"Eyes and Ears Everywhere": Elder Abuse is Everyone's Business
Release Date: 06/03/2021
Just Keep Swimming
Aging Wisely: The Podcast
In this, the final English language episode of Season One, we meet Adam Galchus, currently studying for a Master's Degree in Special Education. Prior to commencing these studies, he obtained a Bachelor of Science in Music, with a concentration in Jazz and Commercial Music. He is also the composer of Aging Wisely: The Podcast theme music. Adam was born with a disability. Notwithstanding that, he and his parents found his gifts in the arts, specifically music. From the age of eight, his gift was cultivated and he began his journey to musicianship when he took up the drums...
info_outline
Doing the Work and Navigating Autism
Aging Wisely: The Podcast
Theresa Lyons is a Yale trained computational chemist who had her eyes set on a career on the corporate side of the pharmaceutical industry. She started on that journey, but life had other plans after the birth of her daughter. At the age of three she was diagnosed with autism and Dr. Lyons life would be forever altered. Dr. Lyons journey alongside her daughter was difficult but through of all of their hard word, they both came out on the other side of that dark tunnel. Today, Dr. Lyons works with families of children with autism. Her work is directly inspired by her daughter, her first...
info_outline
The New (Immigrant) Face of New York's Aging Population
Aging Wisely: The Podcast
While working at the Center for an Urban Future, Christian Gonzalez-Rivera undertook a research project that sought to really look at the ever present. growing AND aging immigrant population in New York City. The result is a report, "The New Face of New York's Seniors" that is incredibly comprehensive and looks at practically every aspect of what aging in a city means for its resident and the impact that it has on a population that, in many ways, struggled to adapt to a new city, not to mention county. What we learn is that while cities, like New York, can offer a lot to aging...
info_outline
Neighbors Taking Care of Neighbors: the NORC Aging in Place Model
Aging Wisely: The Podcast
In this episode you will meet Anne Foerg, a Geriatric Social Worker and a Program Manager at the NORC at Penn South, which is a naturally occurring retirement community in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan.
info_outline
Taking It "Step by Step:" The Journey through Special Education
Aging Wisely: The Podcast
Special Education can feel like you are running through a gauntlet. It may feel isolating, but it doesn't have to be, especially if you are educated on how the system works and what to realistically expect.
info_outline
"Eyes and Ears Everywhere": Elder Abuse is Everyone's Business
Aging Wisely: The Podcast
In this episode, Attorney Deirdre Lok from The Weinberg Center for Elder Justice in New York City, discusses elder abuse.
info_outline
Theatre is for Everyone: The A.B.L.E. Ensemble
Aging Wisely: The Podcast
Today you will meet Kathryn “Katie” Yohe, the co-founder and Executive Director of the A.B.L.E Ensemble, a Chicago-based performing arts non-profit that works with teenagers and young adults with cognitive and developmental disabilities, like down syndrome, autism, cerebral palsy-among others. Their members range from their mid-teens to their late twenties and early thirties.
info_outline
The Privilege of Practicing "Old People" Medicine
Aging Wisely: The Podcast
Veteran Geriatrician Jomarie Zeleznik, M.D. speaks openly about the practice of geriatric medicine.
info_outline
Living in the Present, Thinking of the Future: This Lawyer's Take on Incapacity
Aging Wisely: The Podcast
People think that an incapacity can never happen to them or someone they love. It's hard to ever think of ourselves or anyone else being in that situation.
info_outline
From Big Brother to Disability Services Professional
Aging Wisely: The Podcast
In this, the first episode of Season One, you will meet Bryan Connelly.
info_outlineIn this episode, Attorney Deirdre Lok from The Weinberg Center for Elder Justice in New York City, discusses a topic that many of us really don’t want to talk about- elder abuse. The abuse of older people.
It sounds unfathomable and cruel, doesn’t it? Unfortunately, it is all too real. Any person, under certain circumstances, can fall prey to elder abuse. It comes in quite a few forms and no two cases ever look the same.
The biggest culprit in elder abuse is…isolation. This is common for older people as their family and social circles becomes smaller as they age. Hence…the title of the episode, eyes and ears everywhere are needed.
One in ten Americans over the age of sixty have experienced a form of elder abuse. The highest estimate is around five million people. Even so, the total numbers of elder abuse cases are underreported. Some statistics put the number of cases reported at one out of twenty-four.
The most common is financial abuse but...it usually comes with other types. Abuse is never in isolation.
If you don’t understand elder abuse, want to learn or, perhaps, are interested in working with older people, Deirdre and Host Veronica Escobar, have a “soup to nuts” discussion about it all.
What is elder abuse? Who is affected by it? How does the justice system aid victims? What can they do better? How did the Weinberg Center come into existence and how do they help those who need it most? What kind of people does The Weinberg Center help? Can this model be replicated elsewhere? What can the public do to help?
Working with older people brings challenges but it is also yields tremendous personal (and professional) rewards. Work should have meaning and this work certainly does as well as impact.
The abuse of our aging population is everyone’s business.
We should all look out for one another, "Today for you and tomorrow for me."
To learn more about The Weinberg Center, go to: https://www.theweinbergcenter.org
To learn more about Aging Wisely: The Podcast, go to: https://www.agingwiselypodcast.com