November 2004

The Gerontological Society of America

Media update: GSA underscores hottest meeting topics

Note to Editors: The Gerontological Society of America will host its 2004 Annual Scientific Meeting in Washington, DC from November 19-23 at the Marriott Wardman Park and Omni Shoreham Hotels. Members of the press may register on-site in the Taft room of the Marriott.

Media Update: GSA Underscores Hottest Meeting Topics

Civic Engagement in Later Life: GSA's "Civic Engagement in an Older America" initiative takes shape at the annual meeting with a discussion on the untapped civic resource of older citizens. Since the session was announced, an expert panel has been assembled to present the surrounding issues to the public. Speakers include William Galston, Saul I. Stern Professor of Civic Engagement at the University of Maryland; Phyllis Moen of the University of Minnesota; Greg O'Neill, Director of GSA's civic engagement initiative; retirement expert Joe Quinn of Boston College; and Nancy Morrow-Howell, Professor of Social Work at Washington University in St. Louis. The symposium will be moderated by Rick Moody of AARP's Office of Academic Affairs.
November 21 at 10:30 a.m.

A Look at Dementia Homicides: Lethal violence involving patients with Alzheimer's disease and other dementias is rare, but it is an emerging public health challenge, with a long-lasting impact on family members and the communities where they occur. A small subset of dementia patients is capable of committing homicide or homicide-suicide, and a larger number are at risk of being killed by family caregivers. Donna Cohen of the University of South Florida will be on-hand to present some startling figures in this under-reported area of aging research. Her work has already attracted the attention of the US Senate Special Committee on Aging.
November 21 at 8:30 a.m.

The Nature of Age-Related Muscle Wasting: Michael Rennie of The University of Nottingham will lead an all-star presentation on a recent breakthrough they've made regarding the deficit underlying age-related muscle wasting. They will introduce of new concept of "amino acid resistance" in the elderly - an inability to use dietary protein due to defects in muscle sensing and signaling processes. The results of this study, set to be reported in the prestigious Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology Journal, suggest a new line of thinking for elderly protein intake and resistance exercise.
November 20 at 8:30 a.m.

Communicating with People with Alzheimer's Dementia: This session focuses on how people with Alzheimer's dementia (AD) and their normal conversation partners produce, interpret and understand language in various contexts and situations. The participants will each draw on or reference a longitudinal digital corpus of spontaneous conversation and narrative with speakers who have moderate to late moderate AD. Dena Shenk, Director of The University of North Carolina at Charlotte's Gerontology Program, will be joined by Heidi Hamilton and Steven Sabat of Georgetown University.
November 21 at 1:45 p.m.



For more meeting highlights, see: http://www.geron.org/press/2004meeting.htm

For the full program, see: http://www.eshow2000.com/geron/about_the_meeting.cfm




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