Recent trends toward increased longevity will fundamentally change our society, affecting the young, the middle-aged, and older adults. Our neighborhoods, cities and government will be impacted as well. We need to create communities that promote successful aging and support aging in place.
Suburbia offers special challenges for aging in place — when older adults live independently in their homes and communities of choice so they can remain active participants in their neighborhoods and maintain a sense of purpose. There’s been impressive work on aging in place in many cities, but not much on how to help people age in place in suburbia. In suburban contexts like Long Island, the absence of public transportation and the expense and condition of single unit housing can lead to social isolation.
Stony Brook University is in a unique position to study and respond to the issues of aging in place in suburbia.
“This important, national issue offers a great opportunity for Stony Brook University, with its many fine schools and departments, with its Health Sciences, with researchers from multiple relevant disciplines, with its terrific and enthusiastic students, and with the School of Social Welfare, we can be a national leader in developing the social, health and technological solutions that lead to effective aging in a suburban context,” said Jacqueline Mondros, Dean of the School of Social Welfare at Stony Brook and Assistant Vice President for Social Determinants of Health.
Consequently, the School of Social Welfare, along with Stony Brook Medicine, Stony Brook University and several other partners, is holding a “working summit,” which spotlights the factors that enable people to successfully age in place with a special emphasis on suburbia. The summit, which will be held on October 6 through October 7 at the Hilton Garden Hotel on the Stony Brook campus, will take a deep and detailed look at relevant demographic data, the challenges to aging in place in a suburban environment, and especially innovative solutions that have emerged from other communities or through discussion and research at Stony Brook.
For more information about the Aging in Place Summit, please email ssw_aginginplace@stonybrook.edu or call (631) 444-2139.
Add comment