Danielle Neveles-McGrath - Humana Foundation

Humana Foundation Report: The State of Emotional Health for Florida Seniors

 Season eight of Villages Vitality Life features host Mike Roth interviewing Danielle Nevilles McGrath, Chief Impact Officer of the Humana Foundation, about the foundation’s focus on seniors, K–12 children, and veterans through emotional health and nutrition initiatives. McGrath explains the foundation’s national scope, with most grantmaking in Kentucky, Florida, Louisiana, and Texas, and highlights a Florida report analyzing public state and national data plus interviews with seniors and nonprofit partners. Key findings include nearly 1 in 8 Florida seniors diagnosed with depression, 1 in 12 experiencing frequent mental distress, a 16% rise in hospitalizations due to mental disorders (2022–2024), and senior suicide rates above the national average, highest among those 85+. Contributing factors discussed include financial insecurity, loneliness, mobility/transportation barriers, caregiving strain, and limited access to providers; recommendations include prioritizing seniors, expanding screening, strengthening age-appropriate care, and scaling telehealth and technology-based connection programs.

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Transcript

dolores: 0:56

Welcome to Season eight of Village's Vitality Life, senior's Life unscripted. In this new season, we talk to leaders of clubs and interesting folks who live in and around The Villages. We also talk to people who have information vital to seniors. You will get perspectives of what is happening in and around The Villages, Florida. In addition, we will add more information for all seniors.

Mike Roth: 1:20

This is Mike Roth on Villages Vitality, senior Life unscripted. I'm here today with Danielle Nevilles McGrath. She is the Chief Impact Officer of Humana Foundation. Where she supports to advance the health of communities, data-driven evaluations, impact measurements, strategic partnerships. She leads impact evaluations and learning across the foundation's grant portfolio with a focus on mental health and nutrition. Danielle, thanks for joining us.

Speaker 3: 1:57

A pleasure.

Mike Roth: 1:58

Is your foundation specifically focused on the needs of seniors?

Speaker 3: 2:04

Yes. That's a great question, Mike. Thanks so much. So the Humana Foundation, we're the philanthropic arm of Humana Healthcare Company. We've been that philanthropic arm for the past 45 years, and we're focused on advancing health. Our, the populations that we primarily try to serve are seniors, people over the age of 65 school aged children, so that K through 12 population and veterans, and we mostly do this work in the areas of emotional health where we're trying to help people create healthy emotional connections, which is a lot of what we'll talk about today. Creating healthy emotional connections for seniors. And then we also do this work by shaping a healthier approach to nutrition, and that's just broadly the work that the Humana Foundation does, and I'm excited to talk to you more about the work that we've been doing.

Mike Roth: 2:51

Sure. In Florida especially, we have perhaps one as many as one in three adults over the age of 60. Now, is your foundation only concerned with the state of Florida, or does Humana's your foundation work all over the.

Speaker 3: 3:04

Great question. Thank you, Mike. So we are actually a national foundation As we think about our work broadly, we do most of our grant making, and when I say grant making, how we support and work with not-for-profit organizations. Most of that work takes place in Kentucky, Florida, Louisiana, and Texas with some exceptions, where we have national partners and then we have a research grants portfolio where we work with academic institutions all across the country to advance research that really looks to test. Scale solutions that are gonna improve health more broadly. So we think of ourselves nationally, but certainly Florida is very close to our heart. We know that Florida has one of the most rapidly aging populations, and in fact, as you said, by 2051 in three residents, we'll be over the age of 60. And so Florida's a state that we've invested quite a bit of contributions in over the years and partnered with nonprofits on the ground who are really trying to shape a healthier. Approach to nutrition as well as create healthy emotional connections for seniors, kids and veterans.

Mike Roth: 4:08

Yeah, nutrition has definitely been a problem, , I understand you folks have created a, a report based on the DA data that you've gathered. What kind of disparities or trends have you seen in your report?

