Taylor Center Sponsorship Grant recipient Hannah Kaufman is a PhD Candidate in the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine with a research focus on access to care for older adults. As the organizer of the Aging is Public Health 2019-2020 Seminar Series, she is bringing together community members with Tulane staff, faculty, and students to learn about aging-related themes.
My passion for working with older adults began many years ago. In high school I spent my summers volunteering in the local veterans’ hospital, helping with small errands and talking with patients. In college, I continued volunteering with older adults, this time through an organization that links community members with residents living in nursing homes. An undergraduate at the University of Florida much of my coursework was gerontology-focused, learning about the changes in adults as they age, the ways that society changes with an aging population, and the applications of this information to programs and policies for older adults.
Years later as I began to prepare my PhD dissertation topic, I decided to return my focus to older adults and access to care for aging populations. As I began to look for course offerings, research projects, or other students and faculty at Tulane who are working on social and behavioral aging-related topics, I realized there was very little. I decided to form the Tulane SPHTM Aging Interest Group to discuss local, domestic, and international resources, and hear from fellow students and faculty who are involved in research and community-based projects related to the social determinants of healthy aging.
This past summer, after returning from 10 months in Paraguay with the support of a Fulbright grant to conduct my dissertation research on access to social and health care for older adults, I began to organize the Aging is Public Health 2019-2020 Seminar Series. In addition to our faculty, staff, and students of both downtown and uptown Tulane University campuses, this series is open to members of the New Orleans community to encourage participants to examine their work with a lens of aging and to consider aging as the future of life and work opportunities. The Fall semester seminars featured four seminars covering topics from dementia and aging in East Asia, to LGBT older adults and older adults in emergencies.
In the second of the four seminars, Jim Meadows, LMSW, Executive Director of New Orleans Advocates for GLBT Elders (NOAGE) presented “Improving Care for LGTB Older Adults.” Jim’s presentation introduced attendees to the lifespan perspective on LGBT aging, and to the unique health and social issues facing LGBT older adults. The session also included information on how to create a more welcoming environment in healthcare settings, and on how to become a better advocate for this patient population. Check out the video below to watch the full session.
This series is free, lunch provided, and all are welcome. This is only possible with the generous support of following Tulane University sponsors: Phyllis M. Taylor Center for Social Innovation and Design Thinking, Delta Omega Honorary Society, One Health Club, Thomas C. Keller Professorship, and Weatherhead Visiting Professorship. With the support of the Taylor Center funds, we were able to provide lunch for Jim’s presentation on LGBT aging issues.
We had a great turnout for the Fall semester seminars and look forward to sharing details about the Spring semester seminars very soon. For more information or to join the Aging Interest Group listserv, email Hannah Kaufman at hkaufma3@tulane.edu or follow our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/TUSPHTMAging/.