AER Division on Aging Fall 2015 Newsletter
Dear Members of Division 15,
We hope you will enjoy our Aging Division newsletter. From now on, we will be sending out a newsletter twice a yearinstead of quarterly and sending shorter Division 15 Mini news more frequently to keep you up to date. We hope you will contribute and help us with disseminating information relevant to issues on aging and vision loss to the field.
Division 15 Officers:
Pris Rogers, chair
Neva Fairchild, chair elect
Holly Kaczmarski, secretary/treasurer, serving her second term
Alberta Orr, past chair, is serving as Newsletter Editor.
From the Chair:
As you know, our membership has always been small, and we are mostly a secondary membership for many of our members who are VRT’s or CLV’s. To grow our membership, we suggest that each of us identify one person who is an AER member to join Division 15. In that way we can double our numbers and our strength and reach more people through our information vehicles. So I challenge you to try this. Let us know your results! The Division on Aging provides resources to professionals who are working with or on behalf of older individuals who are experiencing vision loss. We need your input.
Division 15 Virtual Water Cooler Discussion Sessions: A Chance to Talk with Other Division Members about
Aging Issues
Division 15 has been hosting water cooler discussions during FY 2015 and inviting members of other Divisions to attend. Starting in January, 2016, due to budget constraints, the notices for the water coolers will go out to Division members only. So please sign up today to become a Div. 15 member and continue to receive our invites and updates. To date we have had 4 water cooler sessions: the White House Conference on Aging and related vision issues, two on cognitive decline and the fourthon falls. See below for summaries.
Schedule for Remaining Water Coolers in 2015
October 23 at 9 p.m. eastern.“Cognitive Decline” by Colleen O’Donnell, CLVT.
November 16 at 10 a.m. eastern. “A Useful Tool for Giving Hope” by Pat Wetmore, COMS
December 15 at 1:00 p.m. EST topic TBA
Water Cooler Summaries:
White House Conference on Aging—discussion of issues related to aging and vision loss. See the update on AFB:
Working with Individuals with Cognitive Decline and Vision Loss Water Cooler Discussion Notes—Neva Fairchild
We have had two water cooler discussions on cognitive decline. The first was led by Sarita Kimble and was recorded. Here is a link to the recording:
The second water cooler discussion on cognitive decline, led by Neva Fairchild, brought the following points up for consideration:
Dementia often results in visual perception changes. By mid-dementia, usually about the time of diagnosis, the person’s visual field is reduced to about a 12 inch circle of visual perception, whether they have a physical cause of field restriction or not. You can see how this, combined with central vision loss from macular degeneration, is certainly problematic...
To simulate the visual perception experience, Use your hands and form binoculars and try to walk around. How has your gait, balance, speed, step length, etc. changed? Combine this with the loss of immediate recall and organized scanning is impossible. They cannot find their glasses even when they are lying on the table nearby. The person who finds their glasses usually points out that they were right there all along.
Try sitting at a dining table, put a plate right in front of you and then put on your binoculars again. Look around as if others are at the table with you. You don’t see what is sitting right in front of you, but you see the plate in front of someone else and reach for a bite of their food. This results in a family member or a food service worker admonishing you and you didn’t even realize you had food of your own.
An individual with this limited field of perception won’t see people coming at them from the side, so when someone touches their shoulder they are startled. Startle responses cause heightened energy which causes greater confusion and disorientation. A verbal greeting when you are a few feet away, using their name, can avoid frightening the person over a simple request to come to an activity elsewhere.
Now, put on binoculars again and look down at your shirt. You can see how not only limited acuity but limited visual perception can result in the fact that they don’t see the food they dripped down their front. Family members and caregivers point out all these errors like they are idiots and really they aren’t seeing well because of visual perception problems as well as vision loss.
Understanding these visual perception changes associated with cognitive decline can lessen stress for you as a rehabilitation worker, as well as for family members and other caregivers.
Resources where you may learn more are:
Cataracts and Dementia Factsheet
Dementia and sight loss FAQs
Water Cooler on Falls led by Katherine Clarrage:
Katherine discussed the Balancing Act Program, a self-initiated falls prevention program that aims to improve balance and reduce falls was developed for older persons with vision loss. The program, designed at the University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine Department of Geriatric Medicine, requires only one training session and can then be done at home with no equipment or further instruction. If you are interested in finding out more about the program, you can contact:
Marilyn R. Gugliucci, Ph.D.,Professor & Director, Geriatrics Education and Research. Office: 207-602-2453;
A news item about the NIH award to Maine about their Falls Program appears below in the “News from the Field Section”.
