Articles
The Journal on Active Aging brings articles of value to professionals dedicated to older-adult quality of life. Content sweeps across the active-aging landscape to focus on education and practice. Find articles of interest by searching the article archives in three ways: Enter a keyword in the articles search bar; click on search by topic; or type a keyword or phrase in the general search bar at the top of the page.
Topic- Intellectual wellness
Jeff Nachtigall: Enabling older adults to unleash their creativity through art by Marilynn Larkin, MA
Jeff Nachtigall is an established artist whose work has been exhibited in North America, Europe and China over the past 25 years. He is also a facilitator, speaker and social entrepreneur who has led dozens of artist residencies and workshops, lectured in communities across Canada and the United States, and keynoted at national conferences on the arts and aging. Importantly for readers of the Journal on Active Aging, Nachtigall also worked for eight years as a full-time artist-in-residence at Sherbrooke Community Centre, an assisted living residence in Saskatoon, Canada. There, he founded and developed Open Studio Projects, a model of artistic engagement that challenges traditional clinical and activity-based approaches to art in older-adult and long-term care settings.
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Training the brain to change the way we age, part 1: understanding neuroplasticity by Lawrence Biscontini, MA
As we try to enhance the way we train the body to improve the way we age, including the brain in our approaches can make a huge difference. Research reveals that since the brain controls the body, and not the other way around, brain training can serve as the best point of departure for training. Fitness and wellness professionals can help clients--and themselves--build mental "muscle" for everyday life by adding brain games to physical movement.
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Brain training: Views diverge in the scientific community
In October 2014, 69 leading neurologists and cognitive psychologists signaled a consensus from the scientific community on the brain training industry. The consensus statement was skeptical of claims made about "computer-based brain games" - particularly that they offer "consumers a scientifically grounded avenue to reduce or reverse cognitive decline" - and cited a lack of scientific evidence to support them. A group of more than 125 medical doctors and scientists responded in December with an open letter expressing "significant reservations" about the statement.
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The Arts and Health Project: supporting healthy aging through the arts by Jenifer Milner
In the year 2000, as the world contemplated the potential of a new century, Gene D. Cohen, MD, PhD, contemplated the potential of aging. To this potential, as well as damaging myths of aging, Cohen drew the public’s attention in his then-new book The Creative Age: Awakening Human Potential in the Second Half of Life. He heralded “a new juncture” in the field of aging—“one in which we move beyond studies of what aging is to what is possible with aging.
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Brain Health University: giving older adults tools to protect cognitive function
In 2002, to support healthier, more fulfilling lives for residents, SLC focused on the meaning of wellness for this population. “The basis for our quest was the World Health Organization’s publication on the six dimensions of wellness,” says RonnDa Peters, vice president of marketing. “David Koelling, vice president of corporate operations, and Terry Fay, corporate director of resident programs, led the charge to package a wellness-focused environment using the six dimensions—physical, intellectual, emotional, social, spiritual and vocational—into a signature program, Fit for Life” (since rebranded Wellness Everyday™). The program received an ICAA Industry Innovators Award in 2003.
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CogniFit Personal Coach: promoting healthier, active aging through brain fitness
Established in 1999 by cognitive psychologist Shlomo Breznitz, PhD, Israeli company CogniFit Ltd. develops and provides computerized brain fitness training programs for a variety of markets. The distinguished academic—whose achievements include, among others, serving as president, rector and Lady Davis Professor of Psychology at the University of Haifa—founded CogniFit based on his more than 30 years’ experience in the field. His goal? To use the latest cognitive research to help people of all ages maintain and improve quality of life through brain fitness assessment and training.
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