Center for the Study of Aging & Clinical Applications (CSACA)
The Critical Role of Place in the Aging Process
Date: Sunday, October 19, 2025
Time: 10:00am – 5:00pm
Location: Online via Zoom
Co-Chairs: Jane Brewster, MSW & Annemarie Russell, EdD, MPH, MSW
5.25 CEs/CMEs
Program Description:
The place where we age plays a critical role in shaping the experience of aging for older adults. Often overlooked as an issue, this conference will ask many pertinent questions about the impact of place on the aging process: Where are older adults living as they move along their life course? How are they making decisions about aging in the ‘right place’? What is the impact of place on health, mental health and overall wellbeing for older adults? What are the essential supports that ensure their social, emotional, and physical needs are met? What are the pros and cons of the living situation options that are available to older adults in our nation today? How can we help people make timely, safe, and informed decisions about where they will live and age? And how can we support individuals and families as they navigate through the changes and challenges that this process inevitably creates? Our conference will explore these and other often undervalued issues of the impact of place on aging. We will review the landscape of living situation options, address specific clinical dilemmas and client case examples with our faculty panel, and engage in personal reflections in small and large group discussions.
Schedule:
10:00 - 10:15 – Welcome: Summary of conference protocols and interview with keynote speaker (Rob Bamberger, MSW and Annemarie Russell, EdD, MPH, MSW)
10:15 - 11:20 – Keynote – Where Are Older Adults Choosing to Live? The Concept of Place (Russell)
11:20 - 11:30 – Break
11:30 - 12:00 – Clinical Dilemmas in Decisions about Place (Jane Brewster, MSW)
12:00 - 12:45 – Faculty presentations and discussion of cases addressing clinical dilemmas (Judy Peres, MSW and George Saiger, MD, facilitated by Brewster)
12:45 - 1:20 – Large group discussion of issues and concepts raised during the morning (Brewster)
1:20 – 2:00 – Lunch
2:00 – 2 :20 - Images of Aging and the Aged in American Popular Culture: “If I Had a Million” (1932) and “Make Way for Tomorrow” (1937) (Bamberger)
2:20 – 3:15 – Small group I - Envisioning Space and Place (Bamberger)
3:15 – 3:30 – Large group discussion of small group experience
3:30 – 3:45 – Break
3:45 – 4:00 – Large group - Choosing Place - Brewster
4:00 – 4:40 - Small group II – Choosing Place
4:40 – 5:00 – Large group discussion of small group experience/Closing Plenary
Learning Objectives:
- Increase awareness about the variety of places where older adults are living in the USA to highlight its impact on their lives.
- Explain how some ecological models of aging and the environment can assist in understanding the impact of place on the health and well-being of older adults.
- Consider how aging in place is the residential normalcy of most of the population when they find the right place to live, while acknowledging the challenges that occur when older adults occupy incongruous living situations.
- Recognize and examine varied clinical dilemmas and obstacles that can impact on an older adult’s current living situations, in supporting diverse adaptation strategies and future planning.
- Identify the psychosocial, health and environmental variables that present clinical concerns for assessment and support effective decision-making regarding the choice of place.
- Explain the importance of the psychotherapeutic process, including issues related to transference and countertransference, denial, fear, resistance to change, and acceptance of the aging process -- along with its limitations and its inevitable decline -- to help older adults make safe, timely and informed decisions about their living place.
- Describe some practical strategies to support clients who are struggling with decisions regarding the goodness of fit of their living situation, and which reinforce the strengths of clients who embrace the transition to assist their developing a sense of residential normalcy.
- Assess your own feelings about where you wish to live as you are age, what you need in a place to call it home, and how you will respond to your increasing dependency needs.
Click here for Accreditation Statement and AMEDCO Continuing Education Certification.
Click here for Cancellation and Refund Policy.
Registration closes October 17, 2025 at noon ET.
