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This perspective shift is also like stripping away an onion: “We peel away one layer and another appears, and each layer offers new ways to enjoy life and to participate more vibrantly,” continues Kennedy, who is also a member of the Social Work Core Faculty with the Arizona Geriatric Education Center through The University of Arizona, and Faculty and Visiting Scholar with The John A. Hartford Center of Geriatric Nursing Excellence at the ASU College of Nursing & Health Innovation.

“Our perception of aging has flipped on its head,” Markwood adds. “Aging once brought negative conceptions of being old and not being vital, of being frail and not active. Today, our conceptions of aging are much more positive and evolutionary, differing from one person to another as each approaches new life phases with vigor and purpose.”

Area Agencies on Aging were created by the Older Americans Act, she explains. The n4a represents the nation’s 650 Area Agencies on Aging and serves as a champion for the more than 240 Title VI Native American aging programs. Each has a director, such as, in Phoenix, Mary Lynn Kasunic, who plans and coordinates programs and services supporting the needs of older adults and caregivers.

As a national membership organization, n4a advocates for older adults and their caregivers, provides training and technical assistance to AAAs and Title VI programs and sponsors awards programs honoring older adults and exceptional aging programs.

“Aging is now more of a phase across a life span,” Markwood says. “Nowadays, there is no magic age when you become older. It’s a state of mind — and health.”