Online Program

Oral

For a life-course perspective, aging represents a unique challenge in the person-environment interaction to produce everyday function and health outcomes. The five presentations will address critical issues related to how appropriate policies and practices can be formulated to support independence in older age; limitations of current research in this area; how to take advantage of traditional and new communication technologies in intergenerational research; and a new framework of community resilience in dealing with disaster preparedness and lessons learned from Hurricane Sandy.

Session Objectives: Describe the adaptive environmental behaviors employed by older adults with functional limitations to meet objectively assessed or perceived functional needs. Discuss the importance of both objective and perceived P-E fit in the creation of appropriate policy and practice implications to support independence in older age. Discuss research and practice implications/applications for the "placescape", and identify the ways in which it can help improve understandings of place/health at different life-stages and across the lifecourse Describe the roles played by community-dwelling older adults during the preparedness, response, and recovery phases of Hurricane Sandy.