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SAGE Tour in Canada and the USA is open for registration!

The Global Ageing Network is excited to announce that the SAGE tour in Canada and the USA is now open for registration! The tour will explore seniors living in Canada and the USA and provide an overview of the North American Aged Care System. The tour will take place from 22 Sept.-3 Oct. 2019 and presentations will be held at various housing, community services, and business locations in Toronto, Canada, and Boston, Massachusetts.

The tour is timed to align with optional attendance at the Global Ageing Network conference which will be held from 17-19 September 2019 in Toronto, Canada.

About SAGE Tours

SAGE Tours offers innovative study tours to the aged care and retirement living industries. SAGE delegates have the opportunity to evaluate the advancement of eldercare from a global perspective and receive insights from some of the world’s most highly respected industry professionals.  

You might also visit some of the world’s best research facilities, like Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the USA. Successful study tours have been run since 2006 across 5 continents for hundreds of delegates.

SAGE Tours continues to grow and support its mission and its name: Studying and Advancing Global Eldercare. The SAGE Study Tour programs offer delegates an educative, professional and culturally appropriate study experience in another country looking at seniors living models and delivery of care.

Marcus Riley Named as Ageing Asia Innovator!

The Global Ageing Network is proud to announce that Marcus Riley has been recognized as a Global Ageing Influencer. The award was officially recognized at the Ageing Asia 6th Asia Pacific Eldercare Innovation Award ceremony which was held on 16 May 2018 in Singapore. The awards is the first of its kind in the Asia Pacific region that recognizes the best in eldercare product and service delivery.

Marcus Riley has served on the Global Ageing Network’s board since 2014, including as Chairman for 2 years. He is the Chief Executive Officer of the Hibernian Society, a charitable organization and public benevolent institution which owns and operates BallyCara Retirement Living & Aged Care. BallyCara is a nonprofit organisation providing services throughout South East Queensland and the northern suburbs of Melbourne.

Paul Johnson shared the announcement shared with friends and colleagues at BallyCara, “The award recognizes Marcus as a passionate thought leader and innovator who continuously challenges traditional boundaries to change the future of how we age here in Australia, as well as globally.”

Katie Smith Sloan, Global Ageing Network executive director, describes him as “persuasive in the drive towards improvement, including leading the adoption of a new brand and fostering widespread engagement and growth.”

Marcus Riley has been instrumental in advancing our work at the United Nations and serves as the Asia/Pacific Region Focal Point on the Stakeholder Group on Aging (SGA) to implement the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals. His passion for international collaboration on ageing has inspired the network to engage in meaningful dialogue and action to improve the lives of older adults around the world.

Congratulations, Marcus Riley!

Ageism May Be Pervasive, But We Can Take Steps Towards Change

By Kirsten Jacobs, director dementia and wellness education, LeadingAge (guest post)

Two years ago the LeadingAge Board of Directors adopted a bold new vision, An America Freed from Ageism. With that, we declared our commitment to a growing international anti-ageism movement. Ageism is stereotyping and discrimination based on age. Anyone can experience ageism, but throughout the world, we live in such a youth-oriented culture that older adults are often the recipients of age-based discrimination.

There is a wide range of manifestations of ageism, both individual, like avoiding older adults, and institutional, like housing and employment practices. A couple specific examples in the U.S. that relate to our field include the lack of geriatric specialists or the fact that less than 2% of philanthropic dollars go to older adults and ageing-related organizations. (The Foundation Center, 2014).

While ageism is pervasive today, it wasn’t always this way. Some believe that with the invention of the printing press and the industrial revolution, U.S. society started placing less value on the role of elders, who had traditionally been the keepers of stories in our families and communities. Furthermore, as more people make it into their 80s, 90s, and beyond, longevity just isn’t as unique as it once was. And families are now scattered across the globe, so young children often don’t enjoy regular exposure to elders.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), ageism is pervasive across ethnic groups and the globe. The manifestations may vary, but regardless of geography, older adults are often seen as one homogenous group, which leads to stereotyping and discrimination. Yet, we know that older adults actually become more different from each other as they age.

We also know from research that ageism can have a negative impact on individual health and wellbeing. Becca Levy and colleagues at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut found that ageism negatively impacts cardiovascular health, recovery from illness and that individuals with negative self-perceptions of ageing live 7.5 years less than those with more positive self-perceptions of ageing. So, ageism does matter.

