Generation Reinvention 53: Boomers, Aging, and Long-Term Psychological and Social Wellbeing

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I recently conducted two workshops in Colorado Springs for the Chamber of Commerce and a unique day-long conference called the Business of Aging Summit. Colorado Springs community leaders are embracing the aging of the Boomer generation as an opportunity, and many living there are intent upon making this community one of the nation’s best for retirement and aging.

My guest is Dr. Sara Honn Qualls, professor of psychology and aging studies, and Director of the Gerontology Center at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs.

She led the development of the doctoral program in clinical psychology that emphasizes Geropsychology. We’ll talk about geropsychology and its implications for you as a caregiver or for yourself as you age. She also helped found the CU Aging Center where students learn to provide mental health and family interventions for older adults.

She founded a unique collaboration between UCCS and the Palisades at Broadmoor Park, a privately owned senior residential community, where faculty and students create cutting-edge wellness programs using innovative technologies. We’re also going to discuss this interesting intersection between private enterprise and academia.

As a clinician, Dr. Qualls developed Caregiver Family Therapy that integrates existing empirically based interventions with family therapy principles. What do aging parents mean to family dynamics? What are the pitfalls? What are the opportunities for better collaboration between siblings?

She has served in leadership roles within the American Psychological Association, including chairing the Committee on Aging, and serving on the Presidential Task Force on Caregiving.

Dr. Qualls has published several books in geropsychology, including Aging and Mental Health, a Clinical Geropsychology series for clinicians, and her most recent book that describes the work of the team at CU Aging Center on Caregiver Family Therapy is in press.

Her research currently is studying the family caregiver therapy intervention, technology interventions designed to produce prosocial behavior in older adults and families, and senior housing wellness models. What’s prosocial behavior? We’ll find out.

CHECK OUT DR. SARA QUALLS BOOK AND WEBSITE

http://www.uccs.edu/~agingcenter/