The Meaning of Aging Successfully
It’s common to read and hear about “successful” aging or aging well, and yet there is rarely any attempt to explain what it really means. This is something the University of Wisconsin-Superior’s Healthy Minds, Healthy Bodies in the Second Half of Life conference hopes to change.
“This conference is really about replacing the stereotypes of aging as a time of loss, decline and dependency with an image that more accurately portrays the lived experience of most older adults – engaged, fulfilled, creative, productive,” said Esther Gieschen, program manager at the Center for Continuing Education.
Starting its ninth year, the conference will be held on Thursday, Feb. 19, from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at Barkers Island Inn & Convention Center in Superior. Price starts at a $35 community rate and runs to $110 for medical field professionals.
The conference will focus on how personal perceptions of aging effect how we, ourselves, age and how we interact with and care for older adults.
The morning keynote session, Views from Inside the Experience of Successful Aging, will be presented by Bruce McBeath, Ph.D. McBeath is a clinical psychologist practicing within an existential-phenomenological perspective with an emphasis on the psychology of aging and author of a new book Reflections on Aging – Greeting the Changing Face in the Mirror.
The afternoon keynote session, Computer Based “Brain Games:” A Review of the Evidence, will be presented by Kimberly Mueller, MS, an associate researcher with the Wisconsin Alzheimer’s Institute where she conducts research related to early changes in communication and language in Alzheimer’s disease. In addition to a look at The Fascinating World of Centenarians with Robert Hensley, Ph.D. and a chance to create balance and healing though the Practice of Qigong led by Michele Raskovich, COTA, ADC, conference participants will hear firsthand about successful and creative aging from panels of local experts – people from our community who are engaged, fulfilled, and productive in “the second-half of life.”
For more information or to register, call (715) 394-8469 or visit the website: Healthy Minds, Healthy Bodies in the Second Half of Life conference.
Source: Esther Gieschen, Center of Continuing Education, (715) 394-8529
