Volume 7 Number 1 Winter 2001
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
This fall and early winter have been busy and productive for all of us at the Gerontology Institute. We welcomed several new faces and continued work on all our externally funded projects. Several activities are particularly noteworthy: we cohosted Project 2015, a community forum on issues aging baby boomers will face in New York; 17 Ithaca College students, faculty members, and staff members attended the annual conference of the State Society on Aging of New York, where we won the student participation award for the sixth time in eight years and institute faculty and staff made six conference presentations; and the institute offered courses under its own auspices for the first time. The most important accomplishment this fall was the completion, submission, and approval of a proposal for B.A. and B.S. degrees in gerontology. That proposal will now be submitted to the New York State Education Department for review. The Gerontology Institute faculty and staff join me in wishing you a joyous new year.
John A. Krout, Director
Harvest Moon Dance
On October 6 nearly 200 guests and older adults and Ithaca College students attended the annual Harvest Moon Dance in the Emerson Suites at the College. Together they enjoyed refreshments and the big band sound of Classy Brass, an Ithaca College alumni musical ensemble. The Harvest Moon Dance, an autumn tradition at IC, is planned and produced each year by the student organization AGES, the Aging and Gerontological Education Society, as a way to host local older adults for an evening of special entertainment.
Center for Life Skills
In the fall of 1999 the Departments of Occupational Therapy, Physical Therapy, Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology, and Therapeutic Recreation and Leisure Services, all part of the School of Health Sciences and Human Performance, together with the Gerontology Institute, formulated an idea for a continuing treatment program at Ithaca College for individuals who have experienced a stroke or other neurological disorder. Renee Brown, an assistant professor and assistant director of clinical education in the Department of Physical Therapy, was instrumental in obtaining the grant funding needed for this ambitious project to evolve.
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Thanks to Catherine Gooch, CTRS, who has joined Ithaca College as the treatment program's manager, the Center for Life Skills is now a reality. Gooch, who has aggressively marketed the program, is also involved clinically: she meets with clients' families, evaluates cases, and advises the clinical teams of her recommendations.
The Center for Life Skills, housed in the Longview residential facility, offers clients the opportunity to practice problem-solving and life skills in a safe, professional, and nurturing setting. Individual and group sessions are available, staffed by faculty and students from the originating departments. Together the staff members provide an interdisciplinary program tailored to meet the individual needs of participants. Benefits for clients include improved communication, increased functional level, new leisure skills, more independence, and greater enjoyment when socializing with peers.
Prospective clients may have completed their formal rehabilitation and been discharged from therapy but wish to continue rehab interventions to further increase their functional level and confidence within the community. After meeting the admission criteria, participants may enroll in either the fall or the spring session. Each session, lasting approximately 13 weeks, provides two-and-a-half days of rehab services per week. Further information about the Center for Life Skills is available from Gooch at (607) 375-6312.
Progress toward a Gerontology Major at IC
The Gerontology Institute's proposal for a gerontology major passed the review of the Ithaca College Academic Policies Committee in October and is now under review by the New York State Education Department. If all goes well, the program will be up and running next fall. Developed in accordance with the standards and guidelines of the Association for Gerontology in Higher Education, the gerontology major will be offered with both B.S. and B.A. degree options, depending on the student's interests and the nature of the minor chosen. The curriculum includes general education courses in such areas as self and society, diversity, ethics and values, statistics, visual and performing arts, global issues, speech communication, economics and policy, and writing. Required and elective courses in gerontology from more than a dozen departments address biological, psychological, and social aspects of aging and offer opportunities for experiential learning.
We'll keep you posted on progress toward our anticipated new major! In the meantime, for more information contact Pamela Mayberry at pmayberry@ithaca.edu.
Faculty Spotlight: John Stephens '75, M.S. '83
John Stephens, the first Ithaca College alumnus to appear in the ICGI "Faculty Spotlight," complete both his undergraduate and graduate work at Ithaca College. Majoring in speech-language pathology and audiology, he received his B.S. in 1975 and his M.S. in 1983. Stephens is clinical assistant professor of audiology and director of the audiology clinic at the College's Sir Alexander Ewing Speech and Hearing Clinic. He teaches Basic Audiology and Hearing Loss in the Elderly, supervises graduate students in speech-language pathology and audiology, and observes their work with clients. Stephens notes that he particularly enjoys audiology because modern assistive technology often enables audiologists to achieve quick and substantial results.
