As a lifelong learner
and old soul myself, I reach out to local experts who can speak live
from age-friendly San Francisco on a variety of topics that engage mature adults.
Nostalgia for comfort
food
Rachel Gross, Professor
of American Jewish Studies at SFSU, presented a talk on Referendum on the Deli Menu: American Jewish Nostalgia and the Deli
Revival about adapting traditional
American Jewish comfort foods for the 21st century, with an emphasis
on sustainability and local sourcing.
Medical
cannabis
Donald Abrams, MD, Professor of Clinical Medicine at UCSF,
presented a timely talk on Medical
Cannabis. With the growing number of states legalizing cannabis for medical
or recreational purposes, cannabis use among older Americans has increased significantly, despite a lack of biomedical, clinical, and public health research. Cannabis remains illegal under federal law. Because the Drug Enforcement Administration
(DEA) has listed cannabis as a Schedule 1 drug (“high potential for abuse” and
“no currently accepted medical use”) and has designated National Institute on
Drug Abuse (NIDA)—part of National Institutes of Health (NIH)—as the sole
source of cannabis for scientists, NIDA will not fund cannabis studies on its
health benefits but only harm. Yet, with
funding from NIH, Dr. Abrams has conducted pioneering research on the safety
and pain relief properties of cannabis for patients with AIDS and cancer.
Dr. Abrams suggested that cannabis-induced euphoria is not
such a bad thing: “Is it really an ‘adverse experience,’ particularly in a
terminal patient? Is a single treatment that increases appetite, decreases
nausea and vomiting, relieves pain and improves sleep and mood, a potentially
useful tool in oncology and palliative medicine?”
During Dennis Peron Memorial Tour in Castro District
(aka LGBT mecca), Green Guide Tours founder Stuart Watts showed a photo of
himself with Castro resident Peron aka “Father of Medical Marijuana” who died
last month at age 71. Peron advocated for medical cannabis, which helped his
partner ill with AIDS ease pain and nausea.
“Brownie Mary” Rathbun (1921-1999) met
Peron at Café Flore in 1974. Brownie
Mary was an IHOP waitress, with a grandmotherly visage, who earned extra money
baking and selling cannabis-laced brownies from her home. Her customers were mostly gay men with AIDS,
who found that cannabis helped them with wasting syndrome. Later people donated cannabis to Brownie
Mary, who then began baking more brownies and distributing them free to sick
people. She was arrested several times for
possession of cannabis brownies. Brownie
Mary also volunteered at SF General Hospital’s AIDS ward, where Dr. Abrams
worked as physician and became inspired to conduct the
first study about the effects of cannabinoids in people with HIV.
Thanks to the
efforts of Peron and Brownie Mary, San Francisco passed Prop P, the nation’s
first medical cannabis bill in 1991. In
the following year, they opened the San Francisco Cannabis Buyers Club, the
first medical cannabis dispensary in the U.S.
In 1996, California became
the first state to legalize medical cannabis with voter-approved Proposition
215. According to
Peron, “Every cannabis
user is a medical patient whether they know it or not.”
Effective
January 1, 2018, Proposition 64 (passed in 2016) allows licensed medical
cannabis dispensaries in California to open their doors to recreational
customers age 21+ who can purchase a limited amount (1 ounce) of cannabis
without a current physician’s recommendation or medical marijuana
identification card (MMIC, which can cost up to $100). MMIC holders must be age 18+, may purchase higher quantities of cannabis, and do not have
to pay sales and use taxes on their cannabis purchases.
Social
insurance
At Home With Growing Older hosted a forum on Social Security, Medicare and the Campaign against Entitlements, presented by Justice
in Aging Executive Director Kevin Prindiville and UCSF Sociology Professor
Emerita Carroll Estes, at SF Public Library.
Lifelong mothering
At Reinhardt Alumnae House, Mills College President
Elizabeth Hillman and former College President Jan Holmgren hosted It Never Ends: Mothering Middle-Aged Daughters (2017) book reading and discussion with authors, Sandra Butler (age 79)
and Nan Fink Gefen (76), who explored older women’s reflections on motherhood when
daughters are in their 40s and 50s.
Reverse Aging?
