Getting older comes with plenty of advice: stay active, eat well, get enough sleep, keep up with your appointments. All good advice, but healthy aging is about more than just going down a list and checking the boxes.
It’s about continuing to do the things you love, staying connected to the people around you, maintaining your independence, and having health care that understands what matters to you.
What Does Healthy Aging Look Like for You?
There isn’t one answer that makes checking that box easy.
For one person, it might mean having enough strength and balance to keep working in the garden. For someone else, it’s managing medications well enough to feel their best, staying sharp for weekly card games, or remaining safely at home.
That’s the idea behind Age-Friendly Care. Instead of focusing only on what’s wrong, health care should also consider an older adult’s strengths, priorities, and goals. The Age-Friendly Health Systems framework from the Institute for Healthcare Improvement organizes that approach around four areas known as the 4Ms: What Matters, Medication, Mentation, and Mobility.
What Matters: What is important to you, and does your health care support those goals? Who are the people you want involved in your care?
Medication: Are your medications still helping you, and are they safe together? Do you understand what they are for and how to take them correctly?
Mentation: How are your memory, mood, thinking, and social connections?
Mobility: Are you able to move safely and continue doing the things you enjoy? What can help you maintain your strength, balance, and independence?
Together, these four areas help shift the conversation from simply treating conditions to supporting the whole person and what matters to them most.
A More Connected Way to Care
Santiam Hospital & Clinics is preparing to launch a new Connected Care pilot program, beginning at Sublimity Medical Clinic, to provide additional support for eligible older adults in our community.
Connected Care brings Community Health Workers into the primary care team and uses the same 4Ms approach. Support may include home visits focused on medication safety, mobility and fall risks, brain health and social connection, conversations about what matters most, health education, and connecting patients with helpful community resources. Community Health Workers also communicate important information back to the patient’s primary care team.
It’s another way to make care more connected, more personal, and more centered around the person receiving it.
Saddle Up for the Medicare Rodeo
Healthy aging also means staying connected to your community and knowing what resources are available when you need them.
Join Santiam Hospital & Clinics for our Medicare Rodeo on Tuesday, October 20 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Aldersgate Camps & Retreats in Turner. Connect with more than 40 local organizations, learn about services and resources available to older adults in our community, and talk with Medicare experts during Medicare Open Enrollment. The event is free and includes lunch, bingo, raffle prizes, and flu and COVID vaccinations.
A free shuttle runs from Cascades of Stayton, departing at 10 a.m. and noon and returning at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. No reservation needed.
Learn more about the Medicare Rodeo
Healthy aging isn’t about doing everything perfectly. It’s about having the support, resources, and care you need to keep doing what matters most to you.
Because no matter your age, what matters to you should matter to your health care team, too.
