Older Workers in Boston: An Age-Friendly Perspective

As this report makes clear, work challenges experienced by older people are not uncommon in Boston. Retraining and upgrading skills are required for some people to retain or secure employment. For those who have not participated in job search for some time, support with job seeking strategies may be necessary. Programs that also offer socioemotional support are helpful to some older job-seekers. Yet while training and job search support is an important part of the solution, these are not the only targets of intervention required. Employers need to be educated about successful strategies that will help them to retain their older employees, and ways to recruit new employees who will contribute to the age diversity of their organizations. To support this effort, employers need to be included in the conversation and recruited as part of the solution. Tackling ageism at work and throughout all sectors will further contribute to strengthening work outcomes. Promoting age-friendly workplaces throughout Boston can successfully contribute to improving the Boston employment landscape for older residents

From Data to Community Action: A Case Study Building on the Massachusetts Healthy Aging Community Profiles

The Healthy Aging movement is a driver in the promotion of Evidence-Based programs such as Chronic Disease Self- Management (CDSMP) programs related to falls prevention and diabetes. Such programs are critical in any recommendations for short or long term interventions to communities to address challenges to aging well

High-Frequency Dynamics of Ocean pH: A Multi-Ecosystem Comparison

The effect of Ocean Acidification (OA) on marine biota is quasi-predictable at best. While perturbation studies, in the form of incubations under elevated pCO2, reveal sensitivities and responses of individual species, one missing link in the OA story results from a chronic lack of pH data specific to a given species' natural habitat. Here, we present a compilation of continuous, high-resolution time series of upper ocean pH, collected using autonomous sensors, over a variety of ecosystems ranging from polar to tropical, open-ocean to coastal, kelp forest to coral reef. These observations reveal a continuum of month-long pH variability with standard deviations from 0.004 to 0.277 and ranges spanning 0.024 to 1.430 pH units. The nature of the observed variability was also highly site-dependent, with characteristic diel, semi-diurnal, and stochastic patterns of varying amplitudes. These biome-specific pH signatures disclose current levels of exposure to both high and low dissolved CO2, often demonstrating that resident organisms are already experiencing pH regimes that are not predicted until 2100. Our data provide a first step toward crystallizing the biophysical link between environmental history of pH exposure and physiological resilience of marine organisms to fluctuations in seawater CO2. Knowledge of this spatial and temporal variation in seawater chemistry allows us to improve the design of OA experiments: we can test organisms with a priori expectations of their tolerance guardrails, based on their natural range of exposure. Such hypothesis-testing will provide a deeper understanding of the effects of OA. Both intuitively simple to understand and powerfully informative, these and similar comparative time series can help guide management efforts to identify areas of marine habitat that can serve as refugia to acidification as well as areas that are particularly vulnerable to future ocean change

The Role of the Environmental Context in Advance Care Planning among Older Adults

Research has focused on various individual characteristics associated with advance care planning (ACP), but little is known about how the environment context is associated with ACP. This study examined the role of environmental characteristics in ACP by addressing three key aims: 1) examine the independent effects of environmental factors on ACP, 2) assess the moderating effects of environmental factors on the associations between ACP and individual household income and educational attainment, and 3) conduct a longitudinal examination of ACP and environmental characteristics. I combined individual ACP information from the 2004 and 2011 waves of the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study with county level characteristics from publicly available datasets (i.e., Dartmouth Atlas, US Census Bureau, and the Area Health Resource File). Multilevel models showed that several environmental factors were associated with ACP, including county level sociodemographic (e.g., rurality, age composition, prevalence of one-person households) and healthcare-related characteristics (e.g., number of hospice agencies, Medicare reimbursement rates). Environmental factors also revealed moderating effects in the associations between ACP and individual household income and educational attainment. Moreover, results indicated longitudinal effects of environmental characteristics in obtaining ACP status over time. Findings from this study suggest that the environmental context of an individual’s residence can impact their engagement in ACP, even after controlling for their individual characteristics. Evidence from this study may be used to target areas for, and guide the design of, effective intervention strategies to help increase ACP at an environmental level

