Gerontology International synthesis conference 2009 - Nippon Care-Fit Service Association

Greetings and an Invitation

Edward F. Ansello, Ph.D.
Past President, Association for Gerontology in Higher Education

The Gerontology International Synthesis Conference in Okinawa in 2007, one part of the DaVinci Kigatsuku project, marked progress in the work of a team that for several years had been examining how we learn about aging if we are not old and how we realize our potential in later life if we are. I was privileged to serve as chief editor of the conference's Report.

The DaVinci Kigatsuku conference was so named to recognize some fundamental values that underlay this process of examination: "DaVinci" honors the quintessential Renaissance scholar whose art and scientific writings went beyond then-prevailing wisdom and convention; DaVinci "saw" with more than his senses, perceiving and understanding at a deeper level than his contemporaries did. "Kigatsuku" in Japanese conveys the value of doing the right thing without being told to do so. Together, these terms suggest that the original team and that conference's participants were embarking on a quest to redefine both what gerontology means and what should comprise a gerontology curriculum. I invite you most cordially to join in this quest at this International Synthesis meeting in India.

The experience of growing older varies around the world, qualified by varying degrees of health, education, socioeconomics, physical and intellectual abilities, supports and barriers, and so much more. Human aging is richly diverse, wildly complex, and increasingly variable over the advancing life course. People tend to grow less like their age mates as they grow older, becoming more and more like only themselves.

To try to capture this wondrous variability in a teaching curriculum requires gerontology to develop a multidisciplinary curriculum with broad, international applications. Such a curriculum should communicate, as well, that one's potential need not be denied by age, intellectual disability or physical impairment.

I commend all who participate here and acknowledge especially the vision of Dr. Ryo Takahashi and Nippon Care Fit Service Association for guiding us in this process.

AGHE PRESIDENT'S WELCOME MESSAGE

On behalf of the Association for Gerontology in Higher Education (AGHE) I would like to welcome you to the 2009 Gerontology International Synthesis Conference, "Youth is a Gift -Age is an Art". There will be many opportunities for colleagues and friends to come together to learn from one another by sharing your professional expertise in gerontology and geriatrics education. Also, this conference represents a turning point for the field of gerontology. Although we have western theories of aging and practices related to older adults, are we so sure that these are up to date or that they apply to older adults globally?

It is fitting that AGHE supports this conference. Our organization is fast becoming the international leader in advancing education on aging and is the only institutional membership organization devoted primarily to gerontology and geriatrics education since 1974. AGHE's mission is two-fold (1) To advance gerontology and geriatrics education in academic institutions; and (2) To provide leadership and support of gerontology and geriatrics education faculty and students in educational institutions. We accomplish this by working with institutions of higher education to assist them with: (1) preparing service delivery personnel who will work directly with older adults; (2) training educators who specialize in the physical, psycho-social, and policy domains of aging; (3) educating the society at large about the processes of aging and the implications of an aging society; and (4) instructing older adults seeking to maximize their options in a complex and challenging age. AGHE is the Educational Unit of The Gerontological Society of America (GSA), which offers individual memberships and promotes as well as advances research and scholarship on aging.

In addition, AGHE is fortunate to be invited to participate in the shaping of the "Leonardo Da Vinci Age Project" and assist with designing an education model that applies to global aging. This international, interdisciplinary and inter-professional model promises to be at the forefront of new educational ideas and practices in the field of aging. It is a privilege to work with some extraordinary leaders in gerontology who challenge themselves to think beyond our current educational paradigms in aging to create a far more global and elder focused model.

Planning and implementing an extensive meeting such as this one takes the efforts of so many people. I wish to commend the organizers and supporters of this conference and especially thank Ryo Takahashi, Conference Director, for his countless hours, professional expertise, and passion in gerontology. It is this passion that has been shared with leaders within AGHE and other colleagues that will make this conference and the Leonardo da Vinci Age Project successful.

I hope you make the most of the 2009 Gerontology International Synthesis Conference and then apply your expertise and interests to make the world a better place for older adults through advancing education and training on aging!

