Ithaca College Gerontology Institute
Volume 9 #1 Winter 2002

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
I am pleased to welcome you to the winter issue of our newsletter. The tragic events of September 11 remind us just how important it is to be with family and friends and how the economic and social fabric of our great nation links all Americans. They demonstrate how vulnerable we all are to circumstances beyond our control, but also how much we have in common. We are a heterogeneous society with differences that reflect race, ethnicity, class, and, of course, age. As a country, we seem to have (at least for a while) put these differences aside while we focus on how to strengthen and protect our institutions from those who would do us harm.

Events such as those we witnessed in September also seem to overshadow what we do in our daily lives. Our work seems insignificant in comparison. I think many of us feel that in the aftermath of the attacks, we can't make a difference. But I suspect the reality is far different. What we do in our daily lives is now even more important. Indeed, in these extraordinary times, perhaps the most we can expect of ourselves (or others) is to think creatively and mobilize our energy, ideas, and spirit to address challenges we face every day. For the faculty, staff, and students of the Gerontology Institute this means increasing our understanding of the issues facing older adults and the ability of individuals, communities, and organizations to respond to them.

This newsletter reports on the activities and achievements of our small community here at Ithaca College. We thank all of the people who work with us in support of our programs and goals. And we thank you for your continuing interest and involvement. The institute faculty, staff, and students join me in wishing you a safe and joyous new year.

John A. Krout, Director

FACULTY SPOTLIGHT:
Jeanne Lawless

Jeanne Lawless, assistant professor in the Department of Health Promotion and Human Movement, School of Health Sciences and Human Performance, teaches five courses in nutrition at Ithaca College. She steps into this issue's spotlight for her contributions highlighting the importance of nutrition in healthy aging.

Lawless has been collaborating with the Cornell Cooperative Extension to study factors that influence whether eligible older adults take advantage of congregate meals. The project involves the Tompkins County Office for the Aging, the Gadabout van service, students from Lawless's Nutrition and the Older Adult class, and Titus Towers, where meals are served. The students visit with participating older adults for an hour each week and accompany them to the congregate meals. Her message to students as they hone their research skills through such projects: "Be critical in your thinking. Ask questions. Question doctors, literature, and yourself." Project findings are among the semester's final assignments.

In late November she presented an ICGI workshop on "Nutritional Concerns of Older Adults: Assessment, Treatment, and Prevention." An audience of more than 50 health care and social service providers from Tompkins and neighboring counties attended. Lawless's entire class had developed posters on nutritional topics, and 12 students were on hand at the workshop to discuss their work.

Lawless, who lives in Danby with her husband, Larry Helmeczy, and their two young children, Erzsebet and Echo Latif, earned a bachelor's degree in biological sciences from Cornell University. Her subsequent experience as a Peace Corps volunteer in Botswana led to a focus on nutritional science in her doctoral studies at Cornell. There, the late Daphne Roe, one of her mentors in the field of human nutrition and a leader in older adult nutrition, cultivated her interest in nutrition and aging. She joined the Ithaca College faculty in 1999.

Head of Office for Aging: Challenging Times Ahead
In June 2001, Governor George Pataki appointed Patricia P. Pine director of the New York State Office for the Aging. Speaking at the annual SSA conference in October, Pine predicted that the events of September 11 will create further budget challenges for aging programs and other health and social services. She called on SSA and all concerned organizations and individuals to redouble their commitment to providing quality care for older New York residents.

AHGITT Expands In-Service, Online, and Classroom Offerings
The Allied Health Geriatric Interdisciplinary Team Training grant is in its third year of offering training opportunities for students and professionals in rural New York State.

AHGITT has developed PowerPoint modules for in-service training that were field tested at six sites in the fall semester. Each module is designed for a one-hour presentation and includes overhead transparencies, copy-ready supplemental materials, and reference lists.

