Activities
     
Activity Report Jan. 2010 (ILC-Israel)

1 Conferences

Each year we organize a conference with the general title of “Innovations and Challenges in Geriatrics and Gerontology”. This year, our one-day conference centered on “Illness Prevention and Health Promotion for the Elderly”. The conference took place in Beer Sheva, Israel on October 28, 2009. Presentations were given on early detection, primary and secondary prevention of diabetes, hypertension, hyperlipidemia and eye diseases in the elderly, as well as on the importance of healthy nutrition and physical exercise in old age. The conference took place in collaboration with and active participation of the Israeli Ministry of Pensioners’ Affairs, the Association of Planning and Development of Services for the Aged in Israel (ESHEL), the Geriatric Division of Maccabi Healthcare Services, and the Director of Research and Development and Vice-President of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.

Dr. Leah Ness, Deputy Minister of Pensioners' Affairs in the Israel government.

Prof. Sara Carmel addressing the participants with her opening remarks.


In addition, we co-sponsored several conferences and workshops.

  • The 7th Annual Conference on Issues in Psychogeriatrics took place in November 2009. The conference was sponsored by the Ministry of Health and Center for Psychiatry of the Southern District, the Faculty of Health Sciences at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, and our Center.

  • A Panel on Doctor-Patient Communication for first year medical students at the Faculty of Health Sciences of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.

2 New research groups and projects in Israel

We established two interdisciplinary research groups and succeeded in receiving research grants for two national large-scale studies that will be conducted by these groups.

  1. A large national research project entitled “Adaptation Patterns of Elderly Persons to Decline in Health and Functioning" based on collaborative work between Prof. Victoria Raveis, of the Center for Research in Aging of the School of Public Health, Columbia University and Prof. Carmel was approved for financing by the US-Israel Bi-National Science Foundation. A smaller on-going study on the same subject will continue - financed by the Rochlin Foundation and Maccabi Healthcare Services.

  2. A study of Multifaceted Interventions for reducing the detrimental effects of care-giving to dementia patients among older primary care-givers will be financed by the Israeli Ministry for Pensioners’ Affairs.

  3. Four laboratories in the life sciences division have just received a grant for an interdisciplinary study on the “Determinants of Aging and Longevity” under the coordination of Dr. Vadim Fraifeld.

3 On-going research projects in aging:

  • End-of-life care: Attitudes, preferences, and behaviors of the public, elderly, parents to children in the ICU, cancer patients, formal caregivers (physicians, nurses, social workers) of severely-ill and dying patients and informal care givers (family members) of severely-ill and dying patients. Prof. Carmel continues to analyze data and present results from her studies on these issues in national and international conferences.

  • Evaluation of health services: Prof. Carmel has continued to supervise a number of evaluation studies of services provided at the Home Hospice, long-term care and hospital services for cancer patients by the Clalit Health Services and Maccabi Health Services.

  • Dr. Yaakov Bachner and Prof. Carmel are analyzing data as part of a study, supported by Maccabi Health Services on: "The association between physicians' communication styles and satisfaction, self-rated health and utilization of health services among elderly cancer and stroke patients".

  • Since July 2008 Dr. Danit Shahar has been conducting a study supported by the Maccabi Research Institute in Israel of Prognostic indexes for appetite and their influence on anorexia of old age.

  • Dr. Galit Nimrod, in collaboration with Dr. Susan Hutchinson from Dalhousie University, is continuing the research funded by a grant from the Israel Association for Canadian Studies and Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada, on leisure activities among older adults with chronic health conditions.

4 International cooperation

  • Prof. Carmel continues to serve as a consultant on research tools for the European Community-funded PREDICT study, conducted by several countries on participation of the elderly in clinical trials. Working meetings will continue in 2010.

  • Prof. Carmel is a member of COST project of the European Community on health and ethnic minorities and continues to be actively involved in their projects through correspondence and academic meetings.

  • Prof. Carmel planned an international session on the subject of “Immigration, emigration and aging: Multi-societal perspectives,” for the International Conference of the International Gerontology and Geriatrics Association (IGGA), which took place in Paris in July, 2009. Among the participants in the international session were leading researchers in geriatrics and gerontology from UCLA in the USA, and Victoria and Monash Universities in Melbourne, Australia. In this session, Prof. Carmel presented a paper on “Psychosocial resources, health, functioning and wellbeing of old immigrants to Israel: A comparative longitudinal observation.”

  • Prof. Carmel’s international activities in the area of aging brought about the recognition of the Center for Multidisciplinary Research in Aging (CMRA) as an internationally accredited research center by The International Associations of Gerontology and Geriatrics (IAGG).

  • new international Leisure and Aging Research Group – LARG was established.
    LARG is a community of scholars studying leisure and aging that recognizes the interconnectedness of these fields with attention given to global diversity. The group's mission is to enhance interdisciplinary and international dialogue between leisure and aging researchers, educators, practitioners, and policy makers. The group was founded by Dr. Galit Nimrod, a member of our Center, in collaboration with Dr. Heather Gibson of the University of Florida, Dr. Douglas Kleiber of the University of Georgia, and Dr. Jerome Singleton of Dalhousie University. The group’s web-site is: (http://schlags.com/LARG/forum/index.php).