 Hello and welcome to town meeting TV. Thanks for tuning in today. My name is Bobby Luciae and today's program will be focused on the age strong Vermont program a roadmap for an age-friendly state and To talk a little bit more about the new plan that has been released for age strong Vermont. We're joined by Rhonda Williams and Angela Smith-Jane. Thank you both so much for joining us to talk a little bit about this plan today Thank you for having us. Yes, awesome. So Before we jump into the plan, I think if both of you could just introduce yourselves what your role is at age strong Vermont in state government and How this plan came about but we'll start with them just an introduction Angela if you want to go first. Sure Angela Smith-Jane. I'm the adult services division director at the Department of Disabilities aging and independent living and My role is to oversee Our home and community-based long-term care programs that are both for older Vermonters and for Vermonters with physical disabilities So we our goal is and our mission at Dale is to make Vermont the best place to grow old or live with a disability Dignity respect and independence and so we work with a team across Vermont to help support Vermonters to do that. Awesome. Okay. Rhonda. Yes. Thank you for this opportunity Rhonda Williams Vermont Department of Health And I'm the chief of the chronic disease prevention And so some of our work really centers around prevention prevention of chronic disease for all Vermonters And so part of my role is as director of the tobacco Program for the state as a major cause of disability morbidity and premature death And also to improve respiratory health And just lastly but not least certainly is our state has been Recently funded in the last five years to advance a public health directive for Alzheimer's Dementia's and healthy aging and brain health So this work around a strong Vermont really ties in well with our mission at the health department To create the healthiest state for all Vermonters to to age to age well Yeah, so can you talk a little bit about what age strong Vermont is? So you're both involved in your capacities as Leaders in state government and I understand there are other folks also involved that that contributed to this plan But how did this program kind of come about enough if one of you wants to sure So it really stems from the older Vermonters Act, which was legislation that passed in the state in 2020 and the older Vermonters Act set out a set of principles to guide state government Around supporting aging well And it called on the state to create an action plan for aging well To put forward a proposal for how to do that and then to create that type of a plan So that was 2020 three years ago And since then the health department and the department of disabilities aging and independent living took the lead together in launching that work and brought together a lot of Individuals and organizations from other state agencies as well as community partners doing work across a range of sectors Bringing bringing people together to start to develop this this plan Yeah, and and so are you both members of the steering committee for the plan? Yeah So and how many other folks are are there on that committee? Yeah So we have a we have a large advisory committee of approximately 35 different organizations And and including older Vermonters and and family caregivers are part of that advisory committee So they've been really kind of providing a lot of good guidance for the development of the plan and then we have a smaller steering committee that Has been really, you know doing a lot of the behind-the-scenes work to keep the plan Under development and moving along and that includes in addition to the health department and and Dale It also includes the community of Vermont elders also known as Cove Vermont association of area agencies on aging and AARP of Vermont, right? Okay Yeah, I just want to say that the advisory committee has been meeting frequently every two months and I think one of the unique aspects of it has been bringing data that supports and Allows for discussion and questioning around the principles of aging brought forth by the legislature in 2020 as Angela mentioned and That's been such a great learning experience I think for the advisory committee, but as importantly is then really informing content going into the plan and taking the draft draft plan as it developed to different communities To discuss and gain feedback and we're still in that process, which we'll talk about in just a little bit So this plan was released November 1st. Is that right? That's right. Congratulations. Just a few days ago so there are Already, you know sort of action plans and play, you know Vermont has a state plan on aging a state health improvement plan a state action plan on Alzheimer's related to Mention healthy aging and there are other plans in place So what's the value of this particular plan and how it interacts with all those other plans that are in that are already in place to move our state forward Yeah, all of those plans are really important and have a particular focus The reason age strong Vermont is different and unique and really new to our state is that it's taking a Visionary approach looking out 10 years and a multi-sector approach So it's not talking just about what are the services that are needed to support aging but really looking at aging across the lifespan and the fact that it touches all aspects of life, right? So it's putting our goals and objectives related to Health and wellness side by side with housing and Transportation and social connection and family caregivers because it's all interconnected Usually these things are done in separately, right in and that can lead to siloed work And not necessarily maximizing the resources that we have To really keep us on that vision So this plan It's been great in that it's brought together all the voices from all those different sectors Really to come together with a common goal And I think it's been a really valuable experience and I'm looking forward to the next phase of implementation I think it's impressive to me to and you can find the plan at I think it's healthvermont.gov A strong VT that's where you can go and find this plan and there are some really Specific data-driven objectives that you all have have set out to influence to move the needle on some of these issues Do you want to talk about you know, there are a lot of them there were like I don't know if they're and I mean they kind of fall into these broader categories But do you want to talk about just some of those specific objectives that you're trying to move forward with this plan? I would say that it's a combination of being aspirational and also Taking into accountability and how do we how do we make ourselves accountable is through being specific? and so most of our principles are supported by very specific objectives and Then strategies for achieving those objectives our plan is that This next year we'll develop a dashboard I think our plan is within the first six months to take the Data from each of the principles of the plan and select those that At least at least are measurable, but also