Marilyn R. Gugliucci, MA, PhD, AGSF, GSAF, AGHEF
President, Association for Gerontology in Higher Education
Washington, DC, USA

Journal of Policy and Practice in Intellectual Disabilities

The official journal of the International Association for the Scientific Study of Intellectual Disabilities

It is my pleasure to offer this note of congratulations to the organizers of this conference for their vision and enthusiasm in pursuit of raising the awareness of the issues facing people with disabilities as they age and increasing the opportunities to institute training and education in matters of gerontology in their educational institutions. For this, the faculty at Andhra University, together with the Nippon Care-Fit Association and the Lebenshilfe for the Mentally Handicapped, are to be commended for their leadership.

Interest in the problems and challenges facing people with lifelong disabilities has been around for some time, but was given a significant boost by the World Health Organization (WHO), when in 1999 it held a seminal meeting on promoting longevity and healthy aging among older people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The reports that emanated from that effort have been circulated around the world and have had a significant impact in raising the level of knowledge and awareness about this challenge. As the leading force in founding the special interest research group on aging within the International Association for the Scientific Study of Intellectual Disabilities (IASSID) and the principal stimulus behind the WHO meeting, I am pleased to see this effort being continued in India through the auspices of the fine organizations sponsoring this conference.

Now, as the editor of the IASSID's host journal, the Journal of Policy and Practice in Intellectual Disabilities (JPPID), and in my role as a research professor and director for technical assistance at the University of Illinois at ChicagoAfs Rehabilitation Research and Training Center on Aging with Developmental Disabilities-Lifespan Health and Function I am pleased to have been asked to have a role at this inaugural effort to examine aging and its effects on disability and to facilitate an expansive effort to introduce the study of gerontology into the education of this fine nation's professionals, clinicians, and service workers.

In my role as the editor of JPPID, it is my hope that this conference will also be the stimulus for an increased submission rate of research and policy reports to the journal so that both the nation of India benefits from their dissemination and readers worldwide better understand and appreciate the excellent efforts being undertaken in India. My best wishes for a very successful conference, and more important, for the many new endeavors that will result from it.

mjanicki
Matthew P. Janicki, Ph.D.

