aging

I'm in Atlanta, GA this week-end for the annual Gerontological Society of America conference. All the presentations I've seen so far have been fantastic.

One of the best things about this conference is the interdisciplinary nature of the programming. Yesterday, I saw a paper presentation by Meldrena Chapin, Ph.D. who identifies herself as an Architectual Gerontologist (who even knew a field like that exists?). She spoke about culture-change in long term care, and her presentation will be uploaded to her website soon.

Thought I'd share this piece from the DailyOM about transitioning through life's phases. I especially love the last sentence about changing as we grow older: "When we anchor our identity in our spiritual nature, we understand that physical change does not change who we are, but only offers another perspective from which to experience, understand, and celebate life."

An interesting article from the New York Times about relationships between children of older adults and their parents.

An interesting, but also disturbing, article on the complex issue of dementia and sex.

The APA Office on Aging recently updated their on-line resource guide for Depression and Suicide in Older Adults. It features empirical journal articles, books, book chapters, and several links to resources for consumers.

I successfully defended my thesis last Friday. Although it was somewhat nervewracking, the meeting went really well. It felt more like a discussion than a presentation by the end and I got lots of good feedback and suggestions from my committee. The next step is to try to publish a journal article using the findings from the study.

The gist of the results is that problem- and emotion-focused coping appear to be adaptive, whereas dysfunctional coping appears to be somewhat less related to resilience to suicide. Implications of the study are that some coping strategies may serve as protective factors against suicide and coping strategies should be evaluated as part of a thorough assessment of at-risk older adults.

Thanks again to my committee for their guidance and to those who participated in the study.

Most of the time when we hear about Autism, we think about children. Surprisingly, or not, children with Autism grow up to be adults with Autism. I recently began a practicum rotation at The Resource Exchange (TRE) where I will be working with adults with developmental disabilities (DD). It has opened up a whole new world to me; the families of adults with DD face a lot of challenges that I've never considered before. This article in Time Magazine illustrates some of these challenges, written from the perspective of a sibling.

Summer is a great time to make a dent in the pile of books that I want to read, but never get a chance to throughout the academic year. In June, I read Dr. Irvin Yalom's most recent book, "Staring at the Sun: Overcoming the Terror of Death." Yes, this is the type of book I read for fun. :-)

The book outlines Yalom's approach to the universal issue of mortality, which is especially salient for many of the older adults we see at the CU Aging Center. Yalom is a gifted psychotherapist and writer who uses accessible language and several case examples to illustrate his points. Here are a few of the ideas I found most interesting:

- There is a "positive correlation between fear of death and the sense of unlived life" (p. 49).

- An "awakening experience" (p. 36) can jerk us out of the everyday mode of life to an ontological mode where we are more mindful of being. These experiences might include grief over the loss of someone important, a major life milestone, a life-threatening illness, etc.

- "Rippling" (p. 83) refers to the concept that we all leave behind something from our life experience (e.g., a piece of wisdom, guidance, comfort) that passes on to others, known or unknown.

The last third of the book gives advice to therapists on how to address death anxiety with their clients, but any reader would likely appreciate Yalom's words.

Yalom, I. D. (2008). Staring at the sun: Overcoming the terror of death. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Interesting opinion article on the training medical doctors receive for working with older adults. Much of the same can be said about the training that most psychologists obtain as students and interns.

Earlier this month I attended the second biannual Diversity and Aging conference in Chicago sponsored by AARP. The theme of the conference was "The Power of Inclusion." This conference had a much wider scope than most of the conferences I usually attend, with presentations ranging from identifying activities for people with dementia, to health literacy and access for immigrants and refugees, to marketing to 50+ diverse populations.

I was fortunate to be chosen as one of six graduate student Conference Fellows. As a Fellow, one of my tasks was to write a summary of the presentations I attended, which will be included in the conference proceedings. 

The next AARP Diversity and Aging conference will take place in 2011 in Washington, DC.