Scholarship | Next Generation Leaders Fellowship

The John A. Hartford Foundation Age-Friendly Health Systems Cohort Scholarships for the AHA Next Generation Leaders Fellowship

The United States is aging. The number of older adults, individuals ages 65 years and older, is growing rapidly. Health systems are working to find ways to meet the complex needs of the growing population of older adults. To address these challenges, in 2017, The John A. Hartford Foundation and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, in partnership with the American Hospital Association and the Catholic Health Association of the United States, set a bold vision to build a social movement so that all care with older adults is age-friendly care, which:

• Follows an essential set of evidence-based practices;
• Reduce or prevent harms; and
• Aligns with What Matters to the older adult and their family caregivers.

Becoming an Age-Friendly Health System entails reliably providing a set of four evidence-based elements of high-quality care, known as the “4Ms,” to all older adults in your system.

• What Matters: Know and align care with each older adult's specific health outcome goals and care preferences including, but not limited to, end-of-life care, and across settings of care.
• Medications: If medications are necessary, use age-friendly medications that do not interfere with What Matters, Mentation or Mobility.
• Mentation: Prevent, identify, treat and manage depression, dementia and delirium across settings of care.
• Mobility: Ensure that older adults move safely every day in order to maintain function and do What Matters.

When implemented together, the 4Ms represent a broad shift by health systems to focus on the needs of older adults.

To continue to enhance this work, The John A. Hartford Foundation is providing scholarships for a cohort of Age-Friendly Fellows who will participate in the Next Generation Leaders Fellowship. These applicants will be asked to implement the 4Ms Framework at their organization in their organization for their change project in the fellowship program. This scholarship covers fees for the program: $9,995. However, it does not cover travel expenses and registration for the AHA Leadership Summit in both 2020 and 2021, and any other additional expenses incurred during the program. See FAQ for additional details

Applications for the 2020-2021 cohort are now closed.