Jisella Dolan, Home Instead Chief Global Advocacy Officer, is one of 50 individuals chosen as part of the first-ever Healthy Ageing 50, honoring leaders from around the globe who are transforming the world to be a better place to grow older.
The Healthy Ageing 50 recognizes the winners’ contributions and showcases their work as inspirational leaders helping the UN Decade of Healthy Ageing reach its goals.
The Decade (2021-2030) is designed as an opportunity to work together to improve the lives of older people, their families, and the communities in which they live, as set forth in the Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing almost 20 years ago.
This year’s Healthy Ageing 50 recognizes inspirational change makers who showcase what is possible in the area of healthy aging, whether at local, national, regional, or global levels.
From combating ageism and developing age-friendly environments, to implementing integrated care and ensuring access to long-term care, the honorees demonstrate that actions taken across sectors can transform our world to meet the needs and aspirations of current and future generations of older people.
An expert panel of reviewers from across international organizations reviewed over 500 nominations for the award.
Shaping Home Care Policies Around the World
As Chief Global Advocacy Officer for Home Instead, Dolan aims to empower individuals to age in place with dignity and respect. She is dedicated to advocating for older adults and their loved ones, ensuring a quality care experience, helping transform the healthcare delivery system, working to elevate the caregiving profession, and shaping policy to support family caregivers, aging adults, and home care around the world.
In addition to her role at Home Instead, Dolan is a family caregiver and from her lived experience, she knows first-hand the challenges that older adults, their loved ones, and care professionals face on a daily basis. Because of her roles as a working mother, a family caregiver, and a female executive, Dolan brings a unique perspective within her advocacy work of making the world a better and kinder place to grow old in.
Dolan’s Home Instead career demonstrates the role that the private sector can play in fostering healthy aging beyond simply being a provider of services.
She actively advocates for a global transformation of the care profession, so that professional care workers are no longer viewed as a role of “last resort,” but instead a valued, admired, career of the future crucial to helping people live lives of meaning and dignity.
To this end, Dolan builds public-private partnerships and commissions research to understand how we can best change the world’s perception of care and build broader appreciation of its value to society.
Decade of Healthy Aging
The UN Decade of Healthy Ageing sets an ambitious vision, encouraging leaders like Dolan all over the globe to transform the world to be a better place to grow older. Across governments, civil society, academia, business, media, and local communities, these leaders are trailblazers in what they do and how to do it.
The announcement of the Healthy Ageing 50 marks the 20-year milestone of the Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing (MIPAA) and the second year of the UN Decade of Healthy Ageing (2021–2030). Their goal is to create a world where all people can live long andhealthy lives. The Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing was adopted at the Second World Assembly on Ageing in April 2002 and marked a turning point in how the world addresses the key challenge of “building a society for all ages”.
See the full list of this year’s Healthy Ageing 50 and explore the stories and achievements of these government leaders, civil society representatives, academics, and professionals from around the world, all working to improve the lives of older people, their families, and communities in unique and impactful ways.
