Volume 6 Number 2 Summer/Fall 1999
The Ithaca College Gerontology Institute newsletter is designed to keep the campus and community informed of institute activities and other events related to the field of gerontology.
Our address is ICGI Newsletter, Ithaca College, 407 Center for Health Sciences, Ithaca, NY 14850; phone (607) 274-1965; www.ithaca.edu/aging.
Notes from the Director, John A. Krout
I hope your summer has been both enjoyable and productive. We have made this a "double issue" so that we can report on a number of exciting institute activities. Highlighted in this issue are Ithaca College-Longview intergenerational programs, findings from the Pathways to Life Quality study, fall distinguished speakers and workshops, and changes in institute staff. Right before press time the institute received good news on two fronts. First, it has received a three-year, $317,000 allied health training grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration- Bureau of Health Professions. Second, the institute has been designated an academic planning unit by the College, which will allow us to offer courses and degree programs. We hope you find the newsletter informative and thank you for your continued interest in the Gerontology Institute.
Ithaca College-Longview Partnership in Full Swing
The Pathways to Life Quality study began with a pilot project in the summer of 1995, during which a survey was tested and some valuable data were collected. "Wave I" data collection began in the summer of 1997 and was completed in August 1998. The participants were asked about their housing, decisions to move, current living environment, lifestyle, health, life satisfaction, and income/demographics. Over the last year faculty and students from many different departments at Ithaca College and Cornell University have been analyzing the data, preparing manuscripts, and submitting proposals for poster and paper presentations at local, regional, national, and international conferences. We also have a complete working paper series.
In all, we interviewed 868 Tompkins County residents aged 54-100, with an average age of 75. Our sample included 559 community residents and 309 senior housing residents. Over half of the sample were women, about half were married, less than one-fourth were widowed, and one-tenth had never married.
As the following examples indicate, the survey has yielded much information about the expectations seniors have of their housing and the effects of housing on seniors' physical and psychosocial health.
Those most likely to consider moving in the future live alone or have no children nearby; women prefer to reside near friends and family.
- Both women and men want low costs and freedom from upkeep and maintenance.
- Long-term senior housing residents have more contact with family and friends than do either recent movers or community residents.
- Compared to community residents, senior housing residents are in poorer health but are more active in volunteering and social club membership.
- Those who moved to senior housing during the past two years are more likely to volunteer and volunteer more hours than either community residents or long-term housing residents.
- Both recent movers to senior housing and long-term senior housing residents have more frequent contact with neighbors than do those living in the Tompkins County community.
- In terms of physical health, community residents have the least number of complaints about vision problems, while recent movers report highe incidences of hearing problems. Overall, women appear to experience more arthritis and high blood pressure, and the men tend to suffer heart disease or cancer.
- Families, friends, and leisure activities provide the most satisfaction in participants' lives. Life satisfaction does not vary by where they live or whether they have recently moved.
- Long-term senior housing residents report visiting family more often than do those who live in the community.
- Nearly 70 percent have local friends or relatives that they can count on for support and assistance.
"Wave II" data collection began in early June, and we had completed approximately 90 interviews by the end of that month. We had an excellent team of student interviewers this summer-Megan Benoit, Jennifer Sandeen, Susan Thompson, and Sarah Wilkinson from Ithaca, and Catherine Ayers, Francesca Balada, Blair Barton-Percival, Elyse Kantrowitz, Katherine Hildebrand, and Mark Reardon from Cornell. We will add new student interviewers from both institutions beginning this fall. Joanne Jordan, the administrative assistant for the Pathways project at Cornell, and Carol Knight, an Ithaca College occupational therapy faculty member, are also involved with the interviewing. In addition, Knight and Cornell faculty member Karl Pillimer have each been conducting focus groups for their own Pathways-related projects.
