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As aging-related topics become more prominent in the public discourse, gerontologists are increasingly sought out to provide expert commentary. And GSA members are stepping into the role to great effect.
In January, past GSA President Jack Rowe joined The New Yorker Radio Hour for a program to discuss age and the fitness for office of presidential candidates. This subject is likely to be talked about increasingly as we approach the next election, and gerontologists need to be prepared to confront the ageism that underlies the public discourse.
Recognizing excellence in any given field is a key role for professional societies, and this is one that GSA is proud to play. Through April 2, we are accepting nominations for nearly two dozen prestigious awards for gerontological achievements.
The latest issue of Public Policy & Aging Report — “COVID-19 Recovery: Lessons Learned and Policy Action for the Future” illustrates the challenge of developing and implementing policies to address something as complex as a pandemic. This issue is organized by GSA’s Health Sciences (HS) Section. The final result is a collection of articles that showcase the importance of policy issues and proposed solutions coming from the perspective of what matters to older adults, their families, and care partners.
The topic of caregiving has a way of continually rising to the top of our national conversation, including from some unexpected places. Lost in the maelstrom of the 24-hour news cycle was the role that concerns around family caregiving played in a threatened, but thankfully avoided, national rail strike in mid-September. Railway employees were seeking contract changes that would provide adequate sick leave to take care of themselves and leave to support family caregiving.
The Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (ODPHP) within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has designated GSA as a Healthy People 2030 Champion. This means that GSA has demonstrated a commitment to helping achieve the Healthy People 2030 vision of a society in which all people can achieve their full potential for health and well-being across the lifespan.
Resulting from the first call for papers of its kind, The Gerontologist has published a new special issue, “Social Determinants of Health in the Context of Race and Age,” which offered those with an interest in intersectional scholarship an opportunity to apply non-traditional theories, methods, and analysis to the study of gerontology.
The eleventh edition of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11), developed by the World Health Organization, was rolled out at the beginning of this year. Among its new revisions were some items that caught the attention of the gerontological community: “old age” being classified under general symptoms and an extension code for “aging-related.”
According to the most recent issue of Public Policy & Aging Report (PP&AR), titled “A World with Alzheimer’s Disease,” there is a large and growing gap between what can be done to help persons with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD) and their caregivers and what is actually being done, and this gap only widens with the lack of public education, provider training, and implementation of proven care approaches.
Since its inception in February 2021, the UNITE initiative at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has been working to identify and address structural racism within the NIH-supported and the greater scientific community, and to establish an equitable and civil culture within the biomedical research enterprise and reduce barriers to racial equity in the biomedical research workforce.
As part of this work, the initiative has been conducting a series of public online sessions to present the latest data and ideas on diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility in the biomedical workforce and in research, and featuring leaders from the NIH community as well as other experts from the biomedical research community.
As busy researchers, clinicians, and educators, the time you have available for other professional endeavors is limited. Yet so many GSA members make the time to be fully engaged with their Society, strengthening the field daily.
So during this Volunteer Appreciation Week, we’re celebrating YOU as GSA could not move forward without the volunteer commitments of its members. GSA President Peter Lichtenberg says it best in a new video he’s recorded especially for this occasion.
© The Gerontological Society of America 2022 and all prior years. All rights reserved.
The Gerontological Society of America
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Phone: (202) 842-1275
Email: membership@geron.org
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