Skye N. Leedahl

The effects of aging and dual task demands on language production.

ABSTRACT A digital pursuit rotor task was used to measure dual task costs of language production by young and older adults. After training on the pursuit rotor, participants were asked to track the moving target while providing a language sample. When simultaneously engaged, young adults experienced greater dual task costs to tracking, fluency, and grammatical complexity than older adults. Older adults were able to preserve their tracking performance by speaking more slowly. Individual differences in working memory, processing speed, and Stroop interference affected vulnerability to dual task costs. These results demonstrate the utility of using a digital pursuit rotor to study the effects of aging and dual task demands on language production and confirm prior findings that young and older adults use different strategies to accommodate to dual task demands.

Reclaiming Joy: Pilot Evaluation of a Mental Health Peer Support Program for Older Adults Who Receive Medicaid

PURPOSE Stigma and lack of access to providers create barriers to mental health treatment for older adults living in the community. In order to address these barriers, we developed and evaluated a peer support intervention for older adults receiving Medicaid services. DESIGN AND METHODS Reclaiming Joy is a mental health intervention that pairs an older adult volunteer with a participant (older adult who receives peer support). Volunteers receive training on the strengths-based approach, mental health and aging, goal setting and attainment, community resources, and safety. Participant-volunteer pairs meet once a week for 10 weeks. Participants establish and work toward goals (e.g., better self-care, social engagement) that they feel would improve their mental health and well-being. Aging services agencies provide a part time person to manage the program, match volunteers and participants, and provide ongoing support. Outcomes evaluation for this pilot study included pre/postintervention assessments of participants. RESULTS Thirty-two participants completed the intervention. Pre/postassessment group means showed statistically significant improvement for depression but not for symptoms of anxiety. Quality-of-life indicators for health and functioning also improved for participants with symptoms of both depression and anxiety. IMPLICATIONS The Reclaiming Joy peer support intervention has potential for reducing depression and increasing quality of life in low-income older adults who have physical health conditions. It is feasible to administer and sustain the intervention through collaborative efforts with minimal program resources and a small amount of technical assistance.

Successful Strategies for Discharging Medicaid Nursing Home Residents with Mental Health Diagnoses to the Community

ABSTRACT The state and federal push to transition Medicaid residents from nursing homes to the community calls for effective discharge strategies targeted to residents’ diverse needs. This exploratory, mixed-methods study utilized the Minimum Data Set to describe demographics, health characteristics, and transition patterns of Kansas Medicaid residents with mental health diagnoses who were discharged from nursing homes from 2005 to 2008. Discharged residents (n = 720) had multiple comorbidities, and more than half remained in the community following their first nursing home event. In-depth interviews with nursing home staff (n = 11) explored successful discharge strategies. Successful strategies support an ecological approach to meeting individual, family, organizational, and community needs. This includes creating/sustaining a culture of discharge, encompassing informal and formal community supports in the discharge process, proactively addressing physical environment needs, and assisting individuals and their family members in managing physical and mental health conditions. Findings suggest that policies in the areas of preadmission screening, caregiver support, and revised Medicaid reimbursement are needed to better support continuity of care and promote discharge for nursing home residents with complex care needs. Future research could examine individual and family perspectives on the discharge process and track outcomes when transitioning between settings.

Implementing an Interdisciplinary Intergenerational Program Using the Cyber Seniors ® Reverse Mentoring Model Within Higher Education

ABSTRACT Intergenerational service-learning in higher education positively affects older adults and students, but little is known about the effectiveness of interdisciplinary, reverse mentoring programs that use technology as the medium of bringing generations together. This study describes an intergenerational service-learning program that utilizes reverse mentoring within higher education, the “Engaging Generations Program,” at a midsized public university in New England where students help older adults learn about technology, and students gain communication and teaching skills. In this article, we outline how the program was implemented, present quantitative data on participation outcomes for students and older adults and qualitative data from older adults, and discuss best practices. Analysis of pre/post surveys found that students’ attitudes toward aging improved (p < 0.01) and older adults interest in technology improved (p < 0.05) after program participation. Best practices identified included: multiple meetings with the same pair to deepen friendships, in-person training for student leaders, student responsibility for scheduling, tailoring sessions to each participant, student documentation of meetings, and active involvement by community partners.

Factors Predicting Civic Engagement among Older Adult Nursing Home Residents

ABSTRACT This study examined civic engagement participation among older adult nursing home residents and determined resident characteristics that predict group membership, resident council participation, informal volunteering, and voting. Residents (N = 139) answered questions from standardized surveys during in-person interviews. The most common civic engagement activity was membership in social/community groups. Logistic regression results showed that emotional well-being and social support predict group membership and resident council participation. Age and activities of daily living predict volunteering. Study findings suggest that community groups could utilize residents in their efforts, and that future research should determine supports and adaptations for increasing civic engagement among residents.