The Pathways project has been and continues to be a very rewarding and productive learning process for the students, participants, faculty, and staff. The participants seem to enjoy the interviews and meeting the students. The students are gaining insight into the process of aging, and many have reported losing their stereotypes of older adults. Additionally, the data are yielding valuable information that will be useful to policy makers, designers of senior housing, and providers of physical and mental health care.
State Society on Aging Annual Conference
The State Society on Aging of New York will hold its 27th annual conference, "Working Together toward a Common Future: Interdisciplinary Initiatives in Aging," at the Desmond Hotel in Albany October 27-29. The conference program includes over 75 invited and submitted papers to be presented as posters, roundtables, workshops, and symposia. Featured speakers include Ed Dague of WNYT-TV, Mal Schechter, and Lou Glasse.
For information or registration materials for the conference, contact program cochair Mark Brennan or Arlene R. Gordon, Research Institute Lighthouse International, 111 East 59th Street, New York, NY 10022-1202; telephone (212) 821-9536.
As in past years, the Gerontology Institute will provide funds to assist Ithaca College faculty and students attending the conference. We encourage student attendance because it is an excellent opportunity to learn more about gerontology and aging issues. Students can apply to SSA for a scholarship covering the cost of the conference registration, which also includes most meals. Registration fees are based on the number of days of attendance. The Gerontology Institute will pay for students' travel by College-owned car and for hotel lodging.
Students may apply for both types of assistance at the Gerontology Institute, fourth floor of the Center for Health Sciences, by filling out a conference registration form and a simple conference scholarship form. They will need to bring a check for the registration fee made payable to SSA of New York, but their registration fees will be refunded at the conference. The deadline for student registration is October 1. When registering for the conference, students should also request travel assistance from the Gerontology Institute, which will finalize arrangements for student travel and lodging.
Ithaca College faculty wishing to attend the SSA conference may apply for institute support for conference registration and travel by personal or College-owned automobile. (Faculty participants are responsible for their own lodging and other expenses.) Travel support request forms, which are available at the institute, must be completed by the faculty member requesting funding, signed by the appropriate department chair, and returned by October 1. Information on these programs will be sent to faculty at the beginning of the fall semester. Please contact the Gerontology Institute at 274-1965, or check the Web site (www.ithaca.edu/aging) for more information.
FLGEC Essentials of Aging Course
More than 60 people registered for The Essentials of Aging, a Finger Lakes Geriatric Education Center core course offered on campus this spring. Participants included College faculty members, community practitioners, and aging-network providers. In addition to presentations on topics related to health and aging, the 40-hour course included 7 hours of observation in the following organizations: the Tompkins and Cortland County Offices for the Aging, Cortland Memorial Hospital Social Services and Adult Day Health Care Program, Sir Alexander Ewing-Ithaca College Speech and Hearing Clinic, Family and Children's Services Respite and Caregiver Counseling Program, Adult Protective Services, Longview, Reconstruction Home, Department of Social Services Long-Term-Care Services, Kendal at Ithaca Physical Therapy, Lakeside Nursing Center, and Foodnet. Thanks again to staff in those organizations for sharing their time and expertise with course participants.
Faculty Spotlight: Zenon Wasyliw
The Gerontology Institute is fortunate to have the support and assistance of faculty members throughout the College. This is part of a series of articles highlighting professors with an interest in gerontology.
An assistant professor in Ithaca's Department of History, Zenon V. Wasyliw has taken a leadership role in the institute's initiatives to incorporate gerontology issues into the public school curriculum. This past semester he coordinated the efforts of six Ithaca City School District teachers and an IC graduate student to introduce aging topics into Boynton Middle School's seventh-grade social studies class and into Ithaca High School's global studies, U.S. history, government, and economics classes. In addition, he mentored two teaching assistants throughout the process. Wasyliw received his Ph.D. in 1992 from the State University of New York at Binghamton. Since joining the history department in 1989, he has taught at least 16 different courses, including History of the Future and History of the USSR. He also has supervised the social studies 7-12 student teaching program, which led nicely to the Gerontology Institute's public school curriculum project. He has presented several papers related to the project as well as published articles on his specialty of east-central European and U.S. ethnic history.