While the scope of the problem can be overwhelming, there are small steps we can all take in our daily lives to start making an impact. Ageism is so prevalent and normalized that it often goes unnoticed. Therefore, increasing awareness is the first step toward making positive change.

Ageism, in the form of pervasive negative attitudes about older persons, is widely shared among cultures around the world. There are signs of ageism concealed in our language, consumer products, and even in the media.  It shows up in the things we say with phrases like, “I’m having a senior moment,” or “She’s 70 years young.” There’s also an entire industry dedicated to combating the natural progression of ageing with “anti-ageing” products. So, start by noticing the words you and the people in your community are using. You might be surprised by all the subtle (and not-so-subtle) ways ageism shows up in your daily life.

As ageing services professionals, we have a unique perspective and opportunity to make an impact in our professional lives as well. Consider the language you use within your organization. Raise awareness among staff, residents, and families by offering education (stay tuned, LeadingAge has some resources on the way!). Education should be community-wide. Often elders are guilty of ageism, too. After all, they’ve had the most time to soak up the constant barrage of negative messages about aging. And sometimes family care partners forget that while their older family members may need some additional assistance, they can continue to be vital members of their families and society.

Over the last 2 years, we’ve been working to raise awareness in the U.S. and around the world and we’ve learned that it’s important to strive toward a culture of ongoing learning. Be kind to yourselves as you make small steps toward combating ageism. We all slip up, but with intention, we can start changing the way our world thinks about ageing.

Learn More:

A Wisdom Talk with the Peace Corps Response Program

The Global Ageing Network hosted its 4th “Wisdom Talk” on Wednesday, 13 June 2018. Providers and community members participated in an informal discussion and learned about the Peace Corps Response Program, a program that sends experienced professionals to undertake short-term, high impact assignments in communities around the world. Dustin Manhart, a Peace Corps Response recruiter, and Pamela Larson, a Peace Corps Response Program volunteer, broadened our thinking and understanding on how aged professionals can contribute to the international community by translating their experience and skills to projects in places where they are needed most.

Watch the Facebook Live discussion below.

 

About the Speakers

Dustin Manhart

Dustin currently works as a recruitment and placement specialist with the Peace Corps Response (PCR) program and was a PCR volunteer in Ukraine from 2012-13. Before volunteering, Dustin worked in older adult services for ~10 years providing case management services to seniors and later became the director of the largest Meals on Wheels and Case Management program in California. Dustin continues to work with seniors via the PCR program. He obtained his Master of Social Work (MSW) degree from California State University, Long Beach.

Pamela Larson

Pamela Larson is a proud Third Ager with a list of countries and cultures she’s visited and those she hopes to visit yet! She returned from a year in the Peace Corps Response program as a volunteer where she applied her nonprofit skills to help a Panamanian nonprofit for the blind become more sustainable. During her Second Age, she ran a nonprofit, the National Academy of Social Insurance, for 28 years. This experience gave her ample time with incorporation, Boards of Directors, fundraising, membership, and internship programs. Before that position, she worked for other nonprofits and local government, applying her training from Cornell University’s School of City and Regional Planning, where she earned a master’s degree. She also earlier earned a Bachelor’s degree in Latin American Studies and Sociology from the University of Minnesota.

To learn more about the Peace Corps Response Program and read about volunteer experiences, please visit the Peace Corps Response website.

 

LeadingAge Releases Anti-Ageism Quick Guide

Global Ageing Network’s U.S. Chapter, LeadingAge, has recently released an Anti-Ageism Quick Guide to help individuals and organizations become more mindful of their language and messaging around ageing and how they can begin to inspire more positive attitudes, behaviors and perceptions of what it means to grow old. The guide offers quick tips and reflective practices which can be used in a variety of settings.

Ageism perpetuates powerful and pervasive stereotypes that demean the individual and impact quality of life. However, aging services professionals are in a unique position to positively influence perceptions about aging in a variety of ways. This quick guide is designed to help organizations and individuals be mindful of the language and messaging they use around aging, and take steps toward eliminating ageist attitudes, behaviors, and words from our vocabulary.

Download the full Anti-Ageism Quick Guide here.

For more information and resources around combatting ageism, click here.

Faith and Hope: My Journey with Dementia

By Tracey Lind

“In the middle of the journey of my life, I came to myself, in a dark wood, wherein the direct way was lost.”  These opening words from Dante’s Divine Comedy best describe what happened to me at age of 62. On Election Day 2016, I was diagnosed with Frontotemporal dementia (FTD), an early onset dementia. For months, I had tried to ignore the increasingly obvious signs and symptoms.