Speaker 3: 4:22

That's a great question. So first let me share with you our approach for the report. So we spent some time analyzing state national data to really understand what's happening today with seniors. The report is about the state of emotional health for seniors in Florida. And so we really wanted to understand what's happening, and we looked at indicators like depression, suicide. Hospitalizations and access to care. And we also talked to seniors who are currently living in Florida, people who are over this age of 65, to get their lived experiences. And we interviewed some of our not-for-profit partners on the ground to get their perspective on some of these challenges. We examined disparities, as you mentioned, across a few dimensions, geography. Race, income, gender, and disability. And that's where we really looked comprehensively across our entire data set to understand what was really happening in the state of Florida as it relates to the emotional health of older adults. We had a few key findings from that report. One finding in particular is that nearly one in eight seniors are diagnosed with depression and one in 12 experience, frequent mental distress, which is obviously concerning. We also saw that hospitalizations due to mental disorders increased by 16% between 2022 and 2024. We saw that Florida seniors. Suicide rate exceeds the national average with the highest rates among adults who were over the age of 85. And when we looked at rural seniors, we saw that they're disproportionately impacted with higher rates of frequent mental distress compared to people, to seniors who are not necessarily in rural areas. So this data was really concerning to us. We wanted to make sure more people had visibility into the data, particularly those who are. Serving seniors and those who are thinking about ways to improve the emotional health of seniors and the health of seniors more broadly, because we know that when seniors are struggling emotionally, that means the rest of their health is struggling. They're not doing well physically. We know that can lead to other chronic conditions such as cognitive decline, Alzheimer's disease. It can affect their diabetes and other diet related conditions and their overall nutrition when their mental health is not doing well.

Mike Roth: 6:37

Now you said something which was surprising and I'm sure it didn't mean to take it literally, but you said that seniors are aging more rapidly. No, I think seniors age at exactly the same rate as the rest of the population. We just get older and so do they one year at a time. You did say something that was very interesting that I wanted to take a little bit more time on. I guess it's quite troubling that you said seniors over at the age of 85. Have a higher rate of suicide. Tell us more about that.

Speaker 3: 7:10

Certainly. And so from the data, what we've seen, and thank you for pointing out the rapidly aging, I actually meant that Florida has, the state of Florida has one of the rapidly aging populations in the country. Yeah. Time. As you probably know, Florida's in the top three. But to your question, yes. And so what we've seen from the data, what typically happens with. Seniors is that around the age of 65, many of them retire from the workforce, and so that's initially when you see a drop in a decline in socialization and being a part of a broader community. But as they continue to age and they're over that age of 65, of 85, excuse me, that's when we start to see some of those issues worsen and why suicide rates were higher. Because by then they may have been out of the workforce for even longer their community and social circle. May have continued to decline. We've seen in the data that by that age, unfortunately, some of the people that they're close to have since passed away, and they tend to have higher rates than of feeling more depressed, feeling lonely, which leads them to be more likely to commit suicide because there's community around them has gotten small. Yeah, so some of the urgent findings that we uncovered in the recent report on the state of the emotional health of seniors in Florida. That nearly one in eight senior seniors have been diagnosed with depression and one in 12 have experienced frequent mental distress. We also saw that hospitalizations due to mental disorders increased by 16% from 2022 and 2024. Florida's senior suicide rates exceed the national average with the highest rates among seniors who are over the age of 85. Rural seniors are disproportionately impacted with them having some of the highest frequent rates of mental distress across the state, and we know that's in particular because they're specifically impacted by being far away from other individuals.

Mike Roth: 9:05

We were talking about the suicide rate of seniors being higher than the general population. Was that survey done by Humana from your Advantage plan clients or was it done from the population in general?

Speaker 3: 9:19

This is public data from the state and national level. So this is not Humana Inc's data, this is separate public information.

Mike Roth: 9:27

Public information.

Speaker 3: 9:29

Mm-hmm.

Mike Roth: 9:29

How much higher the average, the suicide rate over 85?

Speaker 3: 9:33

I don't know off the top of my head what the exact number is for the general population.

