Beth Dugan on COVID-19 in Aging Populations: “Older People are Part of the Solution”

Posted on May 6, 2020 by stevensyre

This conversation with Gerontology associate professor Elizabeth Dugan was conducted by the McCormack Graduate School and first appeared on the UMass Boston News web page.

Q: Can we start by talking a bit about the aging population in Massachusetts and how it’s similar or different from other places facing the COVID-19 crisis?

Beth Dugan: I would say overall, we have more positives to work with. Here in Massachusetts, we have more than a million people who are 65 and older, so we have more older people than other states. And one thing that’s interesting to think about is that longevity is a new experience in terms of human development. We’re about the first or second generation where most people could expect to live to old age. Continue reading →

Gerontology MAS Student Kate Martin’s Quest to Improve Care Access for Vulnerable Patients

Posted on May 4, 2020 by stevensyre

Kate and Michael Martin, with parents Thomas and Susan Martin

Kate and Michael Martin, foreground, with their parents, Thomas and Susan Martin.

By Taryn Hojlo

Kate Martin and her family were exasperated. Her older brother, Michael, desperately needed professional care to help manage his health and daily needs. But there were few providers in Las Vegas who accepted Michael’s insurance, and even fewer who seemed capable of treating him with the same dignity and respect that other patients received without a second thought.

After a lifelong struggle with epilepsy, Michael had considerable physical and intellectual impairments. Although his condition made him eligible for Medicaid, finding local services that would accept it proved to be a struggle. Those that did often neglected to treat Michael as an individual and failed to involve him in the management of his own care. There were times when Michael wasn’t even addressed during his own appointments.

“He struggled pretty significantly with access to care and getting what he needed,” says Martin, a family physician who will be graduating from UMass Boston Gerontology’s Management of Aging Service masters program later this month. Continue reading →

The Virtual Semester: How UMass Gerontology Students are Adapting to Remote Learning While Campus Remains Closed

Posted on April 28, 2020 by stevensyre

STEP INTO MY OFFICE: Author Claire Wickersham turned her bedroom closet into a phone booth-sized office with a standing work station.

By Claire Wickersham

Students are making a lot of adjustments in the spring semester driven online by the COVID-19 pandemic. New technology and different work environments bring a whole new meaning to work and home life balance.

The good news: Many are adapting well to new ways of learning and working, often adding an element of creativity to the process.

For UMass Boston gerontology students, some classes are held in real-time via apps like Zoom, while others are recorded. Some use PowerPoint with voiceovers for slides. Assistantship work is being done off campus and meetings held virtually.

Some students have even gone home for the remainder of the semester. Continue reading →

Zoom Boom: Gerontology Department Moves Online to Conduct 5 Virtual PhD Dissertation Defenses in 4 Days

Posted on April 17, 2020 by stevensyre

The new dissertation defense (pets welcome): Clockwise from top left PhD candidate Hayley Gleason defending her dissertation, professor Edward Miller, associate professor Kathrin Boerner, PhD student Molly Wylie, LeadingAge LTSS Center @Mass Boston co-director Robyn Stone and Brandeis University professor Christine Bishop.

Years of work, study and preparation came down to this final step: Defending PhD dissertations to a series of faces on a computer screen.

Conversing with images of people, arranged like tiles on an electronic board, had become a suddenly familiar experience for millions of people as Zoom and other virtual meeting platforms replaced live gatherings amid the growing coronavirus threat. No doubt many PhD dissertation defenses took place that way as campuses shut down across the country in March.

But the UMass Boston Gerontology Department’s busy schedule put that virtual work-around to a serious test: Five remote dissertation defenses in a span of four days. Three of them took place through the morning and early afternoon of a single day.

PhD candidates Andrea Daddato, Danielle Waldron and Hayley Gleason all defended their dissertations on March 31. Yijung Kim followed on April 2 and Haowei Wang defended the following day. All were successful. Continue reading →

Gerontology Associate Professor Kathrin Boerner: Dealing with Grief After Death

Posted on February 21, 2020 by stevensyre

UMass Boston Gerontology associate professor Kathrin Boerner has spent much of her career researching a wide range of end-of-life issues. She was recently interviewed by MyRoche, a publication of the global health care company Roche Holding AG, about her work. The following transcript of the interview with MyRoche editor-in-chief Rebekka Schnell was first published in January.

Q: Why are you so focused on death?