The Examination of Determinants And Barriers To End-Of-Life Decision Making and Planning

As individuals are living longer, in many cases with chronic diseases, there is an increased focus on end-of-life (EOL) planning and decision making. This includes a broad spectrum of choices including advance care planning (ACP) and turning to palliative care or hospice care. Although there has been an increase in palliative and hospice care enrollment and ACP engagement over the past decade, participation remains low for certain subgroups of the population. The purpose of this symposium is to offer insight into reasons for these varying rates of engagement by exploring determinants and barriers to EOL decision making and planning and by examining caregiver knowledge of EOL decision making and planning from the service provider perspective. The first three studies examine various types of influences in EOL decision making and planning. Inoue and colleagues explore factors associated with the length of hospice stay, and Gaines and colleagues examine the impact of environmental characteristics in ACP. Ornstein and colleagues use Denmark registry data to assess the role of kinlessness at the time of death in EOL decision making and healthcare utilization. The final presentation by Noh and colleagues examines how service providers in rural areas perceive community residents’ knowledge of ACP and palliative care. The discussion following these presentations will compare findings across different forms of EOL decision making and planning, consider the impact of the varying methodological approaches used, and highlight implications of these works for potential interventions and policies related to EOL decision making and planning

The Examination of Determinants And Barriers To End-Of-Life Decision Making and Planning

As individuals are living longer, in many cases with chronic diseases, there is an increased focus on end-of-life (EOL) planning and decision making. This includes a broad spectrum of choices including advance care planning (ACP) and turning to palliative care or hospice care. Although there has been an increase in palliative and hospice care enrollment and ACP engagement over the past decade, participation remains low for certain subgroups of the population. The purpose of this symposium is to offer insight into reasons for these varying rates of engagement by exploring determinants and barriers to EOL decision making and planning and by examining caregiver knowledge of EOL decision making and planning from the service provider perspective. The first three studies examine various types of influences in EOL decision making and planning. Inoue and colleagues explore factors associated with the length of hospice stay, and Gaines and colleagues examine the impact of environmental characteristics in ACP. Ornstein and colleagues use Denmark registry data to assess the role of kinlessness at the time of death in EOL decision making and healthcare utilization. The final presentation by Noh and colleagues examines how service providers in rural areas perceive community residents’ knowledge of ACP and palliative care. The discussion following these presentations will compare findings across different forms of EOL decision making and planning, consider the impact of the varying methodological approaches used, and highlight implications of these works for potential interventions and policies related to EOL decision making and planning

Autoethnography as a methodology in researching social problems

In this chapter, we will tell the reader about autoethnography as a research methodology and show its usefulness for researching social problems. In what follows we pedagogically define autoethnography, discuss its theoretical orientation, and the politics that underpin it. We also discuss varieties of autoethnography in the study of social problems, as well as some of its advantages and limitations. Then we reflexively examine autoethnography, providing a few examples. Finally, we close with an argument regarding the appropriateness of autoethnography as a method for showcasing social problems as lived, emotional experiences and as socially constructed realities

From Data to Community Action: A Case Study Building on the Massachusetts Healthy Aging Community Profiles

The Healthy Aging movement is a driver in the promotion of Evidence-Based programs such as Chronic Disease Self- Management (CDSMP) programs related to falls prevention and diabetes. Such programs are critical in any recommendations for short or long term interventions to communities to address challenges to aging well

Allyship Versus Accompliceship: Our Ethical Duty as Counselors

This presentation provides counselors in various levels of development and in various areas the tools to advocate for Black clients and communities. Being an accomplice is an anti-racist strategy and will improve our level of advocacy for communities experiencing racism. The authors will discuss allyship and how it is grounded in white privilege and white fragility. The authors will discuss how counselors can move from being an ally to being an accomplice