The Latest Successes from the Center for Successful Aging (CSA)
The Center for Successful Aging (CSA) has been a place to help support students from all disciplines across the College of Health and Human Services (CHHS). Whether it be through providing internships, offering student opportunities to work on research and in the community, or simply being a friendly resource for students interested in learning more about the field of aging, the Center continues to be a hub for student success and public good.
鈥淭he whole idea is to give students positive experiences of working with older adults and a broader perspective to the field, because generally they think they will only get experiences in end-of-life, hospital or critical care settings, but not working with older adults in the community,鈥 said Dr. Iveris Martinez, CSA Director and Endowed Chair.
The Center is currently involving CHHS students in many ongoing projects designed to help support older adults in the community, while simultaneously introducing students to the various opportunities that exist in the field of aging. For example, one of the Center鈥檚 current projects -- the Park Bixby Towers Wellness Project 鈥 is utilizing students to conduct research to assess quality of life for residents living at Park Bixby Towers, a low-income independent living community in Downtown Long Beach. Data will be collected and analyzed with the assistance of student interns.
鈥淭he Bixby family runs this specific senior living community鈥hey reached out to us here at the Center because they wanted to do a study and get recommendations for improving quality of life for its [senior] residents,鈥 Dr. Martinez said. They have 178 residents, and they are very diverse 鈥 they come from different backgrounds and speak different languages, such as Spanish, Chinese, Korean, Tagalog, even Russian. So, we needed to find students who spoke these languages. And so we received funding which went toward recruiting student interns to assist us in this project.鈥
鈥淲e were able to find students from all different disciplines,鈥 said Annette Rodrigues, CSA Program Manager. 鈥淚n CHHS, we had students from Nursing, Health Care Management, Health Science, and more, participate in this study.鈥
Working for the Center, students took part in dialoguing with the senior residents in their respective languages, finding out what was important to them in discussing quality of life issues, and what CSA could do to help facilitate healthy aging. The data collected will be used to create tools for the housing community to implement positive changes in the future.
An additional internship-based program CSA is seeking to pursue is a grant that Dr. Martinez and Rodrigues wrote together for NIH (National Institutes of Health), which is called the Advancing Aging Research Initiative. This program would aim to increase the diversity of undergraduate students who pursue advanced degrees in aging-related areas.
Another recent internship program at the Center has been the Alzheimer鈥檚 Orange County (AlzOC) Respite Program Internship. Through CSA鈥檚 partnership with Alzheimer鈥檚 Orange County, thirteen MD传媒入口 students this past year have gained firsthand experience in providing care and support to individuals living with memory-related challenges. Interns in this program became Direct Care Workers and enhanced their skills while working to contribute to the well-being of older adults, while simultaneously providing much needed respite for regular, day-to-day caregivers.
鈥淭his internship opportunity solidified my decision to work in senior care and motivated me to consider advancing my education in gerontology,鈥 said Acezel Acap, a student in the CSA鈥檚 Respite Program Internship. 鈥淲orking as an intern, and later as a temporary employee, were steppingstones that gave me confidence in my abilities as a direct care worker and in my future career possibilities.鈥
What鈥檚 more, another research internship this past year at the Center enlisted Speech-Language Pathology (SLP) student interns, who conducted research on challenges that older adults with perceived hearing loss face while dining out. This study was conducted in partnership with the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) at MD传媒入口.
鈥淭his internship strengthened my understanding of research while also allowing me to communicate and collaborate directly with older adults, helping me to prepare for future clinical situations,鈥 said SLP student and Center for Successful Aging intern Maily Nguyen.
In addition, the Center annually hosts a myriad of speaker series and workshops for the campus and community writ large, to discuss topics related to healthy aging and innovative approaches to healthcare in general. As well, Dr. Martinez and the Center were given an innovation award for their work establishing the Long Beach Aging Services Collaborative, which was created to help connect service providers, community organizers, and advocacy groups to work towards increasing access and improving health equity for older adults in Long Beach.
In the past, Center for Successful Aging interns have helped put on gardening and cooking classes for seniors in the community and have worked with older adults in community senior centers.
Furthermore, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Center employed student interns on a study of mask adherence and social distancing. The 鈥淪OMAD鈥 study, as it was called, entailed observing Long Beach locals and visitors in several locations, in order to understand trends in mask adherence. Between October 2020 and May 2021, CSA student interns observed grocery stores, shopping centers, beaches and parks, and recorded social distancing and mask adherence for a National Study led by Kaiser Permanente. The students, many studying to obtain their public health degree in the Department of Health Science, presented their findings and recommendations for future public awareness at that year鈥檚 American Public Health Association (APHA) Conference.
鈥淭hat experience gave our public health students the knowledge and awareness that they could work on projects here [at the Center], so a lot of our interns now come from the Department of Health Science,鈥 stated Dr. Martinez.
For the Park Bixby Towers Wellness Project, the Center saw students come together from across CHHS, with the previous majors mentioned above as well as students from the college鈥檚 Gerontology and Kinesiology degree programs (in the past, through CSA programs, some Kinesiology students have played a part in helping older adults in the community achieve their fitness and movement goals). The Center has even recruited student interns from other disciplines and colleges across campus, including students from the Psychology Department and College of the Arts. Of course, there continues to be much demand and interest within CHHS disciplines for utilizing the Center as a way to achieve their academic and career goals.
Master鈥檚 of Gerontology student Lizette Hernandez-Soto stated that her experience working as a student intern for the Center as part of the Park Bixby Towers Wellness Project helped her realize working with older adults is something that she would like to pursue upon graduation.
鈥淭his experience confirmed that I want to continue working directly with older adults, planning activities that help them feel more comfortable and connected with their community. This internship gave me the opportunity to connect with and listen to older adults, learn about their lives, and hear their unique stories.鈥
To stay updated about the projects and happenings at the Center for Successful Aging, visit the Center鈥檚 website.
