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- Management
Embodied Labs creates immersive training for staff and caregivers by Marilynn Larkin, MA
As a teenager, Carrie Shaw embarked on a journey that would last more than 12 years: helping her family care for her mother, who was diagnosed at age 49 with early-onset Alzheimer's disease. At one point, Shaw recalls, she struggled to explain her mother's resulting visual impairment to professional caregivers. So, she let them experience it by modifying a pair of glasses, resulting in distorted vision and vision gaps. The caregivers understood immediately what her mother was experiencing--and Shaw understood she had hit upon a strategy that could be transformative for professionals working with individuals with dementia and other forms of cognitive and physical impairments. That strategy involved virtual reality (VR) technology. In 2016, motivated by her experiences, Shaw founded California-based Embodied Labs, headquartered in Los Angeles. She told the Journal on Active Aging, "Embodied Labs accelerates our ability to understand health conditions and life transitions that mainly affect older adults, so we can meaningfully connect and empathize."
moreManagement
Adding a wellness 'chief' to your C-Suite
If we have learned anything from recent pandemic events, it is the value and power of preparedness and prevention. Wellness practices play a huge role in prevention and thus in preparation to better battle healthcare issues that arise. Consider how a healthier older population would not only thrive in regular circumstances, but with better immune systems, manage illness during the more frequent pandemics of our "interconnected viral age." With that said, if you have not already done so, is now the time to create a chief wellness officer (CWO) position in your organization? I assume you have chief executive, financial, operating and technology officers. Why would you not have a CWO? Especially, when a wellness focus creates positive outcomes. If you already created a CWO position, read on to assess if additional insights can enhance this function and the wellness outcomes in your organization. If you are noodling the idea of a CWO, this article will create a framework for your success. Either way, you will want to consider these points in your process.
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The flip side: Weighing benefits versus drawbacks of innovative technologies by Marilynn Larkin, MA
Technology: The word can evoke both excitement and uncertainty among active-aging industry providers in all settings, from senior living and seniors centers to health clubs and rehabilitation centers. Excitement, because new technologies often provide opportunities to accomplish tasks faster and more easily and may enable staff and constituents to take charge of their health and connect socially; uncertainty, because implementing those same applications often requires a change in the status quo, a learning curve and, of course, a cost. How do you know if you're choosing the right product for your wellness services-or if you even need it? How do you best apply and monitor it? How do you ensure the most beneficial aspects of technologies are successfully implemented, and with a minimum of disruption or mistakes? And how do you retain the personal, social connections so critical to well-being, while also staying current and competitive? "Technology has become both a solution and a challenge," states International Council on Active Aging CEO Colin Milner. In this interview, he shares examples of how technology can help-but at times work against-dimensions of wellness and society at large.
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Digital health privacy in active-aging settings: Will the law let you age well? by Tara Sklar, JD, MPH; Richard Carmona, MD, MPH, FACS; Kathie Insel, PhD, RN; and Christopher Robertson, JD, PhD
What is privacy and how are our interpretations of it changing with advances in technology? This question, and concerns around potentially violating a person's right to privacy, have been emerging across industries around the world. Senior living providers have increased their exposure to privacy risks with the shift to implementing sensors throughout their communities. Typically located in digital health devices that can be worn on the body or placed in the environment, these sensors are capable of collecting and tracking data relevant to a person's health and well-being on a continuous monitoring basis. There are privacy laws and a growing public awareness that this type of 24/7 surveillance-and the unprecedented detailed level of data it generates-should be accompanied by measures that support personal data protection. It is important to note that these privacy risks also apply outside the housing context. This article describes the current legal landscape around digital health privacy and proposes possible solutions for organizations to be forward-looking with the evolving laws and consent practices
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Simple environmental design solutions to support sleep for healthy aging by Regina Vaicekonyte, MS, WELL AP; Carolyn Swope, MPH, WELL AP; Stephanie Timm, PhD, LEED AP, WELL AP; and Whitney Austin Gray
It is commonly believed that poor sleep is part of the normal aging process. Fortunately, it doesn't have to be, as many healthy older adults have few to no issues sleeping. However, about 70% of aging adults do experience sleep disturbances. New research is revealing how sleep can be impacted by our built environment-such as noise, temperature or light pollution-and offers new opportunities for sleep promotion. Although people are often encouraged to simply change their behavior, that's easier said than done. Alternatives such as sleeping pills and alcohol are used as seemingly "quick fixes." Instead, changing our built environment to support sleep makes the healthy choice the easy choice-and can benefit a community's bottom line, too.
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Taming the tech tidal wave by Tony Galvan, MS
The intersection of technology and senior living is here today and as time passes, communities, along with the organizations that mange them, are needing to come up with practical, multifaceted strategies to approach this "tidal wave of tech." Whereas some tech-based solutions have been in existence for years--if not also decades--many technologies are still much in their infancy. This makes this space both exciting and overwhelming as senior living providers must strike a balance between meeting the needs of current and future residents while also creating an advantage in competitive marketplaces.
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