	\| Home \| Theme & Guest Speakers \| Introduction \| Schedule \| Travel Information \| Greeting Message \| \| Registration Fees \| Call for Papers/Posters \| Art Activity \| About The City \| Japanese \|
	*Greetings and an Invitation* Edward F. Ansello, Ph.D. Past President, Association for Gerontology in Higher Education The Gerontology International Synthesis Conference in Okinawa in 2007, one part of the DaVinci Kigatsuku project, marked progress in the work of a team that for several years had been examining how we learn about aging if we are not old and how we realize our potential in later life if we are. I was privileged to serve as chief editor of the conference's Report. The DaVinci Kigatsuku conference was so named to recognize some fundamental values that underlay this process of examination: "DaVinci" honors the quintessential Renaissance scholar whose art and scientific writings went beyond then-prevailing wisdom and convention; DaVinci "saw" with more than his senses, perceiving and understanding at a deeper level than his contemporaries did. "Kigatsuku" in Japanese conveys the value of doing the right thing without being told to do so. Together, these terms suggest that the original team and that conference's participants were embarking on a quest to redefine both what gerontology means and what should comprise a gerontology curriculum. I invite you most cordially to join in this quest at this International Synthesis meeting in India. The experience of growing older varies around the world, qualified by varying degrees of health, education, socioeconomics, physical and intellectual abilities, supports and barriers, and so much more. Human aging is richly diverse, wildly complex, and increasingly variable over the advancing life course. People tend to grow less like their age mates as they grow older, becoming more and more like only themselves. To try to capture this wondrous variability in a teaching curriculum requires gerontology to develop a multidisciplinary curriculum with broad, international applications. Such a curriculum should communicate, as well, that one's potential need not be denied by age, intellectual disability or physical impairment. I commend all who participate here and acknowledge especially the vision of Dr. Ryo Takahashi and Nippon Care Fit Service Association for guiding us in this process. *AGHE PRESIDENT'S WELCOME MESSAGE* On behalf of the Association for Gerontology in Higher Education (AGHE) I would like to welcome you to the 2009 Gerontology International Synthesis Conference, "Youth is a Gift -Age is an Art". There will be many opportunities for colleagues and friends to come together to learn from one another by sharing your professional expertise in gerontology and geriatrics education. Also, this conference represents a turning point for the field of gerontology. Although we have western theories of aging and practices related to older adults, are we so sure that these are up to date or that they apply to older adults globally? It is fitting that AGHE supports this conference. Our organization is fast becoming the international leader in advancing education on aging and is the only institutional membership organization devoted primarily to gerontology and geriatrics education since 1974. AGHE's mission is two-fold (1) To advance gerontology and geriatrics education in academic institutions; and (2) To provide leadership and support of gerontology and geriatrics education faculty and students in educational institutions. We accomplish this by working with institutions of higher education to assist them with: (1) preparing service delivery personnel who will work directly with older adults; (2) training educators who specialize in the physical, psycho-social, and policy domains of aging; (3) educating the society at large about the processes of aging and the implications of an aging society; and (4) instructing older adults seeking to maximize their options in a complex and challenging age. AGHE is the Educational Unit of The Gerontological Society of America (GSA), which offers individual memberships and promotes as well as advances research and scholarship on aging. In addition, AGHE is fortunate to be invited to participate in the shaping of the "Leonardo Da Vinci Age Project" and assist with designing an education model that applies to global aging. This international, interdisciplinary and inter-professional model promises to be at the forefront of new educational ideas and practices in the field of aging. It is a privilege to work with some extraordinary leaders in gerontology who challenge themselves to think beyond our current educational paradigms in aging to create a far more global and elder focused model. Planning and implementing an extensive meeting such as this one takes the efforts of so many people. I wish to commend the organizers and supporters of this conference and especially thank Ryo Takahashi, Conference Director, for his countless hours, professional expertise, and passion in gerontology. It is this passion that has been shared with leaders within AGHE and other colleagues that will make this conference and the Leonardo da Vinci Age Project successful. I hope you make the most of the 2009 Gerontology International Synthesis Conference and then apply your expertise and interests to make the world a better place for older adults through advancing education and training on aging! Marilyn R. Gugliucci, MA, PhD, AGSF, GSAF, AGHEF President, Association for Gerontology in Higher Education Washington, DC, USA *Journal of Policy and Practice in Intellectual Disabilities* The official journal of the International Association for the Scientific Study of Intellectual Disabilities It is my pleasure to offer this note of congratulations to the organizers of this conference for their vision and enthusiasm in pursuit of raising the awareness of the issues facing people with disabilities as they age and increasing the opportunities to institute training and education in matters of gerontology in their educational institutions. For this, the faculty at Andhra University, together with the Nippon Care-Fit Association and the Lebenshilfe for the Mentally Handicapped, are to be commended for their leadership. Interest in the problems and challenges facing people with lifelong disabilities has been around for some time, but was given a significant boost by the World Health Organization (WHO), when in 1999 it held a seminal meeting on promoting longevity and healthy aging among older people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The reports that emanated from that effort have been circulated around the world and have had a significant impact in raising the level of knowledge and awareness about this challenge. As the leading force in founding the special interest research group on aging within the International Association for the Scientific Study of Intellectual Disabilities (IASSID) and the principal stimulus behind the WHO meeting, I am pleased to see this effort being continued in India through the auspices of the fine organizations sponsoring this conference. Now, as the editor of the IASSID's host journal, the Journal of Policy and Practice in Intellectual Disabilities (JPPID), and in my role as a research professor and director for technical assistance at the University of Illinois at ChicagoAfs Rehabilitation Research and Training Center on Aging with Developmental Disabilities-Lifespan Health and Function I am pleased to have been asked to have a role at this inaugural effort to examine aging and its effects on disability and to facilitate an expansive effort to introduce the study of gerontology into the education of this fine nation's professionals, clinicians, and service workers. In my role as the editor of JPPID, it is my hope that this conference will also be the stimulus for an increased submission rate of research and policy reports to the journal so that both the nation of India benefits from their dissemination and readers worldwide better understand and appreciate the excellent efforts being undertaken in India. My best wishes for a very successful conference, and more important, for the many new endeavors that will result from it. mjanicki Matthew P. Janicki, Ph.D.