Tamara Baker, PhD, professor in the UNC Department of Psychiatry, has been named co-director of a new North Carolina Institute of Medicine Task Force on Healthy Aging funded through the Duke Endowment, the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, and AARP North Carolina.
With the increasing older adult population in our state, a new North Carolina Institute of Medicine (NCIOM) Task Force of Healthy Aging will specifically identify recommendations related to social connections, nutrition, mobility, and preventing falls. More than 60 task force members are engaged as experts in topics related to aging in place, as well as leaders in faith communities, local and state government, academia, health care, and other sectors.
Two co-chairs for this work bring their expertise in aging – Tamara Baker, PhD, professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the UNC School of Medicine, and Dennis Streets, the retired former executive director of Chatham County Council on Aging. The first task force meeting was convened on May 10, 2022, and featured robust discussions of the current opportunities and challenges facing these issues and the potential for improvements.
“We are excited to partner with leading experts in aging, public health, and community services to identify the necessary strategies for healthy aging in North Carolina. We are confident that this task force will help strengthen our state and local systems and services to provide healthy, supported aging in our state,” says Kathy Colville, NCIOM President and CEO.
Ten task force meetings will take place through December 2022 and are open to the public. A final report will be published in early 2023 with actionable recommendations to inform policies to support healthy aging. To learn more, visit https://nciom.org/task-force-on-healthy-aging/.
The North Carolina Institute of Medicine (NCIOM) is an independent, quasi-state agency that was chartered by the North Carolina General Assembly in 1983 to provide balanced, nonpartisan information on issues of relevance to the health of North Carolina’s population. For more information, visit www.nciom.org.