However, one day, I looked in a mirror and didn’t recognize my own face. Following a season of grief, relief, and escape, I decided to reframe this interruption in my life, and transform it from an intrusion into an invitation, from a death sentence into a pilgrimage. Over the past year and a half, I’ve been getting to know and learning to love the person I saw in that mirror, the one whose face I didn’t recognize.

I have watched many people hide dementia as if it is something to be ashamed of or embarrassed about, an incurable disease spoken of in hushed voices. I don’t want to live with dementia on those terms. I believe that denial isn’t useful; honesty is important; early diagnosis can result in a higher quality of life, and transparency makes life easier for everybody involved.

An early diagnosis allowed me to exit work gracefully, put our legal and financial affairs in order, and make plans for the future, trying to imagine how I might experience the fullness of life as my dementia progresses. It also has given me the opportunity to do what I love and spend time with those whom I love. Honesty has afforded me the time, space, incentive, and willpower to be intentional about self-care, exploring ways to manage my disease. As a pastor and theologian, being transparent have encouraged me to make sense of dementia: to consider its spirituality, to give it meaning and purpose, and to share my learnings with others.

Many days, I feel like a stranger in a strange land. As I walk this wilderness path, I’m trying to follow the advice of the poet Rumi who wrote:  “Be the soul of the place you’re standing.”

I am determined to live fully with dementia as a companion on this chapter of my life’s pilgrimage.

So what gives me hope?  As a person of faith, I believe in “the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things not seen.” Thus, I hope that with the companionship, support and encouragement from my spouse, my doctors, my friends and family, I can craft and experience a rich and full life with dementia – all the way to the end. I hope for the discovery of ways to prevent, slow, and reverse dementia, and for the funding required for aggressive research, integrative treatment, and compassionate care.

As baby boomers age and more people struggle with dementia, I hope that communities will become dementia-friendly places. I also hope that society will recognize the right of individuals with dementia to live and die with comfort and dignity.

One of the challenges for people living with dementia is that we lose the ability tell our own stories and advocate of our own behalf. That is why, for as long as I am able, I’m determined to preach, teach, and tell my story of dementia from the inside out, in hopes that others will do the same and bring this growing public health crisis out of the shadows and into the light.

For at the end of “Inferno,” Dante writes: “We climbed…until through a small round opening ahead of us, I saw the lovely things the heavens hold, and we came out to see once more the stars.”

The Very Rev. Tracey Lind is a newly retired Episcopal priest and city planner whose ministry has included work for social and environmental justice, interfaith relations, sustainable urban development, arts and culture, and progressive theology. Learn more about Tracey Lind.

 

 

EAHSA and E.D.E. Merge to Create the European Ageing Network (EAN)

In April 2018, the Global Ageing Network’s European Association of Homes and Services for the Ageing (EAHSA) and the European Associate for Directors and Providers of Long-Term Care Services for the Elderly (E.D.E.) merged to create the European Ageing Network (EAN).

The 2 European Associations, each with 3 decades of history, have been working together for 2 years to create a unified organization. The new European Ageing Network emerged after 2 long years of preparation and it was officially introduced in Bucharest on 13 April 2018 during the General Annual Meeting of E.D.E., where EAHSA was accepted as a founding member of EAN. All members of the E.D.E. and EAHSA are part of the European Ageing Network.

The European Ageing Network represents more than 10,000 long-term care providers with more than 1 million clients in almost 30 European countries and is also connected to the Global Ageing Network, the world’s only network of ageing service providers.

“It’s a unique moment, in times where new associations and platforms are being created we decided to go in another way – creating two strong associations into to a stronger one. In times where [older adult] care represents one of the biggest challenges for Europe in the coming years we need an Association representing the interests of the long-term care providers,” says Jiri Horecky, the newly appointed EAN President.

“In the coming decades more and more [older adults] need good care and services at home or in [communities]. Providers can learn from each other, exchange best practices and work together in order to give the best possible care. Uniting providers in EAN can give them a stronger voice in Europe regarding issues like labor force-policy, regulation and developing care-technology,” adds Aad Koster, the statutory Vice President of E.D.E. and the President of EAHSA.

The European Ageing Network is seated in Luxembourg having a branch office in Brussels and the main office in Prague.

Dan Levitt: If You Live Long Enough, Be Prepared for Age Discrimination

Dan Levitt, a board member of the Global Ageing Network and the Executive Director of Tabor Village shares his vision of what the aged care sector could look like if we were to embrace transformational reforms that challenge the way we view seniors.