After completing his undergraduate education, Stephens made his living as a musician. Finding aconnection between music and audiology through the human processing of sound, he developed both his artistic passion and his knowledge of acoustics. He returned to IC to pursue a master's degree, and upon graduating, he accepted a position in the audiology clinic. After 17 years with the program, Stephens still exhibits enthusiasm for his work, a quality that earns him admiration by his students and makes him a popular professor.
Music and the guitar are still central to Stephens's off-campus life. He performs regularly in the area, including occasional Saturday night gigs at the Main Street Cafe; in Spencer. Stephens enjoys country living on his 200-acre farm outside Spencer--a life he calls "energizing and spiritual." He built most of the farm's structures from wood milled on the property, and he crafts furniture from wood felled and cured there. Stephens's current menagerie (a few years ago he owned over 100 ewes) consists of five llamas, two horses, two sheep, a plethora of cats, and "one big ol' sheep dog."
A familiar face at Longview, Stephens also lectures regularly at service agencies and residential facilities for older adults. He stresses that there is a right way and a wrong way to diagnose hearing loss and encourages consumers to do their homework. He notes that as of January 2000 New York State's hearing aid industry became regulated through the education department and that hearing aid dealers must be licensed by the state. Stephens hopes that the new regulation will improve insurance coverage for hearing assessment and assistive devices. Cautioning that "hearing loss is very serious and can actually be more devastating than one mightassume," Stephens advises that anyone suffering such loss should talk to a family doctor or see an ear, nose, and throat specialist for a referral to a licensed audiologist.
Pathways to Life Quality (www.pathwayslifequality.org)
With the Pathways to Life Quality study having recently completed its second wave of data collection, project leaders are excited to see the unique value of this project beginning to emerge. In particular, after two rounds of interviews, analysis indicates that physical and psychological changes experienced by respondents influence housing choices.
Findings to date were presented recently at national and statewide conferences, including those of the Assisted Living Federation of America, the Gerontological Society of America, the New York Association of Homes and Service of the Aging, and SSA. Pathways staff have also submitted articles to leading professional journals, including the Journal of Housing for the Elderly, Research on Aging, and the Gerontologist.
Ithaca College and Cornell University students continue to be involved in all phases of Pathways data collection and analysis. Some produced poster presentations for the SSA conference, and others coauthored articles in the Journal of Applied Gerontology and Physical Therapy.
Finger Lakes Geriatric Education Center to Provide Training for Region's Health Professionals
Funding for the Finger Lakes Geriatric Education Center (FLGEC), a consortium to which Ithaca College belongs, has been renewed with a five-year, $1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The HHS grant will allow the center to provide specialized training in the form of seminars, conferences, and printed information for health care professionals who serve the elderly. The center, established in 1997 and located at Monroe Community Hospital in Rochester, was founded to help improve the health of older adults in the Finger Lakes region.
Overseeing the training services, the University of Rochester, which coordinates the center's activities, will use its strengths in geriatric health care, community partnerships, and developmental disability and aging issues to assure high-quality continuing educational opportunities for area professionals. Ithaca College and Cornell University will contribute expertise in rural aging and offer training to providers in rural counties. Nazareth College of Rochester will develop programming with an emphasis on issues of cultural diversity and aging. To help build capacity for ongoing assessment and training for health professionals in rural Finger Lakes counties, the Ithaca College Gerontology Institute and the Cornell Applied Gerontology Institute are working together to develop community geriatric training teams. These teams, comprising staff from cooperative extension centers and local offices for the aging as well as health and social service providers, will receive support, training, and resources from FLGEC.
Longview Connection
Shuttle schedule
Caption: Longview staff member Arlene Snyder waiting for her next passengers
Shuttle service between Ithaca College and nearby Longview began on August 30, the first day of fall semester classes. Thanks to an anonymous gift earmarked for transportation between the two campuses, both on Route 96B, the Gerontology Institute has arranged for a Longview van and driver to provide the service on mornings when classes are in session. Longview residents and staff, as well as Ithaca College faculty, students, and staff, may ride at no charge. Regular IC stops include Textor Hall, the Campus Center, and the Center for Health Sciences; the van stops on request at the Fitness Center, the library, and the East Tower, where the Tower Club is located.
