Abstract
Medical, social and mental health services for older adults are often poorly integrated in underserved communities. This leads to missed opportunities to support and improve the wellbeing of vulnerable older adults. This symposium will first engage the audience in understanding how cultural and psychological factors shape the experience of aging, and then it will explore how innovative programs incorporate this knowledge to address the needs of the most vulnerable older adults. This session is brought to you by AARP and the University of California, San Francisco’s Optimize Aging Collaborative. Specifically, this symposium will show how expectations of aging differ among minority older adults and how the impact of negative stereotypes of aging can lead to poor health, and then focus on programs that disrupt the current paradigm of aging. These include an example from Japan where the postal service, working with IBM and Apple, delivers iPads to millions of older adults who can then connect with services, their community and their families and the One City, One Strategy program in San Francisco that through successful collaborations reaches some of the most underserved older adults - such as those in minority communities, those living alone, and adults with dementia. The intended audience for this symposium is broad and includes healthcare providers, educators, city planners, and community-based services and agencies.