Sutter Health Institute for Health and Healing hosted
The Science of Healthy Aging with 51-year-old Sara Gottfried, MD, at Sherith Israel. As one of the
first 350 to register for
this free event, I received a free copy of Gottfried’s book Younger: A Breakthrough Program to Reset Your Genes, Reverse
Aging, and Turn Back the Clock 10 Years (2017). As an old soul who aspires to greater
maturity, I was almost repelled by the title of this anti-aging book and its
overemphasis on a youthful physical appearance rather than health.
Creative Aging
At Contemporary Jewish Museum, met up with SFSU Gerontology Professor and
Program Chair Darlene Yee-Melichar to attend Creating A New Old San
Francisco, a one-day “deep dive into contemporary aging” by Creative Aging International (CAI). She stands between journalist Paul Kleyman and fellow Gerontology Professor Emiko Takagi.
Event included resource table and networking opportunities. Connected with Caitlin Morgan of Institute on Aging and
Hope Levy of City College of San Francisco’s Older Adults Program.
Session
1 Overview – Issues in Contemporary
Aging: “Why? Everyone attending brings expertise. To avoid telling people
what they already know while articulating what makes contemporary aging unique,
we asked these speakers to share knowledge from their experience, so we might
begin to think together.”
San
Francisco Bay Area speakers seated from right to left in photo above, and presented
in the following order:
• Carroll Estes, PhD, of UCSF and Nicholas DiCarlo discussed concepts
from their upcoming An Encyclopedia of
Contemporary Aging (expected to be published by Routledge in late
2018/early 2019): inequality, power, resistance, abjection, trauma, destruction
of the commons, right to self-development, intergenerational, interdependence,
austerity, gentrification, watch-bitch v. watchdog.
• Susan Hoffman, Director of Osher Lifelong
Learning Institute (OLLI) at UC Berkeley, spoke about Radical
Aging: BELIEF that we
can all self-actualize, KNOW that there are obstacles and limitations, WISDOM
and experience to expand possibilities; our roles (pioneers & activists;
researchers & translators; poets & philosophers; inventors &
designers; educators; artists & amateurs); 25% of OLLI members are age 80+,
calling OLLI the “4th Age Salon.” She highlighted influences through the
decades (1960s: Marian Diamond’s brain plasticity research, Free Speech
activism, White House Conference on Aging; 1970s: gerontology programs, Gray Panthers, The Center for Independent Living, American Society on Aging, On Lok, California Arts Council; 1980s: Age Wave, SeniorNet, Genome Research Institute, Association for Cultural Equity; 1990s: Encore, Multimedia Gulch, UCSF Memory & Aging,
Walter Bortz’s Dare to be 100, Xerox PARC; 2000s: Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, Stanford Center on Longevity,
Village Movement, IDEO, Elizabeth Blackburn’s telomeres research; 2010s:
Age-Friendly Cities, Aging 2.0, GBHI Fellows). She said we need to transcend divisive generation labels because we are all perennials!
• Gretchen Addi, Consultant and
Designer-in-Residence at Aging 2.0, on Technology and Business – Insider Awareness:
recalled Jetsons family in 1962 living
in the future—"what we take for granted today was the science fiction of
the previous generation”; mentioned superpowers, like IDEO colleague Barbara Beskind who is seeking to design glasses and
earbud for facial recognition as adaptive technology for her macular
degeneration; new technology can improve lives of people as we age; called for
shift to design with (not for) older
adults, about people (not age group),
interdependence (not independence);
keep older adults mobile, engaged, healthy, connected; accessibility to avoid risks
of exclusion and isolation if not tech savvy, privacy and security concerns.
• Bruce Miller, MD, Director of UCSF Memory and Aging
Center, on Challenges
of Dementia: epidemic
of age-related cognitive impairment, most costly health problem in U.S. that especially impacts poor; 70% preventable risk factors (cardiovascular disease,
high cholesterol, lack of exercise, loneliness, isolation, depression, head
trauma), 30% neurodegeneration by aggregate bad proteins.
Session
2 The San Franciscan View – Innovations
at Home: “Why? Aging shrinks geography, all successes are, ultimately,
local. Great innovations are happening. This celebration of SF projects already
‘creating a new old’ shares some of the innovation in this city.” Choice of two breakout sessions:
Room 1
– Caring Systems – how we live where we
live: “Cultures of caring community being nurtured in SF.” This session was chaired by Tim Carpenter, founder
of EngAGE, a 20-year-old nonprofit that builds and operates affordable
senior and multigenerational apartment communities as “vibrant centers of learning, wellness, and creativity.”
