A new era of wellness is being created at Yale School of Nursing (YSN). We are mobilizing the financial and human resources needed to sustain and expand health through our Aging Well initiative. Precision medicine. Gene editing. Gut-brain connectivity. Genetic engineering. Brain health — all play a part. Yale Nurses deliver high quality, patient-centered care and are uniquely positioned to support aging well across the lifespan.
YSN is creating a future in which the focus is on individual wellness and health-span—the period of time during which a person enjoys optimal mental and physical health. This approach takes into account not just age but also the possible modification of genetics, lifestyle, and other individual factors.
This is not a one-discipline issue. Aging Well at YSN is leading multiple cooperative, collaborative initiatives that are joining and amplifying knowledge from a wide range of academic disciplines—from nursing, medicine, and psychology to biology and the entire arc of behavioral sciences.
The YSN Aging Well initiative is unique in its focus on wellness rather than illness. If each life is viewed as a tape measure marked in years, with a red marker at “quality of life begins to decline,” our goal is to move the marker to later in life. Or, put it a better way, to increase health-span.
This is not a search for a magic elixir that delivers eternal youth. It is a search—a deep search—into understanding how best to achieve the optimal state of wellness as one ages.
The goal of this wellness initiative is to optimize wellness at every age. This involves far more than just viruses, bacteria, and genetics. It won’t be solved with a vaccine or a pill. Wellness is intimately intertwined with economics, education, access to healthcare, race, socioeconomic dynamics, environment, and many other factors not traditionally implicated or studied in discussing lack of wellness. YSN will initiate those discussions on a community, national, and international scale by doing the research and advocating for public policies that favor wellness.
We foresee that 60 will not be “the new 40,” but rather “the new 60.” We foresee a reset in expectations about how life will look at 40, 50, 60 and beyond…well beyond.
If you are interested in making a gift to support the Aging Well initiative, please click here. Contact Gail McCulloch (gail.mcculloch@yale.edu or 203-785-7920), Associate Dean of Development & Alumni Relations at YSN, for more information.