A synergistic moment
I know I may pay a bit more attention to Alzheimer’s and dementia than most people but it seems the world may be catching up with me! If the world is defined as central North Carolina, any way. It isn’t just that some recent events in town have spotlighted the perspective of people with dementia (through some of the events in the Center for Creative Aging – North Carolina‘s own Create & Celebrate) but then the local powerhouse research university, UNCG, has announced a conference for later this summer: Living Well with Memory Loss: Finding the Balance. If this isn’t enough to think that dementia is finally getting its due then consider the world of fiction. Not one but two books tackle this difficult subject: Still Alice by Lisa Genova and Samantha Harvey‘s The Wilderness. I rave about Still Alice every chance I get and now I’m eagerly awaiting my experience with Jake, the main character in Harvey’s novel. A recent book review in Books & Culture alerted me to Harvey’s book (thank you David Brooks for introducing me to them through your column!).
There are so many ways
I hate to use the cliche “points of light” but I haven’t had another image come to mind since this article was sent to me earlier today. Aging creatively is happening all over North Carolina, much less the country, and yet often it’s an accident that news of one fantastic program spreads beyonds its narrow audience or geographical area. In this case, it’s the New Horizon’s bands, a part of the Osher Life-Long Learning Institute at Duke University. The News & Observer (Raleigh) profiled their Spring Fling in a recent issue and it’s worth a read. Check it out!
Road Trip!
Tomorrow we travel to Washington, D. C. to attend the Open House for the National Center for Creative Aging (NCCA). The special guests are impressive: Dr. Gene Cohen, Maria Genne, Anthony Hyatt, and Stuart Kandell. There will be storytelling, drama, music, poetry and visuals to celebrate the new home of the NCCA. The Center will be partnering with the George Washington University’s Center on Aging, Health & Humanities. Dr. Jean Johnson, senior associate dean for GW’s School of Medicine and Health Sciences said “This is one of the most exciting partnerships. [It] will impact how we teach and think about aging, reaching beyond the GW Medical Center and extending to the national and global communities.”
This is exciting for us because we are the creative aging network for North Carolina! Our communities will benefit from the development of programs based on the research results coming from this partnership. We’ll let you know how the trip goes and what we learn!
To learn more about the Center for Creative Aging-North Carolina (CCA-NC) go to www.cca-nc.org and check us out!
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