Mike Roth: 9:38

I was wondering whether it was just a little bit or extremely significant differential. I think

Speaker 3: 9:44

the suicide rate for seniors is higher than the national average. Is what we found.

Mike Roth: 9:50

I was wondering if that was related to disease or pain or mental ill other mental illnesses.

Speaker 3: 9:58

What we saw as some of the key factors contributing overall to the mental health challenges facing seniors. Not necessarily solely specific to suicide, but overall, what we found in the research is that one, financial insecurity is a contributing factor, and so for older adults who are concerned about. Rising cost of housing, whether or not they have enough money to pay for their medicine, having to choose between their medications and food, and also having to then stress about all that. That creates a lot of anxiety. Social isolation and loneliness are also contributing factors. And so I talked earlier on about, certainly at the age of 65, we know that a lot of people tend to exit the workforce at that time. That means that their social construct, in a way is altered and changed, and so they may not necessarily continue to be a part of a community and a unit, and that contributes to their emotional health as well. People tend to, as they age naturally, that means sometimes that they have mobility challenges, challenges, which can impact their ability to physically go and visit and see people. They may also have transportation barriers, particularly if they're rural parts of the state. We saw in rural counties such as in the panhandle in northern Florida, have some of the highest risk of social isolation just based on where they're physically located. Caregiving also contributes to some of the reasons why seniors in Florida are facing emotional health challenges. Caregiving, of course, is a financial strain, but it's also an emotional strain as you're older, but you're also caring someone else. And you're worried about their health, and that causes your health too, in and of itself deteriorate. And then I guess the last thing that I would say is a contributing factor to their emotional health challenges is access. And so we saw in the data that Florida actually ranks 43rd in the nation for access to mental health care providers. For some people, they are just really struggling in silence, if you will, because they can't necessarily get access to a provider to help them manage some of the things that they're challenging or challenged with.

Mike Roth: 12:05

Okay. We're gonna take a short break here and listen to an Alzheimer's tip, Dr. Craig Curtis. Dr. Curtis, can you give our patients a tip on keeping their brain healthy?

Dr. Craig Curtis: 12:21

Absolutely. My favorite tip. Involves a change in eating patterns, but it's not a drastic change. It's simply increasing the amount of fresh fruits and vegetables, fish, other white meats, and lowering the amounts of red meat, sweetss and sugars, and also. Carbohydrates. It's essentially following a Mediterranean

DR CRAIG CURTIS AI: 12:49

type diet.

Warren: 12:50

With over 20 years of experience studying brain health, Dr. Curtis's goal is to educate the village's community on how to live a longer, healthier life. To learn more, visit his website, CraigCurtisMD.com, or call 3 5 2 5 0 0 5 2 5 2 to attend a free seminar.

Mike Roth: 13:06

Thank you, Dr. Curtis. I'm back with Danielle Neveles McGrath. Dan, can you give us a little bit more information on the lack of care providers for mental health for seniors? Is that worse in Florida than in other states?

Speaker 3: 13:24

Florida being 43rd of the nation for mental health providers. That puts it at the bottom of the US states. So overall, there's a shortage of providers, but what we've also seen in the data is when you think about geriatric providers, and so providers who are focused specifically on older adult. Many of them don't have a specialization in mental health care. And we also saw in the data that a lot of times for older adults and seniors, their mental health challenges are underdiagnosed because it's not necessarily taken seriously. It's just considered a natural part of aging. So there's a little bit of stigma around it, which means that sometimes it's not being addressed. And so we need there to first and foremost be more providers. We need there to be more training and sensitivity around the fact that just because you're aging, it doesn't necessarily mean that you should be feeling lonely or you should be feeling anxious that it's not a natural part of aging. And so there's a lot of training that needs to happen and more providers need to have that training and that understanding about how to really support someone who's older and who is experiencing mental distress and having emotional health challenges.

Mike Roth: 14:29

How about remote, mental health or seniors? Is that changing the equation at all?