I want to share with you my biggest fear. It keeps me awake at night. It is something that I have not written about, until now.

I have gerontophobia. I am afraid of getting old.

I fear that I will lose my memory, my physical strength and no longer be able to live independently. I dread the weight I will place on my family to care for me at home. I fear most that I will be forced to leave my home in the neighbourhood where I have lived all my life and have no choice but to live in an old age institution. I am scared that I will have to wait too long for admission to that nursing home, because not enough new residential care facilities will have been built, that the nursing home I move into will be chosen by the government not by me as a consumer as this basic right is not afforded to seniors who meet the eligibility criteria for residential care.

While I am waiting for placement, the limited hours of home care I receive will support only my medical needs and my physical, social, emotional, and spiritual needs will go unmet while my world collapses around me as I begin to be treated as a non-person. People will talk to me and not involve me in their blurry conversations about my ailing condition, my prognosis, which I no longer completely comprehend. I will become a domesticated patient living in my house that has become unrecognizable to me.

Once I am placed in a nursing home, I will spend most of the time in my bedroom watching television. When I press the nurse call button I will have to wait too long for help and be neglected leaving me in soiled incontinence pads resulting in me developing painful pressure ulcers. I may be the subject of resident-on-resident violence. I may be given anti-psychotic medications for a psychiatric illness that has not been diagnosed. I will lose connection to my family and friends who will visit infrequently.

I will lose weight appearing emaciated because my taste buds do not enjoy the bland overcooked food served from the hospital style cafeteria, food that is unrecognizable and pureed to ensure I do not choke. Nothing on the menu will be what my previous self-enjoyed eating. When my family complains about the food, they will find out that the facility is doing the best they can with $7.50 of funding per day for raw food. A prisoner to the choices of the dietician prescribed food, the only crime I have committed is being older, and for this, I am serving a life sentence.

What if we reinvented the aged care sector? What if we reimagined the aging journey? What if sleepless nights were filled with good dreams that might one day become a reality?

You don’t have to venture too far away from home to find examples that might just be the panacea we are all seeking. The sharing economy has created co-housing, pocket neighbourhoods, the village movement, and care doulas who help navigate seniors through an often fragmented aged care system.

Further afield, in Tokyo Japan, 10 centenarians with dementia live together in a group home where their daily choices include a minimum: 1,500 calories, 1.5 litres of their favourite beverage, walking exercises, and meaningful activities. Seniors are toilet retrained and no longer use incontinence pads, saving money while improving dignity, self-esteem, and quality of life. Physiotherapists mobilize seniors out of their wheelchairs who walk with assistive mobility aides.

In France, seniors move into nursing homes with time to adjust to their new home before dementia advances. Society has made longer lengths of stay an option for seniors requiring residential care as well as capping the amount people pay. The result is that seniors become accustomed to their environment. In Dijon, a senior spends his days in a workshop using a scroll saw independently with a hand guard to prevent injury. When it’s time for a break he ventures down to the bistro where he enjoys a glass of Burgundy wine, eats cured meats and unpasteurized cheeses, and crunches on buttery croissants.

In Sydney, Australia, a consumer-directed care bond program has created an aged care building boom. This renaissance gave birth to the Scalabrini dementia village, where Italian speaking staff monitor seniors using smart technology enabling residents to wander freely around the outdoor piazza complete with a statue fountain of Venus, Vespas, gelato stand, wood burning pizzeria and a roman catholic church adorned with stain glass and a clock tower.

Also in Sydney, some seniors prefer a different way of life. SummitCare focuses on hospitality by designing a hotel model residence. Traditional institutional design elements are eliminated: no handrails, no visible nurse call system, no uniforms, and no clothing protecting aprons. Couples choose to live together in a one bedroom apartment, where they sleep together!

It’s only ageism that tells us seniors are not interested in intimacy.  Perhaps sex is the biggest older adult prejudice. The nursing home industry has perpetuated this anti-aging bias where government regulations do not allow couples one with dementia and one without dementia to live together in the same bedroom.

Without major transformational reforms to the aged care sector, seniors will continue to be in an untenable situation. Too many seniors to care for, too few trained staff and too little money because neither the government nor individuals want to pay more. Perhaps our culture is gerontophobic, viewing older adults as burdensome and disposable. Systemic discrimination is something to fear.

