Diana Silvey: Careful planning can help older consumers
Diana Silvey is the program director at Winter Park Health Foundation, which funded the recent Boomers & Beyond seminar in Winter Park. In addition, she is vice president of the Senior Resource Alliance and a member of the Florida Injury Prevention Council. Silvey spoke recently with staff writer Jessica Inman about local businesses connecting with older consumers and the importance of prevention and wellness.
CFB: Tell me about the work that you do as program director at Winter Park Health Foundation that focuses on older adults.
The foundation is primarily focused on prevention and wellness. In my role as the program director for older adults, I really provide funding opportunities for local organizations that will further those ambitious goals that we have. What we’re trying to do is be sure that older adults remain active and healthy and engaged, very participatory in their communities for as long as possible, recognizing what a valuable resource they are to our community.
CFB: What inspired the recent Boomers & Beyond seminar and what was Winter Park Health Foundation’s role in getting that set up and going?
We decided to come up with an educational program, and really the start of it was that information that Sara Isaac shared in terms of [research conducted by] Salter-Mitchell. … So the idea there was talk to older adults, see what they’re saying and see if we have the basis for going forward with this educational offering, this oneday workshop. …
Organizations, businesses, communities, governments want to prepare [to meet needs of older adults]. They just don’t know what to do. That’s when we said we can amass a pretty robust panel of people that do know and offer you a one-day opportunity to come and learn.
We provided Rollins a grant to do this workshop, but we absolutely engaged a number of other organizations in the planning. Our partners over at AARP are fabulous. They not only helped in the supporting of the planning but also financially.
The UCF Life program was around the table with us and helped with the content.
CFB: How could businesses better reach the older consumer here locally in town based on the information that was gathered in that initial report?
Some of the things we heard the older adults say are things like noise levels … paying attention, I think to the level of noise, the lighting. … If you have for example a change in level of the flooring, but you have the same carpet, the same tile, there’s no variation to mark that there’s a change in level — that’s a problem and they know where those organizations are and they really won’t go there because it’s a hazard for them…
CFB: Say I’m an older consumer and I want to find out which businesses are proactive; is there a place I can go to get that information or will there be in the future?
Not quite yet. In some communities, they do have what I would say is the equivalent of a Yelp app so you can go on there and rate it for its age-friendliness. …
We have to recognize that they are wonderful resources for our community and not just from the economic perspective but from the value and the wisdom and the experience that they bring. That’s really our goal, is to make the world appreciate that a little bit more. That’s pretty ambitious isn’t it?