Discussants at the water cooler also brought up Frat-up, a novel web-based fall-risk assessment tool and to evaluate its accuracy in predicting falls, within a context of community-dwelling persons aged 65 and up.
CDC has a community falls prevention manual:
BlindCafe.net ( has exercises in mp3 format with guided directions.
A Matter of Balance and Low Vision:
VisionAware has fall prevention videos:
And a fall prevention plan:
National News National Conference Related to Aging
AER 2015 Conference on Vision Loss in Older Adults and Veterans
We have a wonderful opportunity for our Division to shine at AER’s 2015:Conference on Vision Loss in Older Adults and Veterans: Leveraging our Collective Wisdom. It will be held November 4-6, 3015 in Norfolk, VA. Here is the website for the conference agenda and other essential details:
This conference will honor older adults with vision loss and our veterans and service members who have been affected by injury or age-related eye disease resulting in vision loss.The conference will be a state-of-the art meeting that you won’t want to miss. This conference will be of interest to vision rehabilitation and low vision therapists, occupational therapists, optometrists, ophthalmologists, and others in the vision medical field who work with blinded veterans and older persons with vision loss.
The entire program was printed in the October 6, 2015 issue of AER Viewpoint and is available on line at:
General Session speakers include, B.J. LeJeune, Dr. John Crews and RSA Commissioner Janet LaBreck and Wm. "Bill" Schmitz, Jr. andmany exciting topics in breakout sessions. You can still register at the door.
Department of Health and Human Services News
US Surgeon General Launches National Call to Action on Walking
In September, the United StatesSurgeon Generalissued a call to action to address major public health challenges such as heart disease and diabetes.Step It Up! TheSurgeon General’s Call to Action toPromote Walking and Walkable Communitiesarticulates the health benefits of walking while addressing the fact that many communities unacceptably lack safe and convenient places for individuals to walk or wheelchair roll.
“Everyone deserves to have a safe place to walk or wheelchair roll. But in too many of our communities, that is not the reality,” said Dr. Vivek H. Murthy, the 19th U.S.Surgeon General. “We know that an active lifestyle is critical to achieving good overall health. And walking is a simple, effective and affordable way to build physical activity into our lives. That is why we need to step it up as a country ensuring that everyone can choose to walk in their own communities.”
Data consistently show there are safety and accessibility issues that make communities less walkable. A 2013 study by the U.S. Department of Transportation, for example, found that 3 out of every 10Americansreported that no sidewalks existed along any streets in their neighborhood. In many communities violence – and the perception of violence – may prove a barrier to walking.
TheSurgeon Generalcalls on community planners and local leaders to create more areas for walking and wheelchair rolling and to prioritize the development of safe routes for children to get to and from schools. The call to action suggests that these designs should include sidewalks, curb cuts, crosswalks, safe crossings for the visually impaired and more green spaces. TheSurgeon Generalfurther calls on city managers, law enforcement and community and public health leaders to address safety concerns by better maintaining public spaces, working with residents to promote a shared sense of community ownership, ensuring proper street lighting and fostering neighborhood watch programs.
TheSurgeon General’s report discusses the health benefits of walking and calls on individuals to make walking a priority in their lives. Fewer than half of all U.S. adults get enough physical activity to reduce their risk of chronic disease, and only a quarter of high school students get the recommended amount. Physical inactivity contributes to heart and lung disease, diabetes and cancer, which account for 86 percent of our nation’s health care costs.Buildingwalking into daily life can reduce disease and save money.
“We know that an average of 22 minutes a day of physical activity – such as brisk walking – can significantly reduce the risk of heart disease and diabetes,” added Dr. Murthy. “The key is to get started because even a small first effort can make a big difference in improving the personal health of an individual and the public health of the nation.”
To read theSurgeon General’s Call to Action and learn how to promote walking and walkable communities, please visit
American Society on Aging Devotes the Summer 2015 Issue of its journal Generations to Issues on Medicare
To mark Medicare’s 50 th anniversary, the American Society on Aging (ASA) devoted the Summer 2015 issue of its quarterly journal, Generations, to this milestone occasion. The issue delivers a timely and insightful exploration of Medicare—past, present and future—and includes articles on a broad range of topics. You can read this issue free of charge.
Generationsbrings together the latest in research, practice, and policy on a single key topic in aging, with the intent to enhance readers’ understanding of the topic and the implications for practice. The issue includes personal reflections on the launch of Medicare, a focus on how well the program serves an aging population (and people with disabilities), the politics of Medicare, and most importantly, key opportunities and challenges facing Medicare’s future. Authors include former Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare Joseph Califano, former administrators of the Medicare program, Bruce Vladeck and Gail Wilensky, and numerous experts, each offering different perspectives on the program.
