About Phil Stafford

Phil Stafford recently retired as the Director of the Center on Aging and Community at the Indiana Institute on Disability and Community, Indiana University. He has been active in publishing, teaching, conducting research, and consulting in the field of aging for 35 years.

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He is the editor of Gray Areas: Ethnographic Encounters with Nursing Home Culture, and, more recently, Elderburbia: Aging with a Sense of Place in America. A cultural anthropologist by training, Phil has his undergraduate degree from the University of Chicago and his Ph.D. from Indiana University.

Bloomington on the “age-friendly” cutting edge.

Since the beginning of the century (2000), towns and cities around the world have initiated efforts to become more “age-friendly.” I’ve enjoyed being involved since the beginning, serving as a consultant to the AdvantAge Initiative in 40 cities. Since 2014 or so, the World Health Organization has supported age-friendly efforts and, with AARP support in the U.S., now reaches nearly 200 cities worldwide.

The WHO model promotes community development around eight critical domains of elder wellbeing and community health. Certified cities undertake a five-year planning process to become more age-friendly. Work is wide-ranging, from a focus on health and housing to public spaces and the built environment.

Bloomington is known as a community working on becoming friendly for all ages and abilities, not just the aging population. Now, Bloomington helps pave the way by incorporating a “dementia-friendly” lens into the work. This helps put Bloomington at the cutting edge of the age-friendly movement under the able leadership of the IU Health Bloomington Hospital Alzheimer’s Resource Service and a very capable team of volunteers and aging professionals.