Wednesday, June 20, 2001

Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue is one of three keynote speakers who will address issues affecting North Carolina’s increasing number of older adults at the sixth annual North Carolina Summer Symposium on Aging. The symposium is scheduled for Wednesday, July 18, through Friday, July 20, at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. Perdue will speak at 8:30 a.m. Friday in the UNCW Warwick Center Ballroom.

The symposium “A Sea of Voices . . . Colleges and Communities Collaborating” will bring together academicians, policy makers and service providers from across the state. Representatives from university gerontology programs along with the Institute of Aging at UNC Chapel Hill, the N.C. Division of Aging, local and regional aging networks and senior advocacy groups will learn about services needed for the next generation of older adults and best practices to meet these demands. Presentation topics include drug intervention with older people, community support networks, diversity and aging, spirituality and the workforce, working with hospice patients, creativity and healthy aging and many others.

The idea of colleges and communities working together on aging-related issues was the founding principle of UNCW’s Gerontology Program, said Dr. Eleanor Covan, program director and professor of sociology.

“Students enrolled in our program complete a variety of service-learning projects in the Wilmington community,” said Covan. “During the spring semester, our students used Time Slips, a creative storytelling project for dementia patients, in three long-term care and two adult daycare facilities. The project enabled students to learn about long-term care and helped them become more comfortable communicating with the patients.”

Dr. Anne Basting, a fellow at New York’s Brookdale Center on Aging, is director of Time Slips, which is based in Milwaukee and New York. Basting, along with James McCrea, director of Generations Together at the University of Pittsburgh, will also give keynote presentations at the summer symposium. Basting will lecture on “Dare to Imagine: Fostering Partnerships Through Creativity” at 9:45 a.m., Friday, July 20. McCrea will present the opening session “A Sea of Voices . . . Colleges and Communities Collaborating Through Service-Learning” at 1:30 p.m., Wednesday, July 18. Both presentations will be in the Warwick Center.

Symposium registration is open to the public. The cost is $120 for registrations received by July 6. Late registration is $140. Senior citizens (age 65 and older) or full-time students can register for $50. Registration forms are available through the Cape Fear Area Agency on Aging; call Jane Jones at 910/395-4553. The symposium program and registration form can be downloaded at www.aging.unc.edu/news/2001/symposiumprog.pdf.

The symposium is supported by the Institute of Aging at UNC Chapel Hill, in association with the UNC Wilmington Gerontology Program and the Cape Fear Council of Governments Area Agency on Aging.

As mandated by the Older Americans’ Act, the Cape Fear Area Agency on Aging works on behalf of older adults and their caregivers in Brunswick, Columbus, New Hanover and Pender counties.

“We assist these counties as they study the needs of their older citizens and plan services to meet these demands,” said Jane Jones, agency director. “The goal of providing these services is to enable older adults to live independently in their own homes as long as possible.”

The Cape Fear Area Agency on Aging collaborates with a number of community and governmental organizations and agencies as well as universities in dealing with aging-related issues.

For more information, contact Dr. Covan at 910/962-3435 or Ms. Jane Jones at 910/395-4553.