Meghan Marty

Today I attended the Innovations in Aging Summit, held in downtown Colorado Springs. The main goals of the summit were to "start a community conversation on how to make Colorado Springs a remarkable place to age" and to "lay groundwork for building a desired blueprint for aging in our community."

I participated in the urban planning and transportation breakout group. We came up with several ideas on how to more effectively use the existing transportation here and restructure our community to make it more senior-friendly. 

Among the ideas we discussed, two really jumped out at me, including better use of technology (e.g., developing an on-line transportation request system) and integrating people in the "aging" community with others who have difficulty with transporation (e.g., people with physical or mental disabilities, under-employed individuals).

Participating in the breakout group helped me to realize the potential role of psychologists in revamping transportation, not only in this region, but in the country as a whole. Specifically, once people are educated about different transportation options, psychologists can help to facilitate behavior change (e.g., getting a community to decide to walk to the store rather than drive).

The APA recently posted tips for first-time teachers, aimed at graduate students who are starting to teach undergraduate psychology courses. The story also includes a link to the Society for the Teaching of Psychology's website.

On February 10th, the American Psychiatric Association (APA) released the proposed draft of diagnostic criteria for DSM-5 on its website www.dsm5.org. Publication of the new DSM is scheduled for May 2013. The proposed diagnostic criteria will be available on the website for public comment until April 20, 2010. APA is inviting health professionals, consumers of mental health services, and family members to visit the site to review and comment on the draft criteria.

"This Emotional Life" is a 3-part series that aired for the first time on PBS this week.

Hosted by Daniel Gilbert, a social psychologist at Harvard and author of "Stumbling on Happiness," the series did a nice job of explaining some pretty sophisticated psychological concepts, using cutting-edge research and interviews with a diverse group of individuals.

Part 1 focused on social connections and their impact on human
emotion. Part 2 explored different human emotions from anger to anxiety
to despair.  Part 3 dealt with various aspects of happiness, including socioemotional selectivity theory. 

It has been challenging, but I accomplished a lot (both professionally and personally) over the past six months:

- In late July, I successfully defended my thesis

- In mid-September, I climbed Pikes Peak

- In November, I got engaged to my best friend

- In late December, I passed my comprehensive exam.

It feels good to have two out of the three major hurdles in my program
finished (after the thesis and comps, there's just the dissertation). I
had a great, relaxing winter vacation, but now it is time to get back
to work....

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."

Great (free!) resource for family members and professional caregivers about observing and talking about pain in people with dementia, including an on-line presentation and resource packet.

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.