The following in-service modules are currently available from AHGITT:
* Interdisciplinary Collaboration
* Clinical Supervision: An Interdisciplinary Approach
* Rural Geriatrics: Barriers and Solutions
* The Four Agreements: Strategies for Managing Conflict, Enhancing Collaboration, and Improving Relationships
* Service Provision to Rural Elderly

Agencies wishing to use these modules for in-service training at their sites may contact Christine Decker at 607-274-7007 or decker@ithaca.edu. Plans are underway to offer the modules on the Web. Already available on the Web is a case-based learning module for students and practitioners interested in home-care team treatment for older adults in rural areas. Information is posted at www.ithaca.edu/aging/ahgitt.

A course titled Interdisciplinary Initiatives in Rural Geriatrics will be offered in spring for Ithaca College students in occupational therapy, physical therapy, therapeutic recreation, and speech-language pathology and audiology. The course introduces a team approach for rural geriatric clients.

For more information on any of these training resources, please e-mail Christine Decker, project manager, at decker@ithaca.edu.

ICGI Seen and Heard at SSA Conference
On October 10-12, a group of 15 Ithaca College faculty, staff, and students joined professionals, educators, and legislators from across New York State for the 29th annual conference of the State Society on Aging of New York, held in Albany. The theme-"Health and Harmony in Aging"-embraced the physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual dimensions of a harmonious life for the older adult.

Research findings from the Pathways to Life Quality study were reported in two separate symposia. Presentations at the Ithaca College symposium included "Relocation to Congregate Life: Impact on Social Relationships, Recreation Patterns, Health, and Service Use" by Heidi Holmes; "Social Ties and Participation across the Move to a Congregate Facility" by Mary Ann Erickson; "Health and Service Use Among New Residents of Senior Housing" by John Krout and Heidi Holmes; and "Changes in Leisure Patterns upon Relocation to an Independent Living Facility" by Sarah Wolle.

The symposium by Cornell University colleagues included "Impact of Residential Type on Adjustment in the Later Years" presented by Alice Boyce; "Successful Aging Among Community-Dwelling and Continuing Care Retirement Community Residents" by Nina Glasgow; "Effect of Facility Residence on Couple Agreement" by Eileen Driscoll; and "Stability and Change in Role Identities and Role Behaviors: Impact of Residence Type and Relocation" by Donna Dempster-McClain. Cornell student Lauren Hersch Nicholas presented a paper, "Predicting Retirement Age," derived from Pathways data.

Joel Savishinsky, Dana Professor of Social Sciences and a professor of anthropology at Ithaca College, presented a paper titled "Service or Spirituality: Models of Retirement from America and India." In a session titled "Educational/Intergenerational Partnerships," Christine Pogorzala and John Krout of ICGI discussed "The Ithaca College/Longview Partnership: Creating a Successful Intergenerational Community," and Krout joined IC history professor Zenon Wasyliw to speak on "Infusing and Expanding Gerontology in Grade 7-12 Social Studies Curricula."

Ithaca students Alyssa Slezak '02 and Katie Krueger '02 won the Student Paper Award. (See "IC Students Win SSA Award," page 7.) SSA strives to provide leadership to interdisciplinary professionals in the field of aging, as well as support to gerontology students. A new SSA mentorship program will offer students guidance and information on careers in aging. Interested students and prospective mentors are invited to contact Terry Beckley in the Gerontology Institute at tbeckley@ithaca.edu.

Award-Winning Author to Speak in February
Joel S. Savishinsky, Dana Professor of Social Sciences and a professor of anthropology at Ithaca College, will speak on "Zen and the Art of Retirement: How People Face Change in Later Life," on Thursday, February 7, as the next event in the Ithaca College Gerontology Institute Distinguished Speaker Series. The program, scheduled for 7:30 p.m. in the Emerson Suites, is free and open to the public. A reception will follow.

In November Savishinsky received the Richard Kalish Innovative Publication Award for his book Breaking the Watch: The Meanings of Retirement in America. The annual award is presented by the Gerontological Society of America in Washington, D.C.

