Resource Library

Social isolation is an epidemic in the United States, affecting two-thirds of older adults and three-quarters of young people (as reported during COVID). Social isolation is linked to depression, poor sleep, and impaired immunity. It increases the risks of dementia by 50 percent, stroke by 32 percent, and coronary heart disease by 29 percent, and significantly increases the risk of premature death from all causes.

Age-Friendly Health Systems aim to follow an essential set of evidence-based practices; cause no harm; and align with what matters to older adults and their caregivers. This issue brief provides background on the need and an update on a new movement that seeks to transform how our healthcare system approaches the care of older adults.

Part of Grantmakers In Aging’s Moving Ahead Together initiative, supported by Gilead Sciences, this document offers a detailed framework of recommendations for strengthening the integration of HIV and aging care and services through increased understanding, more customized programs, closer cross-sector connection, and stronger policymaking. Three main sections. Focus Area #1: Complexities and Challenges, explores the broader social context, including stigma. Focus Area #2: Integrating and Improving Care and Services, emphasizes the need for whole-person care and examines medical care, mental and behavioral health care, and social and psychosocial support. Focus Area #3: The Way Forward, looks at policy and how to update it to reflect the graying of HIV.

This report summarizes key issues relevant to understanding complex care and offers resources and case studies for funders interested in entering the field or deepening their existing work. It also profiles funding opportunities, explores existing models, and shares philanthropic lessons learned.

GIA recorded a series of interviews with older people living with HIV/AIDS reflecting on their lived experience.

This report from Grantmakers In Aging, seeks to capture a range of promising approaches to aging in community being used globally.  
 

Our 2019 funding guide, Aging Positively: Bringing HIV/AIDS into the Aging Services Mainstream: An Introduction for Funders, highlights the diverse experiences of older people living with HIV/AIDS and offers actionable ideas for philanthropies of all kinds to improve care and quality of life. 

​Honoring the Denver Principles and MIPA (Meaningful Involvement of People with HIV/AIDS), GIA also recorded a series of interviews with older people living with HIV/AIDS and produced the following videos reflecting on their lived experience.

Evidence-based programs (EBPs) are essential for promoting healthy aging and wellness in older adults. These programs address challenges such as chronic conditions, falls, physical inactivity, and behavioral health issues, which can impact health, well-being, and independence. 

Explore the economic, social, and personal benefits of making a community more age-friendly.

Through key informant interviews, focus groups, and a two-day leadership summit GIA distilled best practices in sustainable age-friendly communities work that resulted in the framework presented in this document.

Learn how to create more effective messages or talking points, develop printed materials, and frame public communications campaigns.

View ways to make your community more age-friendly with this infographic.

Explore new, transformative ways of thinking about aging and community development.