· Jerry Brown, CEO of Bethany Center Senior Housing,
talked about his affordable
housing site’s collaboration with partners (OnLok PACE, IHSS, IOA, Openhouse,
etc.) to provide a continuum of care to diverse elders representing 37 countries
and 8 languages. Housed at Bethany Center and modeled after Mather LifeWays, Ruth’s Table is a multigenerational
community center that provides art and wellness programs, integrating senior
residents with visitors of all ages from the surrounding community.
· Kate Hoepke, Executive Director of San Francisco Village (SFV), talked about social networks
diminishing as we get older and face marginalization; in response, the village
grassroots movement began 12 years ago to create intentional communities that
are intergenerational to dignify aging.
She noted the greatest barrier is reluctance to ask for help, yet one
needs to ask to get help.
· Karyn Skultety, Executive Director of Openhouse, introduced her organization as the 1st
LGBT-welcoming affordable senior housing, serving over 2,300 people not living in housing last year, and a resource for cultural humility
training.
· Rachel Lovett of Thriving in Place (advocacy for IHSS) and
Re:Imagine (end-of-life exploration event on April 16-22,
2018).
JCCSF Adult Programs Manager Shiva Schulz and Hope Levy
Session 3A – Creative
Practice as Strategy – Examples from national and international
understanding of creative practice leading change.
· Anne Basting, Professor of Theater at University
of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and Founder, CEO of TimeSlips Creative Storytelling, asked us to text someone: "what gives you a feeling of awe?" She mentioned 3 sources of awe: nature,
art and spirituality. We can facilitate awe through creative engagement: Yes, and (inviting and affirming choices
through play/improv); Beautiful Questions
(open shared path of discovery); Proof of
Listening (radical affirmation of choices); Rigor/Value (frame in context with social capital); Connect (individual and communal
purpose)
·
Arti
Prashar, Artistic Director/CEO of Spare Tyre in London, promotes collaborative participatory
art with hard-to-reach people (age 60+, people with dementia/learning
disabilities, women who have experienced violence). This can be done using gardens as non-verbal
theater that engages in the present moment, invites in space of senses, adjusts
to slower pace, elicits play and imagination.
·
Dominic
Campbell, co-founder of CAI and director of Bealtaine Festival in
Ireland, the world’s first (1996) nationwide
arts festival celebrating creativity and aging.
He talked about Celebration as Strategy,
and the need for fun festivals, with elements of individual choice (because
life is about risk), empathy exchange, disruption (stereotype-smashing creative
arts day club, Meet Me at the Albany) and connection.
· Anne Basting of Timeslips talked about
transforming long-term care with the collaboration of nursing home residents through
The Penelope Project: An Arts-Based
Odyssey to Change Eldercare (2016)
· Kate de Medeiros of Miami University co-authored with Basting The Gerontologist article, "'Shall I Compare Thee to a Dose of Donepezil?': Cultural Arts Interventions in Dementia Care Research" about the challenges of measuring interventions in dementia care based on subjective experience.
·
Maura
O’Malley and Ed Friedman, founders of Lifetime Arts in New York, provide technical assistance to
support arts programming for older adults based on Gene Cohen’s creative aging
research focused on mastery and social engagement. Lifetime Arts is also a leader in
library-based creative aging programs, partnering with American Library
Association.
·
Kelly
Dearman, Chair of Aging & Disability Friendly Task Force in San Francisco, presented on the implementation of San
Francisco’s Age and Disability Friendly Plan
·
Tim
Carpenter – EngAGE
·
Penelope Douglas of Culture Bank in San Francisco talked about how art helps us see the poor as communities with assets of value and opportunity for investment.
·
William
Cleveland, Director at Center for the Study of Art and Community in Washington
State, talked about Arts Based Community Development (ABCD) ecosystem to advance dignity, health, productivity
·
Teresa
Bonner, Director of Aroha Philanthropies in Minneapolis, shared website of resources at https://www.vitalityarts.org/ to champion participatory arts education programs for older adults.
Session
6 - What Next? A question to start
and end with. When you determine the kind of old you want to be, you shape the
world you want to grow older in. What’s your next step? Sharing thoughts from
the room gathered over this one day – nurture and heal, inspire and mobilize,
educate and inform, build and improve.