Gerontology in the Public School Curriculum
Ithaca College faculty and staff continue to facilitate the infusion of aging-related topics into the public school curriculum. Mattie Bonavia (IC faculty member in marketing), Eric Pritz (Ithaca City School District social studies teacher) and Zenon Wasyliw (see "Faculty Spotlight"), along with Gerontology Institute staff members, participated in two meetings this past spring to discuss long-range planning and collaboration among a variety of interested organizations. Also attending were representatives from the New York State Office for the Aging, the State Society on Aging, the New York State Education Department, SUNY Institute of Technology at Utica/Rome, BOCES, and the Oneida County Office for the Aging.
SSA Conference Deadlines
October 1, 1999, is the deadline for the following:
- Ithaca College student grant applications for travel and lodging
- Ithaca College faculty grants for travel and registration
- Ithaca College student registration scholarship information
Good-Bye and Good Luck
The Gerontology Institute has been fortunate to have the services of four student workers through this school year: Jennifer Bandremer, Melissa Breder, Jennifer Cox, and Julie Warmus.
All four students have graduated and now face the world in their chosen field or are headed to graduate school. All our best wishes go out to them.
Welcome, Welcome, Welcome . . .
Heidi Holmes began working at the Gerontology Institute in early May as the project manager/director of data collection for the Pathways to Life Quality study. Before coming to Ithaca College, she worked as a visiting coordinator of research for the Children and Family Research Center at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She also taught psychology courses at Eastern Illinois University. With a background in experimental psychology/statistics, she has done most of her research in the area of women's health, coping, and aging.
"I am very excited about the Pathways to Life Quality study," she says, "and am thoroughly enjoying all of the aspects of data collection.The faculty, staff, and students at Ithaca College and Cornell University have done an amazing job of pulling together and making the project work." On a personal level, she says that moving to Ithaca was a big change for her, "a person acclimated to the 'flat land' of Illinois! I love the area, scenery, and community very much. I enjoy hiking, quilting, and reading in my spare time.
My husband, Steve, and I are also very interested in astronomy and have found the areas surrounding Ithaca excellent for stargazing!"
Sarah Wolle, a research assistant for the Pathways to Life Quality study, says that she is "excited to work on a project that examines factors related to independence and happiness in later years. Having worked with many older adults over the past four years, I've learned that quantity without quality isn't worth very much."
She received a master's degree from SUNY College at Cortland in 1995. While still a student she created an intergenerational volunteer program for the City of Cortland Youth Bureau and worked on various community-based programs for older adults. As a certified therapeutic recreation specialist, she worked primarily with older adults. She ran the recreation program at a 240-bed long-term-care facility in north central Pennsylvania and most recently directed the recreation program at Cortland Memorial Hospital, which includes an 82-bed nursing home, 25-bed swing bed unit, 24-seat adult day program, and 9-bed mental health unit.
At Ithaca she plans to "take advantage of the tremendous opportunities for personal growth by taking classes in music, dance, and computer science. I enjoy hiking and can be found at Buttermilk Falls most mornings. I also enjoy kayaking on Cayuga and Skaneateles Lakes, as well as biking. When the weather doesn't cooperate, I enjoy working on my computer."
Penny Bianconi is the new administrative secretary for the Gerontology Institute. She has been a College employee for five years, working jointly with the publications and public information offices in Alumni Hall. She previously worked for Alfred Kahn, the internationally known economist and Robert Julius Thorne Professor of Political Economy, Emeritus, at Cornell University.
Her interest in gerontology began years ago when her family moved from California to Illinois to live with her aging, Italian-speaking grandparents. "I soon realized the wealth of knowledge they had to share with me," she says, "and I worked hard to learn to communicate with them. Over the years I've kept a connection with older adults through friendships and volunteer organizations, and I'm now looking forward to continuing my learning experience, and working relationship, with the institute."
