Reframing Aging: Addressing the Challenges of the “S” Word

FrameWorks Institute’s research into how the general public thinks about aging and older adults resulted in a recommendation—now adopted by the Associated Press, the American Medical Association, and the American Psychological Association—to avoid the terms senior, senior citizen and elderly, and to use more age inclusive terms such as older adult and older person, or descriptive language (e.g., our program serves people age 60 and older).

Since we began facilitating Reframing Aging workshops, there are some common questions and issues that you’ve raised about the recommendations:

• What do we do if the word “senior” is in my organization or program name?
• How do we deal with search engine optimization, if people are looking for services for seniors or senior citizens?
• Some of our constituents like the term “senior” and are likely to be upset if we change

On June 21, we’re going to have a robust conversation that addresses these issues featuring a funder who encourages their grantees to use reframed language and messaging, and panelists who have themselves dealt with these challenges.

Whether you are an organization or program with the term senior in your name, a council on aging, or anyone who is wanting to adopt more age inclusive messaging, please join us. The workshop is free but we do ask you to REGISTER, and let us know what questions you have that you would like to see this panel address.