Gerontology News

The odds have never been better that you will live to be 100. Advances in health care, nutrition and technology are contributors to longer living. But does living longer mean living better? Researchers at UMass Lowell are tackling this issue. We asked them to help us understand why we’re living longer, and what’s at stake.

As babies and children and when we’re sick, disabled or dying, we all need care – and most of that care is provided by women working for low or no wages. It’s time to change that, according to speakers at the Global Carework Summit.

Alice Bonner ‘89, who spoke on campus to students, staff, faculty and community agency representatives at the recent third annual Healthy Aging-Living Well Forum, urged students to get involved in health policy.

Massachusetts Senior Care Foundation, in collaboration with the UMass Lowell School of Nursing, recently hosted its 6th annual Faculty Institute for Gerontological Nursing for nursing faculty across the Commonwealth.

A new “Interdisciplinary Experiential Learning” course gives students from five different majors — nursing, medical laboratory science, nutritional sciences, exercise physiology and public health — experience working in teams at Summit ElderCare in Lowell.

From improving rehabilitation for stroke survivors to reducing inflammation through diet in older adults, faculty members in the College of Health Sciences are conducting studies that have the potential to make a powerful impact on people’s lives.

Theatre arts students took on the role of patients to provide nursing students a safe environment to learn communication techniques that will help them deliver quality care.

Nursing students participating in the Co-op Scholars program had the chance to work one-on-one with patients and research medical technology.

While visiting her grandfather in a nursing home, Ryan Santosuosso felt a strong connection with him and the other residents. It was then that she decided to change her career from teaching children to caring for the elderly.

Nursing faculty received a $50,000 grant to develop a new education model with D’Youville Life and Wellness Community in Lowell, giving students hands-on experience in gerontological care.

Chair of the Nursing Department Karen Devereaux Melillo and Assoc. Dean of SHE Susan Crocker Houde co-edited a textbook that reflects the latest science of caring for older adults with psychiatric and mental health issues.