FAIR Health Introduces Tools for Healthy Aging Decision

NEW YORK—With a grant from The New York Community Trust (The Trust), the national, independent nonprofit FAIR Health has launched FH SHARE (Sharing Healthy Aging Resources and Education) NYC, a two-year, New York City-based initiative designed to disseminate educational tools that facilitate shared decision making and health care engagement among older patients and family caregivers. 

As part of the FH SHARE initiative, FAIR Health will engage two New York City-based clinical institutions that will use and help evaluate a set of shared decision-making and health care engagement tools and resources on FAIR Health for Older Adults (fairhealtholderadults.org) with older adults and family caregivers at the point of care.

Under FH SHARE NYC, FAIR Health is conducting outreach to clinical institutions serving older patients in the New York City metropolitan area, with the goal of identifying two institutions that will collaborate with FAIR Health to use clinically relevant shared decision-making tools and other resources at the point of care with older patients and family caregivers. As part of the collaboration with FAIR Health, clinical sites will receive stipends to offset administrative costs associated with their participation. Clinicians at the two sites will also receive support and assistance from FAIR Health’s Clinical Liaison and provide feedback to help evaluate the use of the tools at the point of care.

With the grant from The Trust, FAIR Health will also disseminate and promote citywide the free tools and resources on FAIR Health for Older Adults, including a new Alzheimer’s disease shared decision-making tool and section, which were developed under a current grant from The John A. Hartford Foundation. Available in both English and Spanish, FAIR Health for Older Adults offers a suite of shared decision-making tools with clinical and cost information for conditions such as hip osteoarthritis and type 2 diabetes; FH Total Treatment Cost tools, which show the total yearly cost involved for conditions such as heart failure and Alzheimer’s disease; and educational resources such as checklists and FH Insurance Basics articles relevant to the care of older adults. These tools have received positive feedback from patients, caregivers and clinicians. At the end of the two-year program, FAIR Health will publish the findings in a report that will be widely disseminated among key stakeholders.

Shared decision making—the inclusion of patient preferences and values along with clinical options in discussions among patients, their caregivers (as applicable) and providers to reach treatment decisions—shows promise for engaging patients in health care decision making and lowering costs. Facilitated by decision aids that offer treatment options for specific clinical scenarios, shared decision making focuses on “what matters” to patients, aligning with one of the key elements in the “4Ms” framework of age-friendly care. Under prior grant-funded initiatives, FAIR Health developed shared decision-making tools that combine clinical and cost information for a set of conditions relevant to older adults, seriously ill patients and minority communities. The tools, which also now include the new Alzheimer’s disease shared decision-making tool with resources, are freely available on FAIR Health for Older Adults, an online resource developed with prior funding from The John A. Hartford Foundation.

FH SHARE NYC will build on FAIR Health’s prior work and current initiative funded by The John A. Hartford Foundation, which involves collaborations with four recognized Age-Friendly Health Systems clinical sites. The four sites are using the shared decision-making and health care engagement tools and resources on FAIR Health for Older Adults. Early findings suggest that clinicians and patients alike find the tools useful for decision making.

The FH SHARE NYC initiative also notably builds upon all the past generous support of The Trust, including a 2019 grant awarded by The Trust that facilitated the development and 2020 launch of FAIR Health’s first set of shared decision-making tools with cost information. These tools offer clinical and cost information for three scenarios relevant to patients with serious illnesses on a dedicated section of FAIR Health’s national, award-winning consumer website, fairhealthconsumer.org. The grant was followed by invitations from additional funders to expand the breadth and reach of shared decision-making tools with cost information for older and minority communities and the health care providers who serve them.

“Now more than ever, older New Yorkers need the tools and resources to make informed health care decisions that align with their own values and preferences,” said Irfan Hasan, vice president, programs and grants, at The New York Community Trust. “The New York Community Trust is pleased to support FAIR Health’s FH SHARE NYC initiative, which will get shared decision-making tools and other resources to older adults and their family caregivers to help them incorporate patient values and preferences with clinical evidence as they make important care decisions.”

To access the free tools, educational content and resources for older adults, visit FAIR Health for Older Adults. To see the Spanish version, please click here.