In addition to daily runs between Longview and the College, the shuttle will also take Longview residents to computer workshops and music and theater events at the College.
Allied Health Geriatric Interdisciplinary Team Training
The new Ithaca College course Rural Gerontology: Experiences in Interdisciplinary Teamwork was offered for the first time this past fall. The students in the class represented the disciplines of occupational therapy, physical therapy, and speech-language pathology and audiology, and joining them were a gerontology certificate student and a planned studies major who works as a case manager. This interdisciplinary mix allowed for excellent discussions about the provision of health services in rural areas. The purpose of the course is to introduce students to an interdisciplinary team approach to the assessment and development of treatment plans for rural geriatric clients. The course instructor, Janice Elich Monroe, CTRS, organized a series of guest speakers, a teleconference, and field experiences.For two class periods, students heard from professionals associated with rural health services. The speakers, Renee Brown, PT; Barb Hanson, OTR; Linda Heyne, CTRS; and Chris Cecconi, SLPA addressed a list of questions generated by the students concerning treatment interventions and strategies, interdisciplinary relationships, job descriptions, salaries, and credentialing processes.
Other class periods featured presentations by experts in the field of gerontology. John Krout, director of the Ithaca College Gerontology Institute, focused on the demographics and characteristics of the rural geriatric population, and Paul Katz and Jurgis Karuza, of the Finger Lakes Geriatric Education Center at theUniversity of Rochester, presented a teleconference on geriatric assessment. Additional class topics included learning and practicing team skills, interdisciplinary assessment, and treatment plan development. Students were able to observe clinicians and other students interacting with clients and providing programs for them in an interdisciplinary team setting in the new Center for Life Skills, housed
in the College's space at Longview. (See "Center for Life Skills" in this issue.) This rural gerontology course will be offered every fall to students seeking to learn more about interdisciplinary opportunities for training and practicing in this aspect of gerontology. Students who want to take the course must complete Introduction to Gerontology and have junior standing, or they must obtain the permission of the instructor. The course was developed as a component of the Allied Health Gerontology Interdisciplinary Team Training program. The program trains students and provides rural health care agencies with staff training, Web support, and access to trained students for student affiliation placements. Students or agencies interested in AHGITT training programs should contact Chris Decker, project manager, at (607) 274-7007, or Janice Elich Monroe at (607) 274-3172.A Forum for Dialogue
On September 27, the State Society on Aging and the New York State Office for the Aging conducted a community forum in Ithaca titled "Project 2015: The Future of Aging in New York State." Hosts were the Ithaca Journal, the Tompkins County Office for the Aging, and the Ithaca College Gerontology Institute. Patricia Pine, executive deputy director of the State Office for the Aging (SOFA), opened the forum by describing Project 2015. The project compiled a series of academic papers to facilitate dialogue about the radical changes that will accompany the aging of the "baby boom" generation. The authors of 3 of the 24 papers in the Project 2015 report presented their findings. John Krout of Ithaca College and Robert Maiden of Alfred University discussed "Living in the Community: A Rural and Nonrural Comparison"; Vera Prosper of SOFA discussed "Living Arrangements for Older New Yorkers"; and Nina Glasgow of Cornell University talked about "The Transportation Mobility of New York StateÕs Aging Baby Boomers." Following the formal presentations, 16 individuals from central New York provided testimony on a variety of topics. Two recurrent themes came through clearly: funding for long-term care must include services to allow clients to remain in their homes, and frontline workers (certified nurse assistants, personal care attendants, and home health aides) must be compensated with a living wage. We extend thanks to SOFA for carrying these concerns back to policymakers in Albany.
Gerontology in the Public Schools
To kick off the academic year, Zenon Wasyliw, assistant professor of history and director of the Gerontology Institute's project on gerontology in the public schools, spoke to all the project's participating classes in the Ithaca City School District. He was joined by representatives from the Tompkins County Office for the Aging and older residents of the area.
As the year progresses, local social studies teachers at the middle and high school levels are repeating lessons in gerontology developed last year. Students, showing great enthusiasm, have completed a variety of papers, including reports of interviews with, and oral histories by, older adults.
