one county. The method for including the views of the older adults in the process can be a model for other communities. Corpora and colleagues report on efforts to ensure that staff are aware of important preferences of nursing home residents, with a focus on the predictors of successful implementation. Glicksman and colleagues examine the impact of migration on the attitudes and perceptions of older Spanish speaking migrants toward the formal long-term care system. Finally, Stone will address the question of how these types of data can be used to help shape policy and practice, using research to help older adults and professionals at all levels to support older persons in community and facility care.