Reframing Aging: Phase II

Grant Summary

This grant will continue support of the ReFraming Aging initiative, which will counter the pervasive negative beliefs about aging that are barriers to improving the care of older adults in the United States. The initiative represents a collaboration of eight major aging services and professional organizations: AARP, the American Federation for Aging Research, the American Geriatrics Society, the American Society on Aging, the Gerontological Society of America, the National Council on Aging, the National Hispanic Council on Aging, and Grantmakers in Aging, which serves as the fiscal home for the project. With support from six foundations, the collaborating organizations are working with a communications research firm, the FrameWorks Institute, to develop counter-messages, alternative metaphors, and ways of “re-framing” public understanding of aging to motivate public action. The first phase of the initiative to study how the public, media, and experts currently think and talk about aging issues has been completed. Following final message development and testing, the project will train a wide constituency of stakeholders in the new framework and convene a campaign to put the new messaging into circulation.