Americans are living longer than ever before. However, many are not prepared for the long life ahead of them. Although lifespan-aging education has been endorsed since the first White House Conference on Aging in 1961, little is happening with aging education in our homes, schools and communities. Americans often reach old age with little or no…

As the population of older adults increases and their potential for abuse and neglect increases, it is important a well-trained and competent workforce exists. Research has shown inadequate training of Adult Protective Services (APS) program staff is a major concern for adult protection programs, and one of the most important resources needed is…

There is a national shortage of social workers who have the knowledge and skill competencies needed for practice with our rapidly growing older adult population. In the last decade, research has identified many reasons for the lack of interest in gerontological social work and steps that could be pursued within social work education to remedy the…

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of aging on the storage of visual and spatial working memory according to Logie's model of working memory (1995). In a first experiment young, elderly, and very old subjects carried out two tasks usually used to measure visual span (Visual Patterns Test) and spatial span (Corsi Block Tapping test).…

This article reports an evaluation of a GeroRich effort to increase age-specific content throughout bachelor and master-level social work curricula. A total of 426 students (128 BSWs and 298 MSWs) completed pre and posttests in 2004-2005, self-rating their aging competency using the Social Work with Aging Skill Competency Scale II (New York…

The present study represents an evaluation of the implementation of the integration of the American Sociological Association's (ASA) Integrating Data Analysis Project into 2 online offerings of an undergraduate sociology of aging course. This program was developed in response to concerns that students did not understand the complex relationships…

A training curriculum on mental health and aging was developed and disseminated to 32 natural caregivers throughout a frontier state using a train-the-trainer model. Those certified as trainers included social workers, religious professionals, volunteers, long-term care employees, nurses, home health workers, and professional and informal…

A quick review of introductory textbooks reveals that while gerontology authors and instructors introduce some aspect of demography and epidemiology data, there is limited focus on age adjustment or other important epidemiology rates. The goal of this paper is to reintroduce a variety of basic epidemiology strategies such as incidence, prevalence,…

Seeking to extend curricula in a Psychology of Aging course, an online Internet test that assesses user's implicit attitudes was used as part of a learning activity to enhance students' awareness of age-bias in social perceptions. A pretest-posttest methodology examined the efficacy of this learning activity in three separate investigations.…

Preparing youngsters for an aging society requires teachers who keep pace with health science research. The Stealth Gerontology[TM] program educates teachers regarding aging-related issues. The design and assessment of the program are reported in this paper. Teachers attended sessions including direct instruction and hands-on participation (e.g.,…

This article explores the benefits of using cross-cultural, anthropological approaches to help students understand the varying experience of aging within the United States and around the globe. Through cultural comparison and increased knowledge of the cultural context of aging standardized aspects of practice such as assessment protocols and…

Investigates the manner in which five basal reading series portray older characters between 1975-1983. Examines the problem of negative and prejudicial portrayals of the elderly. Concludes with evidence to suggest that stereotyping of the elderly is reduced in current readers. (DR)

An innovative gerontology education program was developed to advance research on aging that is interdisciplinary and promotes the translation of knowledge from lab to life. The program focuses on communication and social interaction in healthy aging. It brings together faculty mentors, graduate students, and post-doctoral fellows from six…

The Optimal Aging Program (OAP) at the University of Arizona, College of Medicine is a longitudinal mentoring program that pairs students with older adults who are considered to be aging "successfully." This credit-bearing elective was initially established in 2001 through a grant from the John A. Hartford Foundation, and aims to expand…

An analysis of policy implementation by the Geriatric Education Centers (GEC) program is presented, using a model developed by Sabatier and Mazmanian (1980). A policy by the Bureau of Health Professions to expand education and training efforts in geriatrics and gerontology led to the creation of four GECs in 1983. By 1989, 38 centers had been…