9661. (Amended by Stats. 2024, Ch. 337, Sec. 39.)

(a) The older adult wellness program shall have all of the following functions:

(1) Focus on educating California’s older adults, as well as caregivers, families, and health care professions, about the importance of living a healthy lifestyle, including, but not limited to, nutrition, exercise, injury prevention, and mental well-being.

(2) Provide information on, and help California’s culturally and ethnically diverse older adults and adults with, functional impairments.

(3) Provide educational information on the resources and services available for older adults from both private and public entities in communities throughout the state and the area agencies on aging. The educational material shall accommodate the diverse linguistic needs of various populations in the state, including, but not limited to, English, Spanish, Russian, Chinese, and Braille.

(4) Promote education and training for professionals and caregivers who work directly with older adults in order to maximize wellness.

(5) Generate a cultural shift to a more positive vision and expectation with respect to how aging is viewed by all Californians.

(6) Transform perceptions of aging into a more hopeful, appreciative, and aspiring mode of being.

(7) Create a new culture that cherishes each of us, including the population of older adults, adults with disabilities, our aging, our ethnic and racial diversity, our becoming elders, and our maturity.

(8) Advance the recognition of the unique status, experience, capacity, and role of older adults to become our models for guidance and inspiration.

(9) Replace the image of older adults who are “self-interested” with an image of older adults who are actively engaged and involved in their communities.

(10) Promote and mobilize older adults and adults with disabilities into emerging roles for the public benefit.

(11) Challenge the prevailing culture, to the extent that it discounts the value of age.

(12) Rid our culture of the negative attitudes toward adults who are aging and adults with disabilities.