Pilot Lesson Plan Takes Off in Six Area School Districts
In Global History, 10th graders in the Ithaca school district learn about issues of aging in ancient Greece, Bismarck's Germany, and modern Japan. Many students also interview an older adult and share what they learn with classmates.

In the Participation in Government course, 12th graders discuss common misconceptions about aging, explore intergenerational relations, and review government policies affecting older adults.

These students' social studies teachers share the goal of helping young people overcome stereotypes of older adults and better understand the effect of the "graying of America" on life in the 21st century.

Since 1997, through a grant administered by the Gerontology Institute, the teachers have worked with Zenon Wasyliw, associate professor of history at Ithaca College, to create lesson plans on aging. This year, 22 teachers from six school districts in Tompkins and Broome Counties will teach the lessons to approximately 1,500 students. And, over the next two years, ICGI staff will assess the impact of the project on students by analyzing student surveys, essays, and interview reports.

Ultimately, participants hope to expand the impact of the classroom project by creating a model for other school districts to use in blending gerontology into the high school curriculum.

Sweet Dreams by Quilters
Quilters' Dream, an intergenerational quilting group of Longview residents and Ithaca College students, faculty, and staff, held a quilt show November 9 and 10 at Longview. Here, quilter Emma Schutz poses with one of her creations.

Back-to-Back Experts Draw Crowds to IC
Workshop: Buettner on Alzheimer's Care
Linda L. Buettner, Ph.D., associate professor in the College of Health Professions at Florida Gulf Coast University and codirector of its Center for Positive Aging, presented a half-day workshop at Ithaca College on October 31 titled "Alzheimer's Care in the 21st Century." Over 140 participants learned about the latest treatments, research, and behavioral aspects of care. Buettner made a compelling case that the quality of life of an Alzheimer's patient can be dramatically improved through social intervention techniques.

Friedland Forecasts Boomer Burden
As part of the Ithaca College Gerontology Institute Distinguished Speaker Series, Robert B. Friedland, Ph.D., visited from Washington, D.C., to address a standing-room-only audience on November 1. Friedland, director of the Center on an Aging Society at the Institute for Health Care Research and Policy, Georgetown University, spoke on "More People with Chronic and Disabling Conditions: Who Will Be There to Care?" Predicting that the current crisis in long-term care will deepen as baby boomers age, Friedland stated that Congress has yet to recognize, let alone take action to address, the problem.

Save May 29, 2002: Annual Conference to Focus on Long-Term Care Service Delivery
On May 29, 2002, the ICGI annual conference will address issues of service delivery in long-term care. Robyn Stone, executive director of the Institute for Policy Research at the American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging in Washington, D.C., will be the keynote speaker. Check the ICGI website for periodic updates: www.ithaca.edu/aging.

Arts in March 2002
Plans are under way by ICGI and the Tompkins County Community Arts Partnership for a program featuring Susan Perlstein in March 2002. Perlstein is the director of Elders Share the Arts and the National Center for Creative Aging in Brooklyn. For more information contact Terry Beckley at tbeckley@ithaca.edu or 607-274-1967, or check the ICGI website at www.ithaca.edu/aging.

IC and Longview: In the Classroom, in the News
The Ithaca College/Longview Partnership continues to offer members of both communities a variety of intergenerational social and educational experiences. By the middle of the fall 2001 semester, 18 faculty members and 160 students, along with several staff members, had participated in activities involving Longview residents. Programs held over from the spring 2001 semester include the weekly tai chi and belly dance classes, quilting group, intergenerational choir, and Act Your Age performing arts group.

This semester Gerontology Institute faculty members Christine Pogorzala, Mary Ann Erickson, and Patricia Lynott invited Longview residents to participate in three sections of the Introduction to Gerontology course. Fifteen residents took part in class sessions and presentations, joined in panel discussions, and had lunch with the students.

An article about the partnership by Christine Pogorzala, IC-Longview coordinator, and John Krout, ICGI director, appeared in the October 2001 issue of Currents, the newsletter of the American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging.

