NC Healthy Aging Coalition

Enhancing Capacity through Partnerships

Formed in 2005, the North Carolina Healthy Aging Coalition (NCHAC) is a multi-disciplinary, multi-network group comprised of key leaders from over 25 organizations from across the state with an interest in health promotion and/or aging. The NCHAC’s vision is that North Carolina will create and sustain programs, policies and environments to foster healthy aging and the health, well-being and independence of its citizens.

Primary support for the NCHAC is provided by the NCHAN, the UNC Institute on Aging, the Carolina Geriatric Education Center, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), and HAC member sponsors. The NCHAC’s Coalition Development and Maintenance team administers and coordinates the organization’s efforts.

NCHAC Mission

To foster optimal health and well-being, the Healthy Aging Coalition will build statewide partnerships to:

• Increase public awareness of the evidence base for health promotion and prevention in aging
• Plan and develop resources, programs, provider capacity and policies to foster evidence-based practice
• Disseminate knowledge to foster effective evidence-based programs and healthy environments

Guiding Principles

The coalition will be guided by:

• Sound health promotion and prevention principles and evidence-based approach
• The desire to include all older individuals across the continuum of needs
• Interdisciplinary and complementary approaches across public and private sectors to leverage resources and void duplication of effort
• Build on the state’s existing health promotion and prevention capacity and successful experiences of partners
• Recognition that disparities in health and access to resources are prevalent and must be eliminated if the vision of health aging is to be achieved.

NCHAC Strategic Goals

1. Coalition Development and Maintenance
   Goal: Build and maintain a statewide Healthy Aging Coalition, bringing together key state, regional, and community stakeholders, to systematically conduct surveillance, identify needs, successes and resources to plan and coordinate health promotion, prevention and chronic disease and disability management for older adults. Seek resources.
2. Coordinating Activities
   Goal: Through ongoing Healthy Aging Coalition activities, coordinate priorities for implementing and evaluating efforts that foster effective health promotion, prevention and chronic disease and disability management for all older adults.
3. Needs Assessment and Resource Mapping
   Goal: Ascertain available program resources and needs (both met and unmet) at state, regional, and community levels that are pertinent to the continuum of healthy aging and evidence-based health promotion and disease prevention (EBHPP).
4. Supportive Policies and Environments
   Goal: Assess, advocate, and facilitate the development of policies and environments that support the optimal well-being of older adults
5. Community Awareness and Education
   Goal: Develop and apply resources to increase awareness of the value of EBHPP for older adults and to strengthen the capacity of communities to deliver EBHPP within diverse populations.
6. Provider Education
   Goal: Create and implement a plan to assess and enhance provider/program capacity to design, implement and evaluate community-based healthy aging programs. Incorporate avenues to identify, promote and disseminate best practices.
7. Surveillance and Evaluation
   Goal: Evaluate and disseminate findings and lessons learned from the process and outcomes of the initiative on at least an annual basis. Use information and conclusions to set new goals and strategies for upcoming year.

Accomplishments to Achieve Goals

• Created the Coalition’s mission, vision, and goals (Goal 1)
• Launched the NCHAC website and listserv (Goals 2, 3, 5, & 6)
• Conducted an online survey of members to determine capabilities and resources of each other’s organizations and to assess what resources (expertise, programs, policies, materials) are of interest to or available for use by the Coalition (Goals 2, 3, 6,& 7)
• Held several healthy aging workshops to train providers on what evidence-based health promotion and disease prevention is, why it is important, how they can prepare to offer evidence-based health promotion programs, and how they can evaluate their own programs (Goals 5,6, & 7)
• Created a training CD on evidence-based health promotion and disseminated it to AAAs in the state (Goals 5, 6, & 7)
• Developed a training CD entitled “Promoting Awareness and Planning in Healthy Aging: A Healthy Aging Coalition Member Guide.” Thanks to support from the Carolina Geriatric Education Center, the CD was distributed free of charge to NCHAC members (Goals 5 & 6)
• Through a grant from the National Chronic Disease Directors, developed a Healthy Aging Roadmap between the NC Division of Aging and Adult Services and the NC Division of Public Health (Goals 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, & 7)
• Executed Memorandum of Agreement between the NC Division of Aging and Adult Services and the NC Division of Public Health
• Inventoried older adult health promotion programming in the state
• Identified county-specific older adult health data so that providers can easily access the right database and the right information
• Supported the state’s successful application for the Administration on Aging’s “ Empowering Older People to Take More Control of their Health Through Evidence-Based Prevention Programs” grant . The grant is a joint application between the Division of Aging and Adult Services (DAAS) and the Division of Public Health, with DAAS being the lead agency. North Carolina is implementing the Stanford Chronic Disease Self-Management Program in seven Area Agencies on Aging (AAAs) in the western, central and eastern regions of the state. (Goals 2, 3, 5, 6, & 7)
• The NC Division of Aging and Adult Services integrated the NC Healthy Aging Coalition into the DAAS state plan (Goals 2,4)
• Assisted in launching the NC Falls Prevention Coalition (Goals 2, 3, & 6)