Are we willing to upset the status quo? We have done our best to eliminate racism and sexism. Are we, are you, ready to take on institutionalized ageism?

Dan Levitt is executive director of Tabor Village, a memory care home offering supportive housing to seniors with memory impairment, Alzheimer’s and dementia. He is also an adjunct professor of gerontology at Simon Fraser University and adjunct professor in the School of Nursing at the University of British Columbia. He is a board member of the Global Aging Network.

This article was published in the Vancouver Sun on April 27, 2018. 

A Message of Hope from Dementia Advocate, Brian LeBlanc

Brian LeBlanc shares his message of hope as a Dementia Advocate. Brian LeBlanc shared the speech at LeadingAge and Integrace’s 2018 Great Minds Gala, a fundraising event which raises awareness and funds to improve Alzheimer’s disease care. The Global Ageing Network was honored to participate in this event.

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A MESSAGE OF HOPE

By Brian LeBlanc

Hello, I’m Brian LeBlanc. A few years ago, a very good friend of mine, Sandy Halperin, stood here, at this gala, to accept The Senator William and Ellen Proxmire Award along with Dr. Sanjay Gupta for their work on a fantastic documentary that called awareness to Alzheimer’s disease.  If you were here, you may have received one of the Gold Batons Sandy was handing out. I wasn’t here for that occasion but one day while visiting him in his home he gave me a baton. He gave me “HIS” baton.

He was giving it to me as a memento of the Gala, but it was also, literally, a passing of a baton from one Dementia Advocate to another; from one person living with Alzheimer’s disease who is not able to be as active as he was once was to a person who is an active Dementia Advocate who also has Alzheimer’s disease. He called it “The Baton of Hope,” and I don’t take the responsibility of being the keeper of the baton lightly.

As he signed and dated the baton he told me, “This is yours for now, but not yours to keep . . . when you feel you are no longer able to do what you do, I want you to sign, date it and find someone to pass it along to.” I promised him I would do just that.

I just spoke to him recently, letting him know that I was bringing the “Baton of Hope” with me to signify our need for hope.  Just so you know, I’m not bringing it here this evening, looking for someone to pass this to. You see, I’m not done. I and others like me have a lot more work to do.

Since this is a message of hope, I wanted to first look for a definition of what hope actually means. This is what I found.

A feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen.
A feeling of trust.

I hear the word “hope” many, many times in conversations, as in, “I hope a cure is found to help you” or
“I hope you get better” or
“I hope you don’t suffer too much with your Alzheimer’s.”

I used to correct the person saying things like,
“Well, a cure won’t be found in my lifetime, but thanks!” or
“I wish I would get better but that’s probably not going to happen.”

By using those terms, I realized I was dashing their hopes, so now, I just smile and say, “Thank you!”

If someone would ask me what my hopes are? “Well, my hopes lie in the here and now, in things we can accomplish today, not years from now.First, I hope the diagnostic process grows into a more personal and hopeful experience.”

For example, a fellow Dementia Advocate was told “You have Alzheimer’s disease, you better go home and get your affairs in order” or as I was told, “Yes, you have Alzheimer’s Disease” and not another word was spoken. We just sat there in silence.

Where was the hope? Where was the human interaction?

So . . .

I hope . . . more understanding of Alzheimer’s disease and other Dementia’s are realized so everyone knows that a diagnosis doesn’t mean the end of it all. For some, it is a new beginning.

I hope . . . the phrase, “but you don’t look like you have Alzheimer’s” becomes a thing of the past as it becomes realized and understood that is NOT just a disease of the old age.

I hope . . . instead of being dismissed and ignored as if we can’t contribute or understand, that we are instead, ENGAGED, EMPOWERED AND ENABLED.

I hope . . . as a 4th generation family member, my son doesn’t become the 5th generation of living with Dementia. I hope the sons and daughters of my friends as well as the sons and daughters all those living with a Dementia-Related Illness do not have to go down the same path as we have.

As a Dementia Advocate, I don’t dwell on hoping for a cure. Instead, I put my energy into living in the here and now . . . in the moment, enjoying each and every interaction, every moment of joy, hoping that I will retain at least a little bit of what I experience.

Thank you for listening and I “HOPE” that we all move forward with more positiveness, more awareness, more understanding and yes, more “HOPE” for the here and now!

My name is Brian LeBlanc and I have Alzheimer’s, BUT . . . it doesn’t have me!

Global Ageing Network Issues Statement on LTC & Palliative Care to United Nations’ OEWGA