FLGEC Explores Distance Learning
Last August the Finger Lakes Geriatric Education Center project coordinator, Elaine Gebell, attended a nationwide networking meeting of geriatric education center personnel at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. Participants focused on creating collaborations and sharing their expertise to spur distance-learning initiatives in geriatric training. Gebell expects FLGEC to make use of the extensive information provided in its future programming for rural areas. She is available for more information on distance education and the FLGEC rural training initiative at 607-274-1609 or egebell@ithaca.edu.

FYI: Backgrounder on Distance Education
How can gerontology professionals close the gap between the speed of emerging information and the time it takes for training programs to reach their facilities? One answer, supplied by a mix of old and new technologies, is distance learning. A brief primer follows.

Whether you call it distance education, learning, or training, it's defined by Lynnette R. Porter in Creating the Virtual Classroom: Distance Learning with the Internet as "education or training offered to learners who are in a different location than the source or provider of instruction." Technology for transmitting the instruction can range from a simple speakerphone to a videoconference using personal computers.

The technologies have been grouped into four categories in the Web-based Guide #1-Distance Education: An Overview at www.uidaho.edu/evo/dist1. Developed by Barry Willis and the University of Idaho Engineering Outreach staff, this site highlights information detailed in Willis's books Distance Education: Strategies and Tools and Distance Education: A Practical Guide.

Print, says Willis, is the basis from which all other delivery systems have evolved. Formats include textbooks, study guides, workbooks, course syllabi, and case studies.
Voice includes interactive options such as telephone, audioconferencing, and short-wave radio, as well as passive, or one-way, tools such as audiotapes and radio. Video tools combine audioconferencing with visual media such as slides, film, videotape, and real-time or streaming images. The visual interface may be one- or two-way.
Data incorporates one or more of the following computer applications:

* Computer-assisted instruction (CAI) uses the computer as a self-contained teaching machine to present individual lessons.
* Computer-managed instruction (CMI) uses the computer to organize instruction and track student records and progress. Although the instruction itself need not be delivered via computer, CAI is often paired with CMI.
* Computer-mediated education (CME) describes computer applications that facilitate delivery of instruction. Examples include electronic mail, fax, real-time computer conferencing, and World Wide Web applications.

The right technology choice for distance education depends on the range of options available to the audience; more then one medium can be combined for an effective learning experience. Providers need adequate time and technical support,however, so they can focus on content rather than technology.

A website offering useful tips for videoconferencing is offered by the education media services department of the New York Medical College at http://library.nymc.edu/edmed/teaching_via_videoconferencing.htm.

IC Students Win SSA Award
Ithaca College students Alyssa Slezak '02 and Katie Krueger '02 received the Student Paper Award at the annual State Society on Aging conference in Albany during October for their work titled "Effects of Grief on Psychosocial and Physical Health and Activity Participation." The two physical therapy majors, who had received their bachelor's degrees in May 2001, have been working toward their master's degrees and completing clinical internships.

A data collection interviewer for the Pathways to Life Quality study in 1999- 2000, Slezak began the paper a year before the 2001 conference with the help of Krueger, her classmate. The paper is now in the "Pathways Student Working Paper Series," listed as 01-04.

Accepting the award, Slezak said, "Initially we had so many ideas and we wanted to look at everything. We thought we could research one idea and move on to the next. Little did we know that it would take eight months to complete one paper!" Krueger added, "In the end, though, all the challenges were worth it, because at graduation when everyone was jumping for joy, we got to jump twice as high because we had finished our paper."

For SSA award consideration, undergraduate and graduate students may submit papers on completed research, program experiences, or an analysis of a current issue in aging.

Housing an Indicator of Health Status, Service Need
During the fall, faculty and staff presented results from the Pathways to Life Quality study at conferences of the State Society on Aging of New York, the National Council on Family Relations, and the Gerontological Society of America. Among the study's recent findings, area residents of lower-income senior housing use more community-based services, such as public transportation and home-delivered meals, than residents of other housing arrangements. They also have more serious and disabling chronic conditions, such as diabetes, lung disorders, and heart disease (Krout and Holmes, 2001).

