ChangingAging.org

Americans often cite Japan as the country with the most respect for elders. In fact, there is considerable prestige given to older people in Japan and even a national holiday in their honor. There are also some embarrassing lapses which expose a gap between rhetoric and practice. The BBC reports…
Tokyo’s reputed oldest woman has [...]

Joe Angelelli writes…
There’s a good article in the Post-Gazette today about noise pollution in downtown Pittsburgh. The hum of air conditioners is drowning out the public art sound installations…
Oddly enough, this son of an audiologist has always been super sensitive to noise (hyperacusis…I’m the guy holding his ears on the airplane when the announcements are [...]

Al Power checks in early with this gem…

A decade past, Prince saw delirium as a positive force–falling in love. Soulja Boy took it a step farther: “That’s when I start to fall.” Now that’s a concept geriatricians can latch onto.
The real dangers of geriatric delirium are spelled out in detail in this week’s issue of [...]

Last month the Tribes of Eden gathered in Denver for their 5th International Eden Alternative Conference. I was there to videotape Dr. Bill Thomas’ keynote address and had the fortune of catching a few other sessions. Below I’ve compiled some highlights, including Bill’s introduction of the Path to Mastery, several minutes of Al Power’s powerful [...]

This blog gets some mighty powerful comments….
My 92-year-old mother with advanced dementia still lives at home and attends an Eden-accredited day centre. Six weeks ago I received a call from the acting manager to say they were finding my mother’s behaviour very challenging and wanted to bring in their ‘Dementia Behaviour Management Advisory’ team to [...]

Daniela Simmons, Founder and President of DANIEL DOMES offered this comment as a followup to her experience with the recent Eden Alternative International Conference.
She also gives us a heads up on some of her latest plans.
I wish her well.
I have been an advocate of culture change, ethical and quality care and
implementing a family and [...]

This is bumped from the comments.
Deborah Cooke is developing into a frequent and insightful commenter and I am always pleased when I see her name pop up on my screen.
Here’s an experience I encountered today while walking home from work. I should have written down some names and reported these guys myself. They aren’t medical [...]

I have been seeing a growing number of news reports that describe the us of a Taser to restrain citizens. The authorities who are quoted in these stories often employ the the very same rationalizations that medical professionals once used to justify tying older people to their beds.
The following story combines politics, medicine and [...]

Here is something new from the Eden Alternative.
Become the expert in your home for culture change; not just for yourself but for your team, your organization and the Elders you serve. Learn to overcome the challenges in the complex world of long-term care by creating an action plan specific to your home.
It does not matter [...]

Anderson Cooper’s blog offers up a nice recollection of Dr. Butler.
…it was Butler who, in 1968, coined the term “ageism.” By “ageism,” you might think of bias in employment, housing, public services and the like. I tend to think of depictions of older people in film, videos, television and commercials.
There are societies that honor and [...]

Not going to deny it, I love this tune and the way it contrasts personal biography with mass consumerism.
I’d say that personal biography triumphs here.

THE BURNING HELL – My Name Is Mathias from Mitch Fillion (southernsouls.ca) on Vimeo.
Your thoughts?
Also, are all Canadians like this?
I’m asking you Saskatoon…

This is bumped from the comments.
Steve Gurney is a leading edge thinker, publisher and advisor in the arena of aging services.
Here is his take on Paro the Baby Seal Robot.
July 9th, 2010
One of my clients made a big deal about having the first Paro in the US a few years ago. I didnt get [...]

The mainstream media continues to reinforce negative stereotypes about elders and people who work with elders. We are going to have to use new social media and social networking tools in order to tell our story — our way.
I am inviting you to join this growing online conversation. We can tell our [...]

The prestigious AHRQ has taken notice of the work Holy Cross hospital has done to improve emergency care for elders.

This is an important issue because…

* The population of seniors in the U.S. is growing rapidly, with growth expected to continue in coming decades, especially among those over 80. In Montgomery County, [...]

ChangingAging’s recently launched LinkedIn network has grown to over 130 members and I’m excited to see five active discussions with over 40 comments.
The controversial topic of hoarding really sparked an intense discussion when Adam Hayes shared a link to the International OCD Foundation’s Hoarding Center. Special thanks to Holly Whiteside, one of ChangingAging’s LinkedIn administrators, [...]

BREAKING NEWS — One of the remarkable outtakes from Provider Magazine’s May cover story “Culture Change Goes Main Stream,” is the dramatic increase of awareness of the culture change movement in recent years.
In 2005, nearly three-quarters of health care opinion leaders surveyed by the Commonwealth Fund were unfamiliar with the concept of “culture change,” despite [...]

By Al
Speaking at the Life Services Network’s annual meeting in Chicago…

I caught part II of a nice session on Nursing Strategies for Culture Change, facilitated by Barbara Frank. Barbara framed the session around the concept of moving culture change forward by encouraging critical thinking. She encouraged nurse managers to convene [...]

By Kavan
A frequent theme in my Editor’s blog posts about using social media to pursue culture change is the idea of using social media to create new narratives.
As a society, we see ourselves through certain lenses, or narratives, and act accordingly. Going to school, getting a job, getting married, having kids and buying lots of [...]

As editor of ChangingAging.org, I’ve been helping Bill harness the power of social media and the web to spread the message that there are positive alternatives to the declinist, anti-aging paradigms that dominate our society.
Starting today, I’d like to share some of our social media techniques and strategies in a regular weekly blog post. And [...]

This week I’m technically on vacation, whatever that is. My son
Ian got his Master’s in music composition at UC San Diego and we
are driving his old Saturn and all his stuff back east before he
heads to Boston for doctoral studies. On the way, we’ve detoured
to Logan, Utah, where my daughter Caitlin is finishing a summer
internship [...]

I visited an Edenising unit within a large NH in Vienna. Nursing manager Silvia Haupt has implemented an Eden pilot project in her unit, making cultural, organisational and structural changes in the utterly institutional environment, designed for warehousing old and frail residents. She had the foresight of budgeting for an evaluation using social capital indicators. [...]