Impact feature issue on Retirement & Aging for People with Intellectual, Developmental, and Other Disabilities
Resources
Resources for Healthy Aging
Aging and Down Syndrome: A Health & Well-Being Guidebook
This guidebook from the National Down Syndrome Society provides guidance and support to families and caregivers of older adults with Down Syndrome and prepares them for medical and other health decisions they may face in the future.
Virtual Coach: HealthMatters™ Program
This grant-funded program, free to participating organizations, provides strategies and materials for frontline staff to support people with intellectual and developmental disabilities to complete a 12-week, evidence-based health promotion program. An informational webinar on the program will be held January 5, 2022. Applications are due January 14, and the program begins in mid-February.
Brain Health Across the Lifespan for People with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities
This webinar discusses the National Task Group-Early Detection Screen for Dementia, and the ways to reduce the risk of aging-related cognitive decline in people with IDD.
Special Olympics International
Special Olympics’ Strong Minds initiative offers learning activities for maintaining emotional health. The site has fact sheets, toolkits, manuals and guides covering stress and other topics, and offers ways for individuals or groups to get involved with live events.
USAging is the national association representing and supporting the network of Area Agencies on Aging. Among its initiatives is the Aging and Disability Business Institute, which works to build and strengthen partnerships between community organizations and the healthcare system. The organization works to improve the health and well-being of older adults and people with disabilities.
Aging and Disability Resource Centers
Aging and Disability Resource Centers, a collaboration of the U.S. Administration for Community Living, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and the Veterans Health Administration, supports states as they work to connect consumers with long-term care resources. This website offers outreach and marketing resources for connecting older people, including those with disabilities, to services and supports.
Resources for Planning Your Retirement
American Association of Retirement Persons
This organization offers a variety of resources and tools, including several steps older workers should take as they think about retirement. Many of their tools, policies, and best practices can be applied to people with and without disabilities.
Association on Aging with Developmental Disabilities
This website describes a variety of issues and programming that the organization creates to assist people with disabilities in planning for life after work ends. It includes individualized and group support services, training, and resources.
Resources for Making End-of-Life Decisions
This center, part of the University of Massachusetts Medical School, offers webinars and other resources related to aging for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). One video, Five Wishes, offers information about the planning and conversations that people with IDD need to do as they near the end of their lives. What type of treatment do you want or not want at the end of your life? Who do you want with you, and who can make medical decisions for you if you are not able to make them? What do you want done for your memorial service? How should your religious beliefs be honored? The video includes a sample conversation with a person with IDD talking about the need to plan for the end of life.
American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities
This advocacy and education organization offers a wide variety of resources on aging, including a position statement on Caring at the End of Life. The statement calls for more uniformity across the United States in clinical experience, legal issues, and medical practices involving end-of-life situations. It also discusses four principles that AAIDD recognizes to form the basis for disability policy: dignity, respect for autonomy and for life, and equality.