Headline

Providers can apply these tools when designing and refining telehealth services delivery to meet the needs of older adults with a range of physical, cognitive, linguistic, and cultural differences.

Context

Older adults are more likely to experience barriers to using technology to access telehealth, such as lack of high-speed internet and digital literacy gaps. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released a series of recommendations for providers to help improve virtual visit readiness and address barriers to accessing telehealth. This toolkit includes 14 tools that providers serving older adults can use to help implement these recommendations.

About this Tool

This toolkit includes tools for providers that support the delivery of care that is responsive to the physical, cognitive, linguistic, and cultural differences among older adults. Tools include pre-visit assessments, recommendations for communicating with older adults and people with disabilities, and change management resources. The full list of tools includes:

1. Equitable and Accessible Care
2. Vision Assessment
3. Hearing Assessment
4. Cognitive Assessment
5. Recommendations for Communicating with Older Adults During Telehealth Encounters
6. Communicating with People with Disabilities
7. Engaging with Families and Caregivers
8. National Standards for Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services in Health and Health Care
9. RESPECT Model
10. Effective Cross-Cultural Communication Skills
11. Developing Culturally CAPABLE Materials
12. The Model for Improvement
13. Sample PDSA Form
14. Engaging a Champion

Takeaways

This toolkit can support providers serving older adults to center equity when designing and delivering telehealth services for this population.