Generational Resilience Conference 2015: Survive & Thrive
"Resilience is accepting your new reality, even if it's less good than the one you had before. You can fight it, you can do nothing but scream about what you've lost, or you can accept that and try to put together something that's good." ― Elizabeth Edwards
Survive and Thrive
People 65+ represented 14.1% of the population in the year 2013. Most older persons have at least one chronic condition and many have multiple conditions. In 2011-2013, the most frequently occurring conditions among older persons were: diagnosed arthritis, all types of heart disease, any cancer, diagnosed diabetes, and hypertension. Life, however, often brings unexpected challenges regardless of age. This year’s conference will focus on enhancing general mental and physical resilience as well offering targeted sessions on living with chronic disease, recovering from a major medical incident, or post-trauma/disaster.
Topics will include surviving and thriving:
- In your senior years
- Post disaster
- Post organ transplant
- Post cancer
- With chronic disease
- Cognitively
- Socially
- Spiritually
Featured Speakers:
Day One:
Day Two:
Director, University of Mississippi Center for Contextual Psychology
Location:
Who Should Attend:
Registration Fees:
Click here to register
October 28, 2015 Morning Session
Chronic Disease Self-Management Education: Making Community Connections
Marie Cafferty
Marie Cafferty, the Health and Wellness Regional Coordinator for the SARPC Area Agency on Aging and certified CDSMP Master Trainer, will present on the evidence-based disease prevention and health promotion program known as the Stanford Chronic Disease Self-Management Program (CDSMP) and its benefits. Attendees will have the opportunity to participate in some of CDSMP activities, and will learn how to identify clients who may benefit from the program and how to connect with or develop a program.
The Chronic Disease Self-Management Program is a workshop given in community settings such as senior centers, churches, libraries and hospitals. People with different chronic health problems attend together. Workshops are facilitated by two trained leaders, one or both of whom are non-health professionals with chronic diseases themselves.
October 28, 2015 Afternoon Breakout Sessions
Building Professional Resilience: Surviving and Thriving after Disaster
Dr. Jane Parker
The highly interactive session will cover historical research, dimensions, and resources for increasing personal and workplace resilience after disaster. Specific traits and behaviors of resilient professionals will be discussed, and participants will have opportunity to organize their own Resilience Plan. Both instructor and participants will exchange resource sites for further use beyond the workshop.
Happiness, Savoring, and the Full Life
Dr. Jennifer Langhinrichsen-Rohling
Dr. Langhinrichsen-Rohling will present the basic tenets of positive psychology, including the research on ways to enhance happiness, the importance of savoring every day pleasures, and pathways to the Good Life.
Health Coaching for Patients with Chronic Disease and Acute Illness
Dr. Chondra Butler
This interactive session will focus on disease management for patients with chronic illnesses including Diabetes Mellitus, Hypertension, and Cardiac Disease. Patients with chronic health problems often have a difficult time controlling their disease due to a multitude of potential factors. As a result, complications arise in concurrence with new or worsening co-morbidities that lead to a shorter life expectancy. As healthcare providers, we must be able to "meet the patients where they are" and help them to attain a higher level of wellness. Wellness is accomplished through health coaching that aims to increase knowledge, set realistic goals, modify behavior, and improve support systems.
October 29, 2015 9:00 am Plenary Session
Survive and Thrive: Aging, Wisdom, and Wellness
Dr. Kelly Wilson
The modern world has eliminated many sources of suffering. We no longer die from cholera or smallpox. In the developed world we die from stressors: obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, and cerebrovascular disease. We drink, eat poorly, and are often chronically sleep deprived. And we stress out. We stress over war, the economy, work, relationships, the past, and the future. Amidst the demands of modern life, self-care often comes last on the list.
All this stress takes a toll on our bodies, but not just our bodies. The World Health Organization predicts that depression will be the number one cause of premature death and disability by 2030. Rates of chronic, disabling psychological difficulties are on the rise for both children and adults. The rise in these illnesses parallels the rise in a host of stress-related physical illnesses. Aging makes us even more vulnerable to some stressors.
In this talk, Dr. Wilson will discuss his own personal and professional journey into aging. This is a message of hope and resilience. Dr. Wilson will describe conditions known to contribute to depression, anxiety and other forms of mental illness. He will introduce methods by which every person, no matter how ill, in no matter what circumstance, can begin a steady program of practices that makes more abundant living possible. Even beginning late in life, there are small lifestyle changes that can produce major improvements in both mental and physical health.
Modern medicine has made it so that we are living longer, but it will be up to us, acting as a community, to increase the quality of those years.
Join us on a journey into wisdom, health, and wellness that can touch our own lives and the lives of those we love.
Dr. Jane Parker
Dr. Jane Parker is the founder and director of the Institute for Psychosocial Health at Tulane, and is both and academician and practitioner in social work and public health. A Licensed Clinical Social Worker, lifetime member of Phi Kappa Phi, International Society of Traumatic Stress Studies, and an Organization Development Professional, Jane has provided training and consultations to over 150 health, business, and human service organizations in Europe, Asia, and the U.S. Her work since Hurricane Katrina has focused largely on the study and practice of helping professionals increase their resilience in dealing with acute or ongoing disasters. Jane also leads the Tulane School Trauma Response Team that intervenes with teachers and administrators following the homicides of students in Orleans Parish. She teaches disaster, brief treatment, community resilience and leadership courses in the MSW program and the MPH and DrPH programs in New Orleans and Advanced Social Policy the DSW program in Biloxi.
Dr. Kelly Wilson
Kelly G. Wilson, Ph.D., is a Professor of Psychology at the University at Mississippi. He is one of the co-developers of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. He has devoted his career to teaching psychological and physical practices aimed at increasing richness, meaning, and quality of life. He has publishing 46 articles, 36 chapters, and 10 books including Acceptance and Commitment Therapy 2ed, Things Might Go Terribly, Horribly Wrong: Living a Life Liberated from Anxiety, , and his most recent effort The Wisdom to Know the Difference: An Acceptance and Commitment Therapy Workbook for Overcoming Substance Abuse. He has central interests in the application of behavioral principles to understanding topics such as purpose, meaning, values, and mindfulness. Dr. Wilson’s most recent fascination is the deep interconnection between physical and mental wellbeing. Dr. Wilson has presented workshops in 32 countries, and has participated as co-investigator in a wide range of research projects in the U.S. and around the world.
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