The Planning Committee invites presentation/workshop proposals for the 15th Annual Art & Science of Aging Conference.

This year’s theme—Rx for Healthy Aging —Prescriptions for older adults and pain management have been widely featured in the news in recent months. Building on this issue and the issues related to the complexities of care for many frail elders, the 15th annual Art & Science of Aging (2020) embraces a holistic theme “ RX”  (shorthand for ‘prescriptions) that features prescriptions for healthy aging in all dimensions of life – emotional, spiritual, social, physical, and mental. The conference seeks to offer sessions that focus on positive healthy aging strategies that professionals can foster on the part of their older clients. It also focuses on ways that any older adult can identify and adopt alternative approaches to managing chronic illnesses and pain, coping with end of life choices and many of the other challenges that are part and parcel of aging. Our purpose is to educate everyone – professional and consumer – with evidence-based prescriptions for healthy aging that they can adopt and adapt to their own circumstances. Of course, we also welcome workshops on other contemporary issues and topics that relate to aging and professional practice, such as pain management, infectious diseases/vaccinations for older adults, food justice, addiction, technology in the home and in health care, stress management/mindfulness, caregiving – spouses/children/others, health promotion – diet; exercise; brain health, and more, opioid and alcohol addictions and interventions, age-friendly and dementia-friendly communities, interprofessional practice and collaboration, or person-centered care, among others.

You are invited to propose a session yourself, with a team of other professionals, or to send this request on to others who may be interested. Every presenter of the workshop should fill in the Submission Form. However, you're not required to provide the information about your presentation, if it was previously submitted by your co-presenter.  Just let us know your co-presenters names and the theme of your workshop presentation.

Each workshop is a 1-hour ‘breakout’ sessions that run from 10:30 – 11:30; 1:00 – 2:00; or 2:15 – 3:15 on the day of the conference. As a Presenter, you will be ‘registered’ free of charge for the conference and may attend the entire conference, if so desired. You may also obtain CEU credits for your profession if offered. The entire conference runs from 8:30 to 5:00 with opening and closing plenary sessions. You will be notified if your workshop proposal is accepted, and, if so, the time and place that your session will be offered. Most sessions are accepted, but they may need to be slightly modified to meet the CEU expectations of our four professional bodies.

Keynote Speaker: Dr. John Mulder
Date: February 28, 2020
Location: GVSU Richard M. DeVos Center
401 Fulton St W, Grand Rapids, MI

Proposals are due by October 28, 2019.

To apply online, please fill in the 2020 Conference SUBMISSION FORM. You can download a copy of the form to review it prior.

We encourage you to email us at [email protected] with any questions. 

Please see below the list of topics, that last year's attendees who applied for a continuing education credit in Social Work were interested to discuss in future conferences:

• Advanced care planning
• Aging homeless
• Aging & Medications
• Aging Veterans needs
• Alzheimer’s/dementia
• Best practices for home visitors
• Effects of trauma on older adults
• Elder law
• Geriatric Care – changing families role of creativity in healing
• Grandparents rearing grandchildren
• Holistic health options
• How to access social service programs for older adults (SSI, Medicare, SS Disability)
• LGBTQ issues concerning older adults
• Michigan laws regarding guardianship, what types of guardianship and what that means in making medical decisions
• Obtaining guardianship for adults
• Pain Management
• Policy changes for the aging population
• Post-loss caregiver life/ re-entry to own life
• Serving clients with chronic co-occurring concerns and/or high utilizers of emergency departments
• Suicide prevention/intervention
• Yoga for older adults
• Infectious Diseases/vaccinations for older adults
• Health promotion – diet; exercise; brain health, and more
• Caregiving – spouses/children/others
• Stress management/mindfulness
• Technology & Healthy Aging–Sessions geared towards older adults themselves –
  • how to use Shipt, Uber, FaceTime, Facebook
  • the role technology can play for social engagement,
  • smart home technology,
  • apps to track calories, or other health indicators;
  • app for Rethinking Dementia