Written by Tanner Meyer, Masters Research Fellow in Aging, Class of ‘21, Friedman Center for Aging As we have written about before, ageism continues to rear its ugly head during the Coronavirus pandemic. The media has depicted older adults, ranging from age 60 to 100, as a homogeneous, frail group, destined to contract the virus. […]
Category: Blog
COVID-19 double jeopardy: The intersection of race and age
Written by Emma Swinford, Natalie Galucia and Nancy Morrow-Howell Harvey A. Friedman Center for Aging at the Institute for Public Health, Washington University in St. Louis The American Society on Aging recently released a statement, which begins, “Age offers no immunity to racism and violence.” In fact, age often magnifies the impact of structural inequalities like racism. […]
Perspective: Broadening the scope as the country re-imagines policing
Written by Ron Long, head of Wells Fargo Aging Client Services In the wake of the murders of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd, there has been a call to reimagine policing. As an African American male who has been stopped over 20 times in my life thus far, I fully support having those conversations. Some […]
Aging: Enlarging the Frame
Written by Ellen C. Boone, PhD, Chair, Potpourri 2020 Committee Yes, as Galucia, Morrow-Howell, and Swinford have written, the coverage of COVID-19 does distort perceptions of the older adult population, especially the 95 percent who do not reside in nursing homes. To counter this distortion, I composed the following lines, with the intention of enlarging […]
COVID-19: Viewing the Virus from Senior Living and Senior Living
Written by Barbara L. Finch, MLA and alumna, Washington University in St. Louis Shortly before my husband and I moved into an independent living retirement community three years ago, a friend asked: “Will this be like living in a college dorm?” In some ways it is. There are a number of people (in our case, […]
Won’t you be my neighbor? Inter-generational living in St. Louis
Written by Emma Swinford, MPH, MSW, Harvey A. Friedman Center for Aging Embed from Getty Images The Back Story My experience in the world of inter-generational living started when I began working as a research assistant with the Friedman Center for Aging in my second year of grad school. The Friedman Center’s work on inter-generational […]
Older Americans Month: Invaluable Members of Our Society – Older Adults
Written by Behnaz Sarrami, MS, PharmD, TL1 Predoctoral Clinical Research Program alumnus Older Americans Month (OAM) was established in 1963 to give recognition to older adults as invaluable members of our society. Older adults have gained much wisdom and experience as they have endured life’s many challenges. Many have already lived through one pandemic, the […]
Opinion: Ageism in COVID coverage shrouds full picture of older adult population
Written by Nancy Morrow-Howell, Natalie Galucia and Emma Swinford of the Harvey A. Friedman Center for Aging at the Institute for Public Health, Washington University in St. Louis News coverage of the pandemic addresses everyone in later life as one monolithic group – “the elderly” – vulnerable, lonely, living in retirement facilities. Of course, attention […]
COVID-19 & older adults: Time Management & self-care skills
Written by Natalie Galucia, MSW; Nancy Morrow-Howell, MSW, PhD; and Emma Swinford, MPH, MSW, Harvey A. Friedman Center for Aging Embed from Getty Images Stay-at-home orders have meant that the routines of millions of people have been disrupted. To stay safe at home, many older adults have been disconnected from jobs, travel plans, grandparent obligations, […]
Preparing for a Career in Aging: Part III
By Natalie Galucia, MSW, Harvey A. Friedman Center for Aging & Annie Wright, MSOT ’21, School of Medicine Washington University has a variety of options available to students who are looking to pursue careers in aging. Throughout many different schools across both the Danforth and School of Medicine Campuses, students are focusing their learning to […]
Preparing for a Career in Aging: Part II
By Natalie Galucia, MSW, Harvey A. Friedman Center for Aging & Roger Wong, MPH, MSW, PhD, Brown School of Social Work Washington University has a variety of options available to students pursuing careers in aging. Across both the Danforth and School of Medicine Campuses, students are preparing for this field. To get a taste of the […]
A Letter to Caregivers during a Pandemic
My Perspective as a First Year MSW Working in the Field of Aging By Tanner Meyer, MSW ‘21 When applying to the Brown School, my personal statement promised that I would pursue a career in LatinX health care. This is still my goal, though I have paired it with another: to work with aging […]
Careers in Aging Week 2020: Insights from the Friedman Center for Aging
April 19-25 marked 2020 Careers in Aging Week (CIAW). CIAW is hosted every year by the Gerontological Society of America to raise awareness about the diverse careers available in the field of aging. As people are living longer, populations are aging worldwide and the demands for professionals with expertise in aging grows, the Harvey A. […]
Preparing for a Career in Aging: Part I
Written by Natalie Galucia, MSW, Center Manager, Harvey A. Friedman Center for Aging & Meghan McDarby, M.A., Psychological & Brain Sciences Washington University has a variety of options available to students pursuing careers in aging. Across both the Danforth and School of Medicine Campuses, students are preparing for this field. To get a taste of […]
A lived experience: Pursuing a career in aging while residing with older adults
Written by Annie Wright, MSOT ‘20, School of Medicine I am currently an occupational therapy student pursuing a Master’s degree. My current goal is to work in a community setting on the population level, which includes all ages. I haven’t narrowed my passion down to a specific topic yet, but I’m hoping that my future […]
Ageism in the time of coronavirus
Written by Jeff Brandt, MSW, Brown School; Natalie Galucia, MSW; Nancy Morrow-Howell, PhD, MSW; and Emma Swinford, MPH, MSW There is no denying it: the threat of COVID-19 looms large for older adults. According to a CDC study, 80% of Coronavirus deaths in the U.S. between February 12 and March 16 occurred in adults age […]
Long-term care: Costs, insurance and reform
Written by Jeff Brandt, MSW ’20, the J. Benjamin Miller Masters Research Fellow in Aging & the recipient of the 2020 Distinguished Student Award for Social Work Leaders in Healthcare American consumers tend to hold some misconceptions when it comes to long-term care. Think Medicare will cover the cost of a nursing home? Think again. […]
New city? Try home sharing
Written by Annie Wright, Occupational Therapy candidate at Washington University in St. Louis and HomeShare St. Louis participant In the months before moving to St. Louis for graduate school, I was in full panic mode because I had not yet nailed down a housing situation. The panic was not helped by the fact that I […]
The next raison d’etre
Written by David Krausch I live in the Missouri countryside near Labadie; too far away from the city to hear about Lifelong Learning Institute (LLI) in my normal social circles. I learned it in casual conversation with other participants at an open house for St. Louis Public Radio. I mentioned that I enjoy coming out […]
Choose those words carefully!
Written by Ellen C. Boone, PhD, Co-facilitator, OLLI Memoir Class Last week, the director of our Osher Lifelong Learning Institute handed me a paper that began with the sentence, “May is Older Americans Month and the theme this year is Connect, Create, Contribute.” It went on to say that OLLI students are invited by the […]