Aging Well: It takes a team

Three members of the “Aging Team” at Charter House, Silver Spring, MD (middle) with Johns Hopkins School of Public Health intern (left, foreground) and Aging 360 workshop trainer (right)

The New York Times has done a wonderful job putting the realities of older age on everybody’s radar—offering practical, accessible tips on how to navigate it well. Their recent piece The Everyday Essentials That Longevity Experts in Their 50s, 60s and 70s Use in Their Own Homes, is a great example; everything mentioned is achievable by most people and costs little or nothing. The main takeaways include adapting routines, compensating for certain changes, and recognizing that you have real agency over your aging experience. Simple concepts, meaningful differences.

These align with the essence of our Aging 360 workshops, which we’ve been running since 2017 and now have the opportunity to scale nationwide thanks to the Thome Aging Well Innovation Grant.

But here’s what doesn’t get said enough: aging well is not a solo endeavor. It takes a team.

Recently, I was reminded of this while watching Nyad, the film about Diana Nyad’s extraordinary swim from Cuba to Florida at age 64. What struck me wasn’t just her feat—it was her team of 40 people, who made it possible. 40 people. For one swimmer. That stayed with me.

As we bring Aging 360 to nonprofits, affordable housing developers, and community-based organizations across the country, we are meeting the people I think of as the “first responders” to aging needs—the professionals on the front lines who actually make aging in place and in community possible. We are training selected staff in these organizations to deliver Aging 360 as part of their health and wellness programming, and in doing so, we are learning as much from them as they are from us.

Who are these team members?

Resident Services Coordinators or Resident Engagement Specialists in affordable senior housing are often the heartbeat of their buildings—the go-to person for everything from organizing classes and celebrating holidays to helping fill out forms and simply making someone feel at home in a community they’ve often moved to after decades living elsewhere.

Geriatric care managers help clients navigate the genuinely confusing world of healthcare and home-based care, often serving as the translator between medical systems and the people trying to live well within them.

Program managers work to identify what will actually resonate and benefit somebody’s experience—what’s fun, stimulating, practical, and relevant for people in this phase of life—and then make it happen.

Social service professionals and case managers help people access housing, benefits, healthcare, and the broader systems that determine their quality of life—often for people who have very few other advocates.

These are the people we now have the privilege of working with and learning from. Whatever their title, they are showing up as motivators, cheerleaders, and troubleshooters—sometimes all three in the same conversation.

A few things they’ve taught us:

A sense of humor goes a long way. The ability to laugh together—at the absurdities of aging, bureaucracy, life—is no small thing. It’s connective tissue.

We are all in it together. Everyone’s personal experience matters and enriches the conversation. The facilitator’s story is as relevant as the participants’.

Older adults have complex, demanding lives. It may not look that way from the outside—they’re not “working” in the conventional sense—but they absolutely are working: managing medical appointments, navigating family dynamics, dealing with health changes, stretching fixed incomes, and absorbing an endless stream of information about how to age well. That deserves acknowledgement and respect.

Personal outreach and trust-building are the foundations of everything. No program, however well-designed, works without relationships. These professionals know that, and they invest in them daily.

And yet, we all know these team members are often stretched thin, carrying our workshop alongside a dozen other responsibilities because it helps the people they serve to live with safety, more connection and delight and because, as they often tell us, the workshop speaks to their own lives, too. Many are navigating aging parents, their own health, or perhaps the same concerns about what it means to live well.

So here is an invitation: the next time someone on your aging team falls short of what you needed—take a breath before frustration takes over. Tell them who you are. Educate them about your needs. Say, thank you. These are fellow humans doing demanding, often invisible work, and a moment of genuine connection can shift everything—for them and for you.

“In the shelter of each other the people live.”

–Old Celtic proverb