In addition, a new two-week unit, Aging in Tompkins County, has been designed by Ithaca High School teachers Heather Tallman, Richard VanEvery, Dean Pickens, and Jim Kane for the course Participation in Government. They worked with the teachers in the Gerontology in the Public School project and an ICstudent. The semester-long course Participation in Government is required for all graduating seniors; this year's students strongly supported permanent inclusion of the new segment on aging in Tompkins County.
Welcome
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During October, Elaine Gebell '99 joined the staff of the Ithaca College Gerontology Institute as an outreach program assistant. She will work with the Finger Lakes Geriatric Education Center and the Allied Health Geriatric Interdisciplinary Team Training project as coordinator of training sessions and workshops.
Elaine is not a stranger to the institute; as an undergraduate she worked on the Pathways to Life Quality study, recruiting participants and conducting interviews. After she earned her B.S. degree in health services administration, Alterra-Claire Bridge Cottage hired her as their life enrichment coordinator, but soon promoted her to residence director. Now Elaine has enthusiastically embraced the opportunity to join the Gerontology Institute, citing the variety of assignments and professional connections afforded by her new position.
Coming here from the Schenectady area, Elaine "fell in love with Ithaca" and has made Tompkins County her home. We are lucky to have Elaine at the institute, and we extend to her a heartfelt welcome.
SSA Annual Conference
Ten Ithaca College faculty and staff members, along with seven IC students, attended the 28th annual State Society on Aging of New York conference in Albany from October 25 to 27. The theme for this year's conference was "Housing . . . More Than Shelter: Embracing the Physical, Social, and Creative Dimensions." For the sixth time in eight years Ithaca brought home the student participation award. Six IC faculty and staff members and three students made professional presentations.
SSA's primary goal is to promote gerontology and geriatrics education. SSA attempts to complement professional associations, advocacy groups, and discipline-specific organizations by serving as a forum for interdisciplinary communication. For further information go to www.ssany.org.
ICGI Faculty Affiliates and Staff Publications
Beissner, K., J. Collins, and H. H. Holmes. "Extremity Strength and Range of Motion as Predictors of Function in Older Adults." Physical Therapy 80 (6): 556-63 (2000).
Bloomer, R. J., and J. C. Ives. "Varying Neural and Hyper-trophic Factors in a Strength Program." Strength and Conditioning 22 (2): 30-35 (2000).
Erickson, M. A., D. Dempster-McClain, C. Whitlow, and P. Moen. "Social Integration and the Move to a Continuing Care Retirement Community." Pp. 211-17 in Social Integration in the Second Half of Life, ed. Karl Pillemer, Phyllis Moen, Elaine Wethington, and Nina Glasgow. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000.
Erickson, M. A., and P. Moen. "Decision-Making and Satisfaction with a Continuing Care Retire ment Community. "Journal of Housing for the Elderly. Forthcoming
Erickson, M. A., and P. Moen. "Role Identities among Older Adults in a Continuing Care Retirement Community." Research on Aging. Forthcoming.
Ives, J. C., and J. Sosnoff. "Beyond the Mind-Body Exercise Hype." Physician and Sportsmedicine 28 (3): 67-68, 70, 75Ð76, 81 (2000).
Krout, John A. "Senior Centers" in The Encyclopedia of Aging, 3rd ed. New York: Springer Publishing Co. Forthcoming.
Krout, John A., Nicole Bowen, Heidi Holmes, Phyllis Moen, and Jean Oggins. "Reasons for Relocation to a Continuing Care Retirement Community." Journal of Applied Gerontology. Forthcoming.
Krout, John A., Heidi Holmes, and Jean Oggins. "Patterns of Service Use in a Continuing Care Retirement Community." The Gerontologist. Forthcoming.
Krout, John A., and Chris Pogorzala. "A Comprehensive Intergenerational Programming Partnership: Initial Issues and Out- comes." Gerontology and Geriatrics Education. Forthcoming.
On Thursday, May 24, 2001, the Ithaca College Gerontology Institute will hold its annual conference. The theme will be creativity and aging. Plans are in the preliminary stages, but the focus will be on the expression of creativity through participation in the arts in late middle age and old age. Participants involved in theater, dance, vocal and instrumental music, the visual arts, and writing will showcase their talents, and presenters will discuss how aging has affected their creativity. Concurrent workshops will feature such topics as music therapy and writing life histories. Mark your calendar now and watch for details in the spring.