Summary
The Johns Hopkins Women's Wellness and Healthy Aging Program (the Program) is dedicated to delivering a care model that assures women's health needs are addressed as they age. We provide personalized treatment of women with an understanding of medical morbidities and healthy aging practices beginning in peri-menoapuse and throughout the post reproductive years. Our program is a multidisciplinary approach to menopause health that includes an assessment of the whole person to optimize wellness including bone, heart and mental health. In 3 years we have cared for more than 575 patients, successfully established a communication system between the program’s partner specialists and primary care doctors, provided awareness and education to providers, launched comprehensive research projects, including collaborations with outside organizations.
Planning and Implementation
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What was the challenge you were trying to address?
We are addressing the lack of conversation and stage of life focused care for women in the older demography. Women reaching their maximum potential have traditionally been invisible in both medicine and the work place. This has led to women not receiving healthcare that is proactive, improving the quality of life as they age and allowing them to contribute to society for a longer span. Our program fills a significant void for aging women. We are working with Johns Hopkins Administration to make our program sustainable and scalable within the Baltimore community and the National Capital Region. We have encountered issues with funding to support staff time, physician time, educational programming and research. To date we have built relationships and raised funds to seed this program. Our success has been the result of a great deal of “sweat” equity and elbow grease.
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Who were you trying to impact?
Older people in general, Older people with chronic health conditions or disability, Older people with vulnerabilities, Older women only
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What sectors were you targeting?
Education, Health, Information and Communication
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Who else was involved?
Academia, Health Care
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How did older people participate?
Older people were part of the process at multiple or all stages
Lessons learned
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Please describe how collaboration worked in your initiative.
Our group has advisors and collaborators including: 1. stakeholders (aging women); 2. professionals (medical providers and administrators within our health system); 3. research and collaboration with outside organizations, such as NIH, SWHR and North American Menopause Society.
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What was the impact of your initiative on older people, their families, and/or their communities?
Our patients expressed improved Quality of Life which included their own health status as well as their relationship with their families and communities. The patients appreciated the support they received from our program. Patients comment on the value of the care and information they have received from our program. Patients appreciated the education they received regarding their symptoms and felt empowered to make decisions to improve their healthy aging.
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What issues did you face, and how did you address them?
Post reproductive women are invisible and as a result their health and information needs go un-met. Starting a program to assist this unrecognized demographic has been a challenge. To begin, we have had to educate about its existence then advocate about the needs of our patient group with relevant leadership in our organization and the community.
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What lessons did you learn from implementing this initiative?
Women in the peri- and post-reproductive age are overlooked and underserved worldwide. Primary focus on women's health has understandably been on the reproductive years. However, the world's population is aging, and with aging come chronic medical morbidities that can severely affect the individual's quality of life, ability to care for their family, productivity in the community and at work. Additionally un-addressed co-morbidities increase the cost of treatment within the public health context.
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Do you have any other reflections you would like to share?
By delaying/preventing the onset of age related illnesses we are reducing severe morbidities in old age. Un-addressed morbidities increase the cost of treatment within the public health context. The cost of menopause, in medical care and lost productivity, was estimated at $3 billion annually in the United States. Another example is osteoporosis, a major public health problem, resulting in high societal costs and physical impairment with direct annual costs estimated to be over $17 billion (fractures attributed to osteoporosis). Menopause is the single greatest risk factor for osteoporosis. With support from institutions like the UN and WHO, public education and preventive, integrated medical practices, much suffering can be prevented with savings in health care costs.