She and her husband, Mark, are from the Chicago area, where she attended Prairie State College. His job with New York State Electric and Gas brought them to this state about 15 years ago, and they moved to Ithaca 8 years ago. And, she adds, they have "three children-all current and future IC students!"
In May Chris Decker left her position at the Gerontology Institute to accompany her husband to Estes Park, Colorado, for three months. On returning to Ithaca she will resume her duties on the Foodnet Board of Directors and her seat on the Older Adults Focus Group of the Tompkins County Mental Health Subcommittee. She joined the Gerontology Institute in October 1994 as the assistant to the director and was instrumental in developing the Gerontology Institute workshop series. She was also responsible for organizing the institute's annual conference, making arrangements for our distinguished speakers, and editing the institute newsletter. Her positive attitude and beautiful smile will continue to be missed.
**NOTE: She's back! Chris Decker has returned to the Institute as the Project Manager for our new Allied Health Grant. (Below)
Her duties as assistant to the director have been assumed by Terry A. Beckley, who since September 1994 had been the administrative secretary at the Institute. He has worked at Ithaca College since 1990.
Housing Conference a Success
The Gerontology Institute hosted "The Places We Call Home: A Conference on Community Environments and Housing for Older People" on May 20. The annual conference drew 135 participants from a wide range of professions, including long-term-care administration, occupational and physical therapy, home care, nursing, and aging-network services planning. Also attending were a number of people from the Ithaca-area community, including members of a local resident council.
Our own Joel Savishinsky, professor of anthropology and gerontology affiliate, set the tone for the conference with his keynote address, "Lonesome in the Saddle, or How to Feel at Home in Later Life." Stories from his ethnographic research illustrated how individuals deal with often-conflicting values and make decisions about remaining in or moving from their communities in later life.
Vera Prosper, who has been a housing policy analyst for the New York State Office for the Aging for the past 13 years, was the speaker for an early-afternoon general session. She addressed national trends in housing for older adults and current New York State trends and programs.
During the remainder of the day concurrent sessions addressed a variety of topics, including design principles for aging in place, naturally occurring retirement communities, integrating diverse populations in senior housing, home modification, assisted living in New York, housing and neighborhood satisfaction among older adults, assessing housing needs, making communities "livable" for older adults, and "co-housing" as an option for people of all ages. Thanks again to those who cosponsored and offered support for the conference: the Ithaca College Division of Continuing Education and Summer Sessions and Department of Occupational Therapy; the New York State Office for the Aging; the New York Association of Homes and Services for the Aging; the Tompkins County Office for the Aging; the Cornell University Departments of Policy Analysis and Management and Design and Environmental Analysis; Kendal at Ithaca; and Alterra/Clare Bridge Cottage of Ithaca.
Late-Breaking News Details
The Ithaca College Gerontology Institute has just received a grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration- Bureau of Health Professions. The Allied Health Geriatric Interdisciplinary Team Training project is a community-based program for allied health students, faculty, clinical affiliation preceptors, and rural allied health practitioners. This project will provide training for the following disciplines: occupational therapy, physical therapy, recreational therapy, and speech-language pathology and audiology. The project will be conducted in partnership with the Finger Lakes Geriatric Education Center, which operates under the auspices of the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry. John Bonaguro, assistant dean of the School of Health Sciences and Human Performance, and John A. Krout, director of the Gerontology Institute, will serve as co-principal investigators.
Calendar of Events
- September 9 Aging in Pre-Industrial France
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September 13 Writing the Stories of Their Lives
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September 20 Elder Abuse
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October 4 Aging People in an Aging World
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October 18 Hearing Loss in the Elderly: Identification, Diagnosis, and Rehabilitation
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October 25 Legal Issues for Older People and Their Families
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November 1 Balance and Falls in the Older Adult: Evaluation and Intervention
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November 4 Rural Communities in Transition: Dilemmas in Long-Term Care