Working with Diverse Elders in Rural Communities (Opportunities and Strengths)

The focus of this symposium is to discuss the opportunities and strengths of working with diverse elders and older adults in rural communities.  Accounts of field experiences will be shared, and methods of utilizing existing data that hold promise for addressing current problems, along with building a foundation of communication and relationship requisite to successful design development and implementation of improvements will be described through various studies with rural and indigenous peoples. We will discuss the role of social determinants of health race and rurality on fraility trajectories using data from the National Health Aging Trend Study.