Mark Brennan-Ing, director of research and evaluation at Brookdale, has joined an advisory board of the Gerontological Society of America (GSA) for an initiative to address ageism in healthcare. This project, supported by AARP, is being led by Marilyn R. Gugliucci, GSA vice president and incoming GSA president for 2025.
The objective of this project is to ensure that people are treated fairly in health care settings regardless of age. As described by Andrea Ungar and colleagues (2024), “Pervasive ageism in health care is particularly destructive since it negatively affects health survival and trajectories of health and well-being of older persons and curtails individuals’ capacity to contribute to societal goals.” The advisory board will convene a workgroup of gerontologists to develop educational materials for healthcare professionals at institutions of higher learning to raise awareness on implicit age bias and how such bias can negatively impact medical treatment.
As part of this initiative, Dr. Brennan-Ing and fellow advisory board member Andrew Steward participated in a Momentum Discussion on this topic, moderated by Dr. Gugliucci, at the GSA annual scientific meeting in Seattle in November 2024.