matter because we want to Show that over time and within ten years that we are creating impact together And a dashboard allows for any of our monitor to go and see how that how that is coming along So in health and optimal wellness Some of the measures include improving mental health Other measures and a lot of discussion around making accessible physical activity healthy and affordable nutrition and safe Sidewalks more sidewalks and safer sidewalks So those are just a couple examples from one of the sections of the plan But then those also relate like how can you have physical mental and emotional health with also having financial stability or being able to feel Engaged and also included in society and so I think one of the Main discussion points or threads throughout our planning has been that we Together can combat and overcome some of the ageism that we see reflected unfortunately in employment practices or reflected in lack of cultural Events that are oriented towards those who are older in transportation that can help For people to feel no matter your age that you have access to the very strengths and wonderful aspects of our state All through your aging Are there you already mentioned this a little bit, but I think this it is it does Speak loudly in the plan that there's a desire to combat ageism throughout Vermont's systems and culture. Can you speak a little bit more to how that how ageism shows up in our culture in The ways that we plan for our society mentioned a couple of other any other things that come to mind Gosh, I mean I think we're bombarded with ages messages all the time in our culture in in media and social media just You know our culture is very youth oriented, right and so Think about the jokes that you hear about growing older having a senior moment all of those types of things are Contributing to ageism because it impacts how we how we think how we feel and how we act, right? And then we know that ageism shows up In employment in age discrimination One of the objectives of the plan is to really be able to increase the opportunities for employment for older older adults who want to work or need to work to really Capitalize on the wisdom and skill of our older workforce Versus Forcing people into retirement if they don't want to do that Ageism can show up, you know, so through through institutional practices thinking about in in a healthcare delivery system where older adults, you know May complain of pain and people. Oh, that's just part of aging, you know and Versus really working with that individual to address their pain As one example it can be over prescribing or under prescribing medications And then when you think about resources and resource allocation in a state budget for example, right looking at the the concept of of health prevention health promotion and disease prevention They're making sure that we're allocating resources across the spectrum of populations, right as a state that's aging where one in three of us will be over the age of 60 by 2030 We need to ensure that resources are allocated In a way that supports all of us to age well and doesn't leave anyone behind So one of the practices that we're changing at the health department is how we are analyzing and sharing our data before our Plan really got underway. It was pointed out to us. It's like why does the data stop at age 65? Where we had bracketed the data in in these 15-year age groups up into age 65 great question and so and looking at that and seeing what we could do to make more data available across demographics across health conditions in so many different ways that we use data to understand how well we are doing in Vermont and Now we are able going we're going to be sharing data that is more inclusive For older Vermonters. So it's one small example. Yeah. Yeah, it does. It sounds like you've laid out there's a lot of work to do to combat the ageism in our state and to create an environment and a culture where folks can age with dignity It might be helpful to understand, you know, what is our state doing well in supporting our aging population? You know, are there any kind of wins that we can say like, okay We're actually doing this pretty well and then this is where we need to focus or is it kind of just we need to be improving everywhere in everything that we're doing So that's a big question And I will say if if folks are interested in learning more about what we learned from Vermonters themselves because in Leading up to the development of the plan one of the first things we did was kind of a needs assessment What's working? Well, what's not working? Well, and we asked Vermonters a lot of questions We did a big survey around Aging we did public listening sessions across the state and then focus groups with individual Communities and learned a lot from from folks In addition, we looked at all of the data that we have around programs and services and and population Measures around how are we doing? I can say from the work that I do at Dale Vermont has been a leader in terms of offering Choices as people get older and for their care For many years, so Vermont typically ranks in the in the top third of the the country around access to long-term care options and choices and Being able to support many people to age in place to be able to receive Supports in their own home as if they want if they want to continue living there That has become more challenging over the years with our workforce challenges statewide, right? So Making sure that we have a really robust Workforce of people who can provide those services is a key focus at at at my department right now and I would say the strengths also include the Strong history of really valuable Work in early right the early stages of life those first years and setting High standards and sets of services including nurse home visiting partnerships and other types of programming that Supply some of those foundational foundational pieces Early in life But we also as Angela mentioned need to look at the resource allocation and some of the evidence base for older residents and What do those look like? So there is work underway around And you had mentioned it before we started of a farm to plate Well farmed a plate farmed a school all white wonderful work and now there's farmed to institution and farmed a congregation and Increasing the access to healthy and affordable Nutrition is so important to continuing Not only living well, but also offsetting chronic disease and the impact that so many people Experience from chronic disease and they're in their older years so I do think we have a strong foundation early in life and That overall Vermont does rank well in health among older residents however there are Health inequities and so when you look at the data closer you see that those who are Black indigenous and people of color those who are low income those who are very rural those with disabilities that we as a Set of stakeholders as whether you're in government whether you're an organizational business Non-governmental work is we have a obligation and responsibility to close those gaps. And so the plan is Really geared and really taking seriously. I think that aging strong is aging