During a time of increasing shortages in the eldercare workforce, attracting new workers to the field is imperative. It can be difficult to engage students in the field. One method to engage students with aging is through oral history assignments. This study explored the impact of an active assignment (interviewing an older adult) compared to a…

Growing older is a natural occurrence experienced by all human beings, but a plurality of perspectives influences how understanding aging deviates in multiple context. Senescence now enthuses a profound substantiation to appreciate harmonious aging. Among the diverse corpora of data, songs are found to be useful in communicating, motivating and…

Ageism is an age-based form of discrimination that still prevails in our modern society. As other forms of discrimination, older adults may encounter ageist discourses in a variety of contexts, including health care settings. In this paper, we consider critical reflexivity as an approach to challenge ageism within health care contexts. We explore…

The purpose of this study was to examine the experience of Senior Companions with telephone reassurance program training delivered via Zoom and the feasibility of using teleconferencing as a platform for training older adult volunteers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Volunteers were recruited from a local Senior Companion Program. We assessed…

The project described in this paper was designed for an undergraduate course titled the "Psychology of Adulthood and Aging". This course, capped at 20 students, is typically comprised of psychology, pre-nursing, and family studies students. The student learning objectives (SLO's) for the course are: (1) to understand and apply current…

Nursing Assistants (NAs) are the largest workforce in nursing homes, but often lack adequate preparation for their role. The Living Classroom (LC) is an integrated learning approach, whereby a NA program is delivered in a nursing home (NH) in collaboration with a community college. This paper describes the implementation and evaluation of the LC.…

Iowa State University Human Sciences Extension and Outreach (HSEO) provides informal educational opportunities to older adults and their families in rural Iowa within the subject areas of family life, family finance, and nutrition and wellness. The successful implementation of educational opportunities is partially determined by the knowledge of…

In contemporary Western societies, the aging population poses new challenges both to the policies and to the support systems for older persons. In Portugal, where the phenomena have a major impact, a new professional profile, the gerontologist, has emerged. These professionals have an academic background that corresponds to the 1st cycle degree at…

Biases against the elderly and people with disabilities can lead to discriminatory behaviors. One way to conceptualize attitudes toward the elderly and people with disabilities is through the differentiation of explicit (conscious) and implicit (unconscious) factors. Although both explicit and implicit attitudes and biases contribute to the full…

Poetry and gerontology are often not viewed as congenial or likely companions. Yet these two approaches to communication, creativity, and health may have much in common. I would like to present some of my own work, five poems in fact, in light of my personal history and as a teacher/facilitator. My goal here is to reveal ideas and directions that…

Background and objectives: Although randomized controlled trials (RCTs) have been performed to alleviate loneliness among older people, little is known about how they have been implemented, or whether they are effective in real life. Our RCT-based model, "Circle of Friends" (CoF) proved to be effective in improving the wellbeing, health…

As the number of older people in society increases, gaining an awareness of the needs of an aging population is important for university students from all academic backgrounds. Using a multidisciplinary approach to aging, we developed a new teaching module (NU-AGE [Newcastle University Aging Generations Education]) aimed at students enrolled in…

Effective health care with older adults requires that clinicians and practitioners are knowledgeable about aging issues and have the skills to work within an interdisciplinary team context. This article describes a Senior Mentoring Program that paired clinical students in medicine, nursing, and a physician assistant program with community-dwelling…

With the rapid aging of the population, strategies that can be incorporated into the curriculum are needed, including social work and medicine. Over the past 20 years, pedagogical strategies to improve attitudes toward older adults and gerontological practice along with knowledge about aging have been tested. Instructors are seeking methods that…

Background and aim: Even though the beneficial effects of elderly learning are widely acknowledged, many older Chinese people are still not involved. This paper aims to examine the barriers that affect the level of educational participation of older adults in China. Methodology: Using a focus group methodology, 43 older participants (aged 55 years…