"We're not prepared for the aging nation."
That's according to Deborah Burton, the founder of Aging Easily, LLC, and RIElderInfo.com. She has a master's degree in gerentology, or "the scientific study of old age, the process of aging, and the particular problems of old people."
Her academic and professional success (covering more than 30 years) in what may seem like a niche field is topped only by her passion for the subject, which bubbles forth easily during our conversation on her work with elders in Rhode Island. It's one where you walk away having learned way more than you expected to.
In short? She knows what she's talking about.
"I completely nerd out about anything relating to aging," she told me.
As they say, knowledge is power, and her insight into the world of aging — the laws around protecting loved ones from elder abuse, the best ways to navigate medicare, how to find the most fitting elder care professional, etc., etc. — was something she felt she couldn't sit on. After all, seniors, their families and those who serve them were looking for this information in a way that was easy to digest (it rarely was, Burton found). Even the state government was weighing different options for best communicating its senior services.
"I am a neighbor, and this site was built by a Rhode Islander for a Rhode Islander. You can find me! If you want to meet me for coffee, I’ll meet you for coffee!"
"Here in Rhode Island, [people] don’t even know how to ask [for senior care help]," Burton said.
So, the former consultant decided to stop just talking about her insights and started listening. Burton began hosting listening sessions across Rhode Island, where she gathered real-life feedback from seniors and their families about the services they were on the lookout for or what they currently had access to.
"I amassed even more information as a private consultant ... brokering knowledge," she said. "[But] as a human being, seeing people in need? I couldn’t keep [what I knew] hostage."
The next step was translating what she knew and what she learned into one space — a website — that was up-to-date, concise and easy to navigate for the elder, caregiver or professional alike, with verbiage and information to properly match the knowledge of the seeker.
"Sometimes as a professional you don’t necessary look for the same info [that] a layperson would," Burton said.
The result was just what Burton had envisioned, with three sections for the aforementioned users, with resources organized by town. There's information on everything from "health and services" to "government agencies" and even an events calendar.
"The effect of social isolation of seniors can literally be deadly," Burton said. The event calendar, geared towards seniors and their caregivers, aims to included "engaging" programs that connect attendees with their community and get them out of their home.
While the website (which is mobile friendly) has been up and boasts a robust spectrum of content, Burton said she isn't done, listing a host of other features she hopes to include — such as language services for users who don't speak English.
"I don't want the website to be a 'once and done' thing," she said. "I want repeat customers, return visitors [because it's] the only website that offers comprehensive information across the board."
Her work brought her not only to the internet, but also to the Social Enterprise Greenhouse's Health and Wellness Accelerator, a three-month program that included 11 other participating companies. On Dec. 6, the program's pitch night, she won a $2,000 award sponsored by Delta Dental of Rhode Island, which was specifically granted to "high potential social entrepreneurs [who] achieve significant milestones during the program and that demonstrate leadership in supporting fellow entrepreneurs in the program."
In a release on the win, she said she'd use the $2,000 “to increase visibility of the RI Elder Info website to engage the more than 350,000 seniors, caregivers and aging professionals in Rhode Island with particular emphasis on underserved communities."
SEG wasn't the only entity RI Elder Info has impressed. The site has been featured in a host of publications ("Senior Digest", "The Foster Home Journal").
"Feedback has been absolutely, overwhelmingly positive, with people saying, 'Oh my God, we needed this!,'" Burton said.
And at the end of the day, that's why she developed the resource: to help.
"Not in a stilted, formatted way, but more in a conversational way," she told me. "I am a neighbor, and this site was built by a Rhode Islander for a Rhode Islander. You can find me! If you want to meet me for coffee, I’ll meet you for coffee!"
There's even a button for that on the site.
