How Generational Differences and Health Disparities Impact Senior Populations

About Brookdale Senior Living

Clinical and public health advances, coupled with improvements in many social determinants of health, are resulting in longer life expectancies. Within the next decade, the United States’ population will have more seniors aged 65 and older than children under age 18. Understanding cultural and generational differences related to health disparities is critical in providing the highest quality of equally distributed care. At Brookdale, we realize caring for seniors requires various cross-generational approaches to help eliminate health inequities among subpopulations of older adults.

To better understand the impact of ageism on the perception, equity and inclusion of healthcare in the senior population, we asked Leigh-Anne Royster, Ph.D., to share her insight for Brookdale’s Optimum Life® Continuing Education Series. Dr. Royster is currently the assistant vice president for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at Duke University. An educator and facilitator, she is adept at discussing health equity issues, as well as developing anti-bias and anti-oppression curriculum.

How Disparities Impact Health

Seniors experience social determinants of health differently across aspects of their individual social identities. Effective equity and inclusion practices recognize how the individual differences in health experiences — or health disparities — relate to the different caregiving and care-receiving experiences of older adults. These disparities are associated with a broad, complex and interrelated array of factors and may reflect differentiators such as age, race, ethnicity, class, disability status, gender, education and culture.

Dr. Royster explores concepts and frameworks for helping to provide equitable health experiences for seniors, including:

Broad strategic planning for education at every level of the organization.
Developing equitable policies and practices.
Appropriately evaluating and allocating resources toward diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) intervention strategies in your practice.

A range of negative healthcare experiences related to unconscious or implicit bias can also affect health outcomes for older adults.

These include:

Interpersonal interactions between individuals such as intake coordinators, nurses, medical assistants or physicians.
The organizational culture and climate of a healthcare facility, which may not match intended policy.
Healthcare system policies, written or legislated, that disadvantage older adults.

At Brookdale, we provide quality, personalized care for our residents that is intended to address their individual backgrounds and needs. To do this well, it’s essential to work together with the larger healthcare community and extend the continuum of care. To access our content experts and a Brookdale-sponsored Continuing Education session in your area, please click here. You can also download our full Continuing Education Series flyer for more details.

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