Gerontological Social Work Roles in Disaster Preparedness and Response

While natural and manmade disasters have always existed, the increase in the frequency of disaster events, growing evidence that older adults are disproportionately negatively impacted by disasters, and a larger number of older adults comprising the world’s population have compelled us to write this letter to the editor to consider social work’s role in enhancing older adults’ well-being and safety in disaster events. While social workers in the U.S. are often not explicitly trained for disasters, their experience in assessing community strengths and needs, crisis response, and their ability to organize disparate groups has prepared them to contribute to municipal disaster planning. Social workers must consider the unique needs of older adults across the three crisis event phases: pre-disaster preparedness, post-disaster response, and long term disaster recovery.

Implementing Reverse Mentoring to Address Social Isolation Among Older Adults

ABSTRACT Reverse mentoring is a means to address the social work Grand Challenge of social isolation. Among older adults, reverse mentoring can improve social connection by increasing the digital competence of older adults so they can use technology for social benefit, and by facilitating intergenerational connections with young adult mentors. In this paper, reverse mentoring is examined within an intergenerational program that serves older adults and utilizes the native technological knowledge and skills of young adults who mentor older adult participants. Qualitative data were collected through young adult mentor logs of each session, and through open-ended questions on the post-surveys collected from older adults and young adult mentors. Qualitative analysis revealed three themes related to social connection: (1) an increased sense of self-efficacy for older adults as they build confidence in technological use, and for young adults as they develop leadership skills through mentoring, (2) the breaking down of age-related stereotypes, and (3) intergenerational engagement and connection. The findings demonstrate that reverse mentoring can be used in various settings to decrease the social isolation of older adults by developing intergenerational connections and increasing older adult usage of technology.

Assessment of Multiple Constructs of Social Integration for Older Adults Living in Nursing Homes

ABSTRACT A variety of terms and measures have been used in the literature to denote being socially integrated, and many studies of older adults focus on only social networks or social support and often only include those living in the community. The purpose of this study was to assess multiple constructs of social integration (i.e., social networks, social capital, social support, and social engagement) for older adults in nursing homes. Data were collected from 140 older adults at 30 nursing homes in Kansas. We interviewed older adults’ in-person using a survey questionnaire, and used multilevel confirmatory factor analysis to analyze the data. The final model that included the four constructs had acceptable fit (χ2 = 174.71; df = 112; p < .01; CFI = .93; RMSEA = .06; SRMR-W = .06; SRMR-B = .12). The results showed that the proposed model was supported at the individual level. At the between-level, social networks and social support were supported. Study results have methodological and practice/policy implications for the study of older adults in long term care settings. In particular, this study contributes to understanding how to operationally define and differentiate social integration variables in studies of older adults, particularly when study data are hierarchical.

Awaken Your AgePotential: Exploring Chosen Paths of Thrivers, by Lori Campbell

Lori Campbell, a gerontologist, qualitative researcher, and entrepreneur, writes the book, Awaken Your AgePotential, Exploring Chosen Paths of Thrivers, as an expert in wellness and aging. She has coined the term AgePotential, a concept intended to closely associate age with ideas of growth and possibility. Similar to other visionaries who have used metaphors to shift societal views about aging (e.g., Dychtwald, 1999; Wallace, 1999), this book was written to motivate readers to think of aging as an opportunity and work towards a cultural shift in how people behave as they age. The book introduces key ideas and action steps, provides examples of success stories, and concludes with a call to action to embrace the ideals of the book. Campbell begins the book by describing differences between thriving older adults (thrivers) and non-thrivers. In gerontological literature, thriving has been described as a concept that exists on a continuum. Along the continuum, “individuals grow and develop at different rates and in different ways based on interactions with the environment and the ongoing development of self” (Haight, Barba, Tesh, & Courts, 2002, p. 15). In the book, thrivers are described as individuals who have endured similar pain, loss, and hardship as others but are different in the way they choose to perceive and respond to the world. Thrivers believe they can influence how they age by taking responsibility for their health and choosing to live passionate, goal-driven lives. In contrast, non-thrivers have succumbed to societal stereotypes of aging and society’s preoccupation with youth. They take a passive approach to aging and often die with untapped talent and unlived potential. Through her research and personal experience, Campbell argues that she has identified Generation AgePotential, “a group of people of mixed ages who are redefining what it means to age by taking ownership of their lives, embracing their chronological age by reimaging their psychological age, seeing a potential to make a difference, and capitalizing on that opportunity” (p. 8), and these individuals can serve as role models for others with the ultimate goal being a dramatic shift in how society grows older. Connecting her concepts to research, Campbell’s second chapter includes information from various research studies and technical reports as