strong for everyone and as more data becomes available and looking at our populations in Vermont bringing that data to more listening sessions and more and Opportunities for input from Vermonters Just to to share. Yeah, are they improving too? Are we all improving? so Can I just piggyback on one thing that Rhonda said when she was talking about how we all have a role to play in this That's I think another piece that's really unique in this plan is that it really is an all hands-on deck type of plan We are not going to accomplish the goals in age strong Vermont just as state government It really we really need the You know businesses communities local town government local organizations and Volunteers and individuals to be really be a part of a part of the work and a part of the solution to Accomplish these goals and that's also where I think there is a lot of strength in Vermont. We have really Sort of strong local organizations that have stepped up to fill gaps And to support aging well in different ways. So there's good innovation happening all across the state Can the question is can we lift those up and be able to replicate and and you know create them across across all counties? for example You talked you both mentioned Resource allocation and how resources are divided in our state to support different populations You know there's it's an ambitious plan with lots of goals that will require Some resources including so you know like one of the I think one of the first very concrete objectives is to increase income for you know for aging folks, so How are you thinking about mobilizing resource like are the resources you know it was active act 156 Did that unlock resources for some of this work? Is there you know where where do the resources have to come from? And I imagine it's a combination of you know from local Businesses and state government, but how are you thinking about the mobilizing the resources necessary to get this work done? I? Think you're right that act 156 while it didn't unleash Fund specifically it did allow for Personnel like ourselves to dedicate time and thought and action towards this Comprehensive topic so that is a type of resource and along the way Then we've and continue to explore different types of resources including philanthropic support and we gained philanthropic support from the Vermont Community Foundation for evaluation and integrating evaluation from the start We are looking at over time exploring policies because policy and building in policy that especially through a health equity lens is a form of very significant support and And you see that sprinkled throughout the plan are a call for or explore a need for Policy and budget related action now. None of it is certainly guaranteed, but it is laid out specifically And we intend to hold ourselves to that as a collective through an implementation Committee and the implementation committee really helping to submit what are the next steps as we undertake each of these areas of the plan and Adjusting as we need to to be as successful as possible right and You know because it's a it's a it's a ten-year plan You know some of some of the Strategies outlined in the plan don't take a lot of funding resources take a lot of people resources, right? And so we can start working with those while also working towards You know towards the goal of policy change or funding support and over time You know, I think one of the one of my hopes for the plan as well is that it's not only a Plan to guide the work guide our work, but also to guide policy making into the future and and And budget making into the future so it can be a kind of a guidepost or a roadmap if you will for for Those making those decisions They can see does, you know, here's this funding request coming to us Does this align with the goals and age strong Vermont? Is it going to help get us down further down that road or put a barrier up on that road? And then as we're looking at opportunities to apply for federal funding for new grant New grants that may be coming down the pike instead of having to question. Oh Does this you know, does this fit in with our work? We already know if it does or it doesn't because it's outlined for us in that plan and we can use that as a foundation for Seeking additional support over time I might be too early to to say but in terms of this upcoming state legislative session Is there anything on this plans radar as far as you know, is are there any? Is there any pieces of legislation that might be that might impact your work? At all that you're hoping to steer with this plan. I'm aware of one I'm sure there's more But just in the last couple weeks The Alzheimer's Association nationally and then in state chapters They assess and analyze what are policies that are going to advance either on the prevention side and you know improving brain health or improving and delivering services to those Those already impacted by neurodegenerative disease or their caregiver care partner and what we have heard is taking some of what CDC is funding for the health department and Putting that into statute so that it sustains itself and that really is the intent of our work in this plan is that over time by Integrating into the considerations for aging strong into policy into budgets into work plans into personnel descriptions is That we are building in sustainability Yeah, I think we have just a few minutes left How can folks get involved in the work that you're doing and this plan? I saw that there's maybe a link for providing feedback to the plan or so how can folks get involved? Right so in the immediate in the immediate future or right now We're in the public comment phase for the plan So the month of November and people can go online read the plan There's a link to be able to provide feedback So that is probably the most immediate ask that we have we absolutely welcome Welcome feedback and ideas questions. Is there anything missing in the plan? People should be welcome to share as much as they would like And then as we head forward towards 2024 and implementation The question is how do people want to be involved? Certainly, we want this to be a living breathing document. That's evolving and growing as over time so we'll need our Implementation committees to kind of move the different pieces along and keep us accountable to that But then if people have Ideas around, you know something that they want to implement in their community that connects to age strong We'd love to hear about that too and see how we can support those efforts Right so the public are invited to attend meetings to provide their input that way or To email us there's contact information on the website We really intend to also go out into the community and just have different modalities so that people can Give their input and their ideas and We hope be involved with us. Awesome. Yeah, Rhonda and Angela Thank you so much for coming in to talk about this plan and congratulations on getting the The first version of it out there into the world and thank you for coming in today. Thank you so much for having us Yeah, and thank you for tuning in to town meeting TV. 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