Better Living and Aging

Why support our initiatives for well-being over a lifetime

From the moment we’re born, we begin to age. At USC, new approaches make aging something to look forward to. From engineering to the arts, pediatrics to geriatrics, brain health to bone health, we’re working to increase not only the human lifespan but also the human health span — the period of life spent in good health, free from chronic diseases and disabilities.

We think people should age where they want to, in good mental and physical health, and engaged in their communities. You can help by supporting our experts who will change the ways we age.

“We need to address how we can maximize health spans, the portion of our lives that we can spend in good health rather than in disability. Customizing prevention and treatment will be key to increasing our healthy years.”

– Pinchas Cohen
Dean, USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology

Giving children a healthy start

Your support helps us give children in Los Angeles and beyond the environments, education, and care that help them thrive — as children should. Our work in autism, abuse and trauma, and identifying early disease risk factors spans our campuses and the region. USC faculty also treat children and study childhood diseases at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, giving hope to those with conditions such as birth defects and diabetes.

USC helps keep you well

We keep adults healthy by preventing diseases and detecting disease early. Our experts partner with our patients, helping them make the right lifestyle choices so they can age well. When those who already are ill come to us for care, we compassionately provide the treatments and tools they need to manage chronic conditions, such as diabetes, heart disease, oral health issues, and glaucoma. Your support makes that possible.

Live longer — and better

We all age differently, and emerging research suggests we can each follow customized plans to age at our best. With your support, our researchers in gerontology, neurology, cancer, physical therapy, and occupational therapy work together to add healthy years to our lives. Many of our next-generation advances in healthy aging will happen in the areas of brain and cancer research.

Minding your mental health

In the U.S., mental health issues are the leading cause of disability. Suicide is the 10th leading cause of death. Our mental health services and research are growing to address this crisis. Your gifts can help us reach more people in need and accelerate solutions across disciplines.

• We’ve invested to become a leader in mental health for college students, from therapy to crisis support.
• The USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work is revolutionizing remote mental health care through the Telebehavioral Health Clinic. It helped hundreds of thousands of people with depression and other mental health issues during the pandemic. Expanding this clinic will touch many more.
• About 60% of people caring for the sick and aging show signs of depression, so the USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology has a center dedicated to caring for caregivers.
• We’re addressing PTSD among military members and veterans in ways once unimaginable, including using artificial intelligence to predict suicidal tendencies.
• Our research in addiction, depression, and suicide is growing dramatically.

Arts, humanities, and health

The arts and humanities play such a critical role in health that our national association of medical schools made them a fundamental part of curriculum for future doctors. We believe it, too. These are a few of the USC projects you can support that apply creativity to better health:

• Healing through artistic expression
• Games and virtual reality to boost brain health
• A collaboration between the USC School of Dramatic Arts and our cancer center that brings comedy to young cancer patients
• Investigating how music bolsters children’s brain development and improves memory and mental health
• Narrative medicine to encourage caring future physicians who listen to patients’ stories