Publications

In 2013, an international panel of experts was gathered by the International Academy on Nutrition and Aging (IANA) and the International Association of Gerontology and Geriatrics (IAGG) to meet in Toulouse (France). The aim of the meeting was to discuss the relationship between physical frailty and cognitive impairment. In particular, it was felt important to attempt to bridge research conducted on neuroscience and physical conditions of advanced age, 2 domains that had always tended to run in parallel.

It is well understood that “resilience,” or the ability to adapt in the face of trauma or significant sources of stress,1 is an important component of healthy aging.2 However, what about the ability to compromise or adjust to minor fluctuations in daily life? “Flexibility,” also known as “adaptability,” can be defined as a willingness or ability to compromise or change. Research supports the importance of flexibility for school and work success,3,4 but its relevance may extend beyond these realms.

Efforts to rebalance long-term services and supports (LTSS) toward increased home- and community-based services (HCBS) will engage and affect multiple stakeholder groups, including governmental stakeholders (eg, Medicaid administrators) and diverse nongovernmental stakeholders such as service providers, advocates, and consumers. The most recent large-scale rebalancing effort was the Balancing Incentive Program, which incentivized states that were spending less than 50% of Medicaid LTSS expenditures on HCBS to rebalance their LTSS spending toward HCBS.