Publications and Presentations by ICGI Faculty, Affiliates, and Staff
Belyea, Barbara, Amy Cole, and Rebecca Kent. "The Effects of Aquatic Exercise on Balance in Older Adults." Southern Tier District meeting of New York Physical Therapy Association, March 2001, and NYPTA annual conference, Saratoga, October 2001.

Erickson, Mary Ann. "Social Ties and Participation across the Move to a Congregate Facility." State Society on Aging of New York conference, Albany, October 2001.

Groger, Lisa, and Pamela S. Mayberry. "Caring Too Much? Cultural Lag in African Americans' Perceptions of Filial Responsibilities." Journal of Cross-Cultural Gerontology 16 (2001).

Hamill, Paul. The Year of Blue Snow. Lewiston, New York: Mellen Poetry Press, 2001.

Hamill, Paul. "Flotation Devices." Southern Review, summer 2001.

Holmes, Heidi. "Relocation to Congregate Life: Impact on Social Relationships, Recreation Patterns, Health, and Service Use." State Society on Aging of New York conference, Albany, October 2001.

Krout, John A., and Heidi Holmes. "Health and Service Use Among New Residents of Senior Housing." State Society on Aging of New York conference, Albany, NY, October 2001.

Monroe, Janice Elich. "Developing a TR Internship Program: Critical Facts Affecting Supervision." American Therapeutic Recreation Association Conference, New Orleans, September, 2001; National Recreation and Park Society Therapeutic Recreation Forum, Denver, October 2001.

Pogorzala, Christine H., and John A. Krout. "The Ithaca College/Longview Partnership: Creating a Successful Intergenerational Community." State Society on Aging of New York conference, Albany, October 2001.

Savishinsky, Joel. Breaking the Watch: The Meanings of Retirement in America. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2000.

Savishinsky, Joel. "Lonesome in the Saddle, or How to Feel at Home in Later Life." Journal of Housing for the Elderly 14, nos. 1 and 2 (2000). Based on keynote address by Savishinsky at the ICGI annual conference in 1999 titled "The Places We Call Home: Community Environments for Older People."

Savishinsky, Joel. "Morality Makes Sense: Lessons from the Moral Biographies of Older Americans." Contemporary Gerontology 7, no. 1 (fall 2000).

Savishinsky, Joel. "Service or Spirituality: Models of Retirement from America and India." State Society on Aging of New York conference, Albany, October 2001.

Savishinsky, Joel. "Zen Masters and Master Planners." Bookpress 11, no. 6 (September 2000).

Wasyliw, Zenon V., and John A. Krout. "Infusing and Expanding Gerontology in Grade 7-12 Social Studies Curricula." State Society on Aging of New York conference, Albany, October 2001.

Wolle, Sarah. "Changes in Leisure Patterns upon Relocation to an Independent Living Facility," State Society on Aging of New York conference, Albany, October 2001.

The Gerontology Institute staff was honored in November by the Health Planning Council of Tompkins County. Saluting the group's support of several community initiatives, HPC director Betty Falcao said, "The staff of ICGI is outstanding and contributes to our residents with not only their expertise, but also their personal commitment and energy." HPC's volunteer members-more than 160 consumers and providers of health care-conduct comprehensive health planning projects, promote the development of services and resources, and encourage coordination among organizations.

Calendar of Events
Events are held at Ithaca College unless otherwise indicated.

February 7
Distinguished Speaker: Joel Savishinsky, Ph.D. "Zen and the Art of Retirement: How People Face Change in Later Life"

March 18
Special Program: Susan Perlstein
Director of Elders Share the Arts and the National Center for Creative Aging

May 29
ICGI Annual Conference
Long-Term Care Service Delivery:Policy and Practice in Challenging Times

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Web Page maintained by Terry Beckley
Updated January 23, 2002.