Speaker 3: 14:34

We've seen in partnering with some of our pro not-for-profit organizations that telehealth digital health services are certainly an effective tool to address emotional health challenges for older adults. In fact, one of the recommendations we made in the report is that we need to scale more technology solutions because they do help to improve. Mental health for adults. One you already mentioned certainly telehealth, having providers connect to seniors who may live in rural areas who can't as easily get to a mental health provider. Having that ability to connect online is certainly a benefit, but secondly, even investing in programs that. Provide ways for seniors to get together virtually, even if they can't get together physically in person because they have transportation barriers, or maybe they live further away. One of our partners, older Adults Technology Services, we've invested in them to scale their Senior Planet program. Which it has both in-person and virtual programs, and that allows seniors to get together and connect. They learn about how to use technology. It improves their digital literacy, and it also provides that sense of connection. Another partner that we have, seniors in service of Tampa Bayoan, they provide health buddies to seniors who are struggling and who are feeling lonely. And these health buddies are people who are considered companions. They call them on a weekly basis. These are sometimes college students. They could be volunteer seniors themselves. They could be working professionals who just want to volunteer and they take the time to call a senior and to just spend time checking in on them because for some seniors, they may not have anyone in their life to simply do that. And we've heard anecdotally from talking to our partners that a lot of seniors really look forward to those calls, so their health buddies really become a part of their community. And those health buddies are also trained by seniors in service of Tampa Bayoan to talk to seniors about. Medicine adherence to talk to them about their nutrition. They also provide them with a meal that we find through the Humana Foundation that gives 'em access to a nutritious, high quality meal because we know that emotional health is also impacted by nutritional insecurity, and so we try to pair those two together so that you're improving that sense of connection as well as improving their overall health.

Mike Roth: 16:48

Now, you mentioned another organization before you talked about the one in Tampa. What was that again?

Speaker 3: 16:53

Older adults technology services. They're a national organization, but we've partnered with them. Mm-hmm. Specifically in Florida for their Senior Planet program, which has both in-person and virtual programs. There's actually a Senior Planet facility located in Wynwood in Miami, but then they also host online group settings where you could be a part of a book club or you could join an interest group around a particular area. Maybe it's gardening, maybe it's an office spiritual. Belief that a person has. And so that really provides a way for people to connect even if they are socially isolated.

Mike Roth: 17:27

So is that provided remotely by a telephone or a computer? Linko.

Danielle Neveles McGrath: 17:33

So they can go in person to where there are physical locations of senior planets. But they can also connect via a computer and be able to do similar to what we're doing right now, talk to each other virtually from two different places, and have a shared connection around an area of their interest. And so they can go online to Senior Planet and they can look up. Groups that would be of interest to them. As I mentioned, that could be a book club, it could be gardening, whatever they're interested in. There's lots of different groups out there that they can join. They even have virtual exercise classes so that seniors can take some time to work on their mobility.

Mike Roth: 18:08

Danielle. If someone wanted to contact Humana Foundation to get some information or to give some information, how would they do that?

Speaker 3: 18:16

So they can go directly to our website, humana foundation.org, and on our website we have a contact us page. You can fill out the contact information and someone will follow up and reach out to you directly with more information about how you can get involved and share your feedback with us.

Mike Roth: 18:34

Great. Thanks for being with us today, Danielle.

Speaker 3: 18:36

Of course.

dolores: 18:37

Remember, our next episode will be released

next Friday at 9: 18:39

00 AM. Should you wanna become a major supporter of the show or have questions, please contact us at mike@rothvoice.com. This is a shout out for supporters, Tweet Coleman, Ed Williams, Duane Roemmich, Paul Sorgen, and Dr. Craig Curtis at K 2 in The Villages. We'll be hearing more from Dr. Curtis with short Alzheimer's tips each week. If you know someone who should be on the show. Contact us at mike@rothvoice.com. The way our show grows is with your help. Text your friends about this show. If you enjoyed listening, use the fan mail button on our homepage, Villages Vitality.Life to leave comments, be sure to include your name, email, and phone number. We thank everyone for listening. The content of the show is copyrighted by Roth Voice 2026, all rights reserved.