Kathrin Boerner: Many people do indeed ask me about my concern with such depressing matters. But I don’t see it like that at all. I work on a topic that affects everyone, and that’s what makes it so relevant. What is more, it is fantastic to see the capacity people have to cope with terrible loss, and to help those who aren’t doing so well. Continue reading →

Gerontology MAS Grad Margaret Lutze a “Rising Star” in Eldercare Service

Posted on September 20, 2019 by stevensyre

By Taryn Hojlo

Many executives with distinguished careers in eldercare services can trace their earliest interest in the field to fond family memories. Count Margaret Lutze among them.

Lutze credits the close relationships she had with her grandparents as the foundation of her work in aging. A graduate of UMass Boston’s Management in Aging Services master’s program, she now serves as chief operating officer of the Good Shepherd Community Care hospice in Newton, Mass. She was recently honored with a Rising Star award at the 2019 McKnight’s Senior Living Women of Distinction ceremony.

But Lutze’s interest in the field goes far back, to those family memories and her high school years. As a senior, she spent her spring semester interning at a local nursing facility, helping staff organize activities and events for residents. After graduating from Tufts University with a sociology degree, Lutze quickly landed a job in aging services. Continue reading →

What I Did on My Summer Vacation: Busy Gerontology Students Mixed Work with Pleasure

Posted on September 11, 2019 by stevensyre

Summer is history.

Most of UMass Boston’s gerontology students enjoyed the vacation break and hopefully some even found their way to chairs on a beach. But many also worked on gerontology research projects, attended professional events or participated in fellowships at some point during the summer.

Haowei Wang, Adrita Barooah and Nidya Velasco Roldan all attended the prestigious RAND Summer Institute in Santa Monica, Calif. All said they had become interested in the institute based on recommendations of others. In particular, Sae Hwang Han and Yijung Kim had both traveled from UMass Boston to attend the institute the previous summer.

“It was a great opportunity to network and meet new people,” said Barooah. “Compared to a lot of big conferences, the RAND institute was more personal, which helped me get to know fellow attendees and their work better.” Continue reading →

Assistant Professor Qian Song Joins UMass Boston Gerontology Faculty

Posted on September 3, 2019 by stevensyre

By Martin Hansen-Verma

Qian Jasmine Song, a demographer and sociologist with broad research interests relating to the health of an aging population, has joined the UMass Boston’s Gerontology department faculty as an assistant professor.

Song, who most recently was a NIH/NIA postdoctoral fellow at the RAND Corporation, comes to the McCormack Graduate School from Santa Monica, Calif., with her husband and three-year-old son. After living in a variety of places across the U.S. over the past 12 years, she said had been looking forward to the move to Boston.

“It’s a very beautiful city,” she said. “The ethnic and intellectual diversity, and the whole Boston intellectual community are really attractive to me, as well.”

Song sees Boston as an ideal place to pursue her research interests, examining the effects of migration on physical and mental health outcomes of older adults. Continue reading →

Academic Life: The Education of a First-Year Gerontology PhD Student

Posted on May 22, 2019 by stevensyre

This is the final post in a series of stories about the academic experiences of a first-year UMass Boston gerontology PhD student.

By Caitlin Connelly

It happened in the blink of an eye.

My first year as a gerontology PhD student at UMass Boston is finished and it really did go by faster than I could have imagined. Those two semesters have been a great experience, but they were also filled with their fair share of highs and lows.

A few low periods revolved around panic over the amount of work that had to be crammed into what seemed like an impossibly short amount of time. But they were offset by many high points, like the opportunity to attend the Gerontological Society of America conference – something I have wanted to do for years! I went to presentations by scholars from around the globe and realized that they were talking about the theories and using statistics that I had been learning in my classes. It was such a neat opportunity that confirmed my choice to pursue further education in the field of gerontology. Continue reading →

Gerontology PhD Candidate Natalie Pitheckoff Examines Bonds Between Older Adults and Animals

Posted on April 16, 2019 by stevensyre

Natalie Pitheckoff with her rabbits, left to right, Gizmo, Sir Ziggy and Madame Bushwick

Call it the Domino effect.

Natalie Pitheckoff, a gerontology PhD candidate at UMass Boston, has spent years observing and studying the impact of pets on older adults, particularly those with Alzheimer’s or other dementias. Her proposed PhD dissertation involves analyzing the policies and practices of nursing homes when it comes to human-animal interactions.

Pitheckoff was recently awarded a dissertation grant to support her work from the UCLA Law School’s Animal Law and Policy Small Grants Program. The program is funded by Bob Barker, the retired television game show host and long-time animal rights supporter. Continue reading →

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