News About Aging

By Constance Garcia-Barrio

Waiting for a donor organ can leave patients caught between hope and desperation, says heart transplant recipient Janet Dennis. “I lived in the University of Pennsylvania hospital for six and a half weeks, waiting for a donor heart,” says Dennis, 63, a social worker retired from the city of Philadelphia. “I was blessed. Twenty-two people die every single day in the U.S. while waiting for a donor organ.”

By Barbara Sherf

Longtime volunteer Bob Rossman, who retired as a computer programmer more than 15 years ago, has some tips for those looking to take on volunteer responsibilities. Rossman, 75, who has lived in Northwest Philadelphia for 40 years, enjoys a mix of volunteer activities that includes serving on several boards, as well as working with his hands.

By Barbara Sherf

New York Opera and Broadway singer Leigh Munro, who teaches “Singing for Seniors” at her Chestnut Hill Voice Studio, is amazed at the volunteer ideas one can find on the internet.

By Constance Garcia-Barrio

When Betty Ann Fellner’s surgeon okayed her to start physical therapy after a 2011 hip replacement, she felt relieved at clearing a major health hurdle. But her physical therapist uncovered a shocking new problem.

Nominate a community member you think deserves to be recognized for his or her effort and support of the elderly.

• Fusing Biodiversity Metrics into Investigations of Daily Life: Illustrations and Recommendations With Emodiversity.  Lizbeth Benson, Nilam Ram, David M Almeida, Alex J Zautra, Anthony D Ong.  The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, Volume 73, Issue 1, January 2018, Pages 75–86.  Published online: March 30, 2017.  Functionalist emotion and ecological systems theories suggest emodiversity—the variety and relative abundance of individuals’ emotion experiences—is beneficial for psychological and physical health and may change with age.
• Evaluation of Rewind Yoga on Physical Function Outcomes in Older Adults: A Preliminary Study.  Andrew I. Miller, Cheryl Der Ananian, Carrie Hensley  & Heidi Ungar.  Activities, Adaptation & Aging,  Volume 41, 2017 – Issue 4, Pages 291-300.  Published online:  July 6, 2017.  Few yoga programs tailored to the unique needs of older adults exist. Rewind Yoga™ was created to address this gap and a pilot study was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of the program on physical function parameters.

In 1994, with years of social activism under his belt, Ray Torres joined a delegation from the First United Methodist Church of Germantown (FUMCOG) as a volunteer to aid Fondwa, a village in southern Haiti. Led by the vision of “Father Joseph” Phillipe, a Haitian Catholic priest, Torres became a key member of the group that helped to raise seed capital to start a bank, Fonkoze. “The bank provides micro-loans to the organized poor in Fondwa,” says Torres, a retired psychiatric social worker. “Fonkoze began with one office and three employees and has grown to 46 branches nationwide and 230,000 members.”

It’s a Thursday morning, and water is sim­mering in two big stainless steel pots on the stove at Philadelphia Episcopal Cathedral. Volunteers from the church and community chop cauliflower, carrots, scallions, onions, garlic and celery. Pungent scents of turmeric, nutmeg and cumin suffuse the small room. This communal soup-making venture is one of a series of intergenerational cooking ses­sions sponsored by Food & Company, a project of Ralston Center’s Age-Friendly West Philadelphia Initiative.

• Visitors and Resident Autonomy: Spoken and Unspoken Rules in Assisted Living.  Colleen R. Bennett, MS, MA, Ann Christine Frankowski PhD, Robert L. Rubinstein PhD, Amanda D. Peeples PhD, Rosa Perez MEd, Mary Nemec MSW, Gretchen G. Tucker MA.  The Gerontologist, April 2017, Volume 57, Issue 2, pages 252-260.
• Mobilizing Older People to Address Climate Change.  Karl Pillemer PhD, David Filiberto PhD.  Public Policy and Aging Report, 2017, Volume 27, Issue 1, pages 18-21.