Martha Holstein: Feminism and the Future of Aging

By Leigh Ann Hubbard
Conventional wisdom doesn’t mean much to Martha Holstein, PhD. “I never set out to be a devil’s advocate,” she says. She just happened to be one. “I always saw the opposite of what other people saw.”  Read more...

Falling through the Cracks: Grandmothers Raising Grandchildren

Increasing numbers of grandmothers across the United States are raising their grandchildren, many of them in poverty and grappling with a public assistance system not designed to meet their needs.  Read more...

What Is Old Age For?

By William Thomas, MD
Old age is humanity's greatest invention, and on an even deeper level, it invented us. Old age transformed the way our most distant ancestors gave birth, reared their young, lived together, and fed themselves. Later it propelled the development of culture, language, and society.  Read more...
 

Three-Generation Households: Are They History?

By Flora Davis
Nestled within the American psyche is a nostalgic image of a three-generation household: an older couple sitting by the fire with grandchildren playing about their feet while the children’s parents look on fondly. Yet in the 21st century, so few families include live-in grandparents that some social critics have accused Americans of abandoning the older generation. Surely, they scold, grown children usually took in their aging parents in the past.  Read more...
 

Health experts are talking about…

September 21, 2017 By Liz Seegert
Chronic loneliness affects more than 42 million people in the United States—more than one-third of the population. It’s becoming an epidemic—as big a public health threat as obesity, say researchers from Brigham Young University (BYU). And it could even increase your risk of dying early from dementia, depression, falls, high blood pressure or other serious health conditions.  Read more...

Dementia in Films: Getting It Right

September 14, 2017 By Maggie Sullivan
I loved the novel Still Alice because it was an accurate portrayal of Alzheimer’s disease. And the movie Still Alice got it right too.

I lead support groups for caregivers of people with Alzheimer’s so I was eager to find out what they thought of the movie.  Read more...