The Aging and HIV Institute (A&H) is a policy and systems-focused organization working to ensure that aging, disability, and behavioral health systems recognize and respond to the lived realities of people aging with HIV. Our work centers on how policy language, planning frameworks, and accountability structures shape who is seen, who is planned for, and who is served as populations age.
As people with HIV live longer, gaps between aging systems and HIV infrastructure have become more visible and more consequential. A&H exists to address those gaps at the structural level, where definitions are set, priorities are established, and responsibility is assigned.
Our Focus
Policy Advocacy
We work to ensure that aging, disability, and behavioral health policies explicitly include people aging with HIV when such inclusion strengthens equity and accountability within existing systems. This includes attention to how populations are named in planning documents, how priorities are measured, and how responsibility is distributed across aging and disability frameworks.
Thought Leadership
A&H produces policy briefs, framing papers, and public commentary that connect lived experience with policy analysis. Our work supports policymakers, advocates, and systems leaders seeking clearer language, better alignment across sectors, and more durable approaches to equity in aging.
Systems Education
We engage aging, health, and behavioral health systems in learning that helps bridge long-standing silos. This work focuses on strengthening understanding across sectors while avoiding approaches that reinforce stigma, diagnostic gatekeeping, or parallel systems.
Why This Work Matters
A majority of people living with HIV in the United States are over the age of 50. Yet many aging and disability systems were not designed with HIV in mind. When populations are not explicitly named within planning and policy frameworks, their needs can be overlooked without violating stated equity commitments.
A&H advances a principle we call visibility with purpose. Naming HIV in aging policy is not about creating new categories or expanding bureaucracy. It is about translating inclusion into responsibility within the systems that already shape aging policy and practice.