The issue is posted in its entirety on the ASA website. To access the issue online, go to.On the Home Page a single article will appear. To the right you will see the cover of the journal Generations. You can click on it and read all the articles or scan the table of contents and go to the article(s) that interest you most! It’s a great opportunity to examine the journal.
The issue is also available in print. To order print copies and/or to subscribe to Generations journal, go to .
Judy Scott Retires after 46 Years of Service to the field of vision loss and 34 years at the American Foundation for the Blind
Judy is one of the founders of Division 15 and has always been a staunch advocate for programs for older persons who are blind or visually impaired. She was very involved in advocacy efforts to increase funding for Chapter 2, the federal program that provides services to this population. This includes helping to spearhead the National Agenda on Aging, a national coalition of service providers involved in advocacy. On the home front, she envisioned, created and led a $2.3 million campaign to fund theAFB Center on Vision Lossin Dallas, a national demonstration and training site to help individuals and their families learn how to cope and live successfully with a visual impairment.
News from the Field
News from Mississippi National Research and Training Center on Blindness and Low Vision, Starkville, MS by B. J. LeJeune, CVRT
The National Research and Training Center on Blindness and Low Vision at Mississippi State University has recently been awarded 2 large 5 year federal grants starting October 1, 2015 – one from the Rehabilitation Services Administration to provide training and technical assistance to the Older Blind Programs, and one from the National Institute of Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research on enhancing employment outcomes for persons with blindness and low vision.
Older Blind Technical Assistance and Training Grant
The National Research and Training Center on Blindness and Low Vision (NRTC), at Mississippi State University, has been awarded the Rehabilitation Services Administration (RSA) older blind technical assistance (TA) and training grant. This grant was established under the WIOA legislation to provide assistance to older blind program directors and direct service staff. The guidelines stipulate TA and training in areas of best practice, community outreach, budget management, and completion of the 7OB report. Partnering with the NRTC in this grant are American Foundation for the Blind (AFB), Helen Keller National Center (HKNC), and Vision Serve Alliance.
Here are a list of some activities which will be implemented. Please watch for announcements related to these items and plan to participate. More information will follow as details are available.
- Participation in the RSA project directors meeting October 2015
- AFB all access pass – this is a training opportunity for direct service staff. Online courses available through the AFB eLearning center will be made available at no cost to service providers who work with older blind consumers served under 7OB funding. These courses provide ACVREP credits.
- A special track for older blind Program Directors and staff will be planned in conjunction with the AFB leadership conference. The date for the next conference is March 3-5, 2016.
- Establishment of a Community of Practice website
- Intensive TA and training for 3 designated state agencies per year
- Development of new online training modules by the NRTC, HKNC, and AFB eLearning.
More about the Grants:
As a result of these two grants we will be hiring several new positions- both for researchers and persons with field experience in working with individuals with blindness and low vision.
Among others, we will be hiring the following:
Rehabilitation Counselor/Training Specialist
Older Blind Specialist/ Research Associate ll/lll
Communication Specialist/Research Associate ll/lll
Research Professor
Program Manager
Anne Sullivan Macy Fellow (for someone wanting to work on a PhD or as a post-doc) – see more below.
Check out details at NRTC at MSU is a great place to work. With experience and a master’s degree, the salaries are very competitive, and the benefits, including the opportunity to take free classes and get reduced tuition for your children, are excellent.
Why Move to Mississippi?
First of all, the work is exciting, interesting and significant and you would work as part of a dynamic team. But wait, there's more...Starkville MS is in the Northeast part of the state and is a growing community with lots of interesting things to do. We have the exciting MSU Bulldog collegiate sports program including fishing, golf, rodeo and women's volleyball and soccer in addition to football, basketball and baseball. In addition to SEC sports, if you are interested in culture, we are the smallest town in the country with a symphonic orchestra, we have a vivacious and active community theater and a large international community. For those who enjoy the outdoors, the Natchez Trace is 18 miles away, the Noxubee Wildlife Refuge, with its beautiful lakes, lies near the campus and the community is building bike trails and hiking trails to accommodate the growing number of persons interested in being environmentally sensitive. We have an active free bus system which connects the campus and town. We are part of the Blues Trail in Mississippi and have a number of annual festivals in the area that attract musicians and crafts people. As a land grant university, MSU is large and beautifully landscaped with over 10,000 acres of forest, a horse park, a vet school and experimental farms.We have just opened a new whole food cafeteria and 2 new dorms, with 2 more being erected. Our enrollment is about 20,000 each year and we are considered a Carnegie research institution. Wow, if I wasn't already working here, I would have talked myself into applying! Hope to see some applications with your names on them!