Gerontologist Hope Levy presented Age as an Asset in Your Job Search workshop, at
SF Main Library. Lots of techies, who face job discrimination at
younger ages, in attendance. Workers age 40+ are protected under Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA), and Congress is considering additional protection under proposed Protecting Older Workers Against Discrimination Act
(POWADA).
Hope’s presentation balanced the seriousness of challenging age discrimination in employment with moments of comic relief in cartoons by Randy Glasbergen. My favorites:
Hope’s presentation balanced the seriousness of challenging age discrimination in employment with moments of comic relief in cartoons by Randy Glasbergen. My favorites:
·
Reality
Check – hiring manager to job applicant: “We’re looking for someone with the
wisdom of a 50-year-old, the experience of a 40-year-old, the drive of a
30-year-old, and the payscale of a 20-year-old.”
·
Advantages
of Hiring Older Workers: “Don’t think of me as a 54-year-old job
applicant. Think of it as getting two 27-year-olds for the price of
one!”
Take-aways:
·
Value
your age and experience, which you’ve earned so emphasize your talents and
abilities
·
Upgrade
your skills strategically and identify resources that can help you do that
·
Target
employers who will value your skills and experience
Employers who serve
older adults generally value older workers. Hope shared her
experience when she was a 40-something being interviewed as to whether she
might be able to relate to older adults age 55+ served at City College of San
Francisco’s Older Adults Program. Yes, she was qualified and hired!
In Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club tradition, Felicia and
Helen were inspired to document the lives of their Chinese mothers
whose immigration stories were secret until later life. For
the past 40 years, Felicia has shared the story of her family’s immigration to the United States in documentaries—China, Land of
My Father (1979), Carved in Silence (1988),
and then Chinese Couplets (2015)
about her mother’s experience as a “paper daughter” during the Chinese
Exclusion Act era. Helen’s latest book, Last Boat Out of Shanghai: The Epic Story of
the Chinese Who Fled Mao’s Revolution (2019), includes the story about her
mother who was abandoned by her poor parents because she was a girl at age
6—unknown to Helen until she was in her 50s and her mother was in her 70s
living in a retirement community. They
also talked about their choice of media – Felicia’s films and Helen’s books –
from a desire for “shelf life.”
Anna Wong of
the SF Guzheng Musical Society played
the guzheng, a traditional Chinese
plucked string instrument. Anna
immigrated from Hong Kong in 1962 when she was 11 years old, thanks to
Kennedy’s Emergency Immigration Act of 1962 that allowed 5,000 Chinese refugees
to enter the United States. She lived and worked in sweatshops in San
Francisco’s Chinatown through her early teens, and then put herself through school
and became a clinical psychologist.
At 12th annual Art of Aging
Gracefully at JCCSF, licensed acupuncturist Esther Gokhale and her daughter
Monisha White presented No More
Aches and Pains: For You, Your Family, and Your Community. It’s not too late to reclaim our primal
posture, challenging assumptions about aging means falling, rounding,
shrinking, etc.
Based on her studies of populations with very little muscle and joint pain, our ancestors and how we moved as toddlers, Esther discovered how we are
meant to stand, sit, bend and move using our natural J-shaped spines.
Wendy Zachary, MD, introduced Acute Care for the Elderly (ACE) Unit
at California Pacific Medical Center’s Mission Bernal Campus.
Open since last August, ACE is a specialized
unit for older adults age 70+ focused on preventing functional decline and
improving patient experience. ACE units
have resulted in shorter length of stay, reduced 30-day readmissions, reduced
costs, increased patient satisfaction, and increased retention of functional
capacity. ACE team consists of geriatric trained healthcare professionals:
medical doctor, NICHE-trained nurses and certified nursing assistants, social
worker, case manager, physical therapist (PT), occupational therapist (OT), speech
therapist, activities therapist, registered dietitian, pharmacist, etc. This interdisciplinary team reports daily
using SPICES (Sleep, Problem eating, Incontinence, Confusion, Evidence of
falls, Skin breakdown) tool.
Sara Cohen, RN, AGCNS-BC, talked about
community partners that included On Lok, Inc. 30th Street Senior
Center’s Health Promotion! Volunteers
trained in HELP (Hospital Elder Life Program) also contribute to improved
outcomes by providing core interventions: daily visitors, frequent orientation,
cognitively therapeutic exercises, personal feeding, early and frequent
mobilization, non-pharmacologic sleep protocol, review of medications, and
assessment of cognitive status.
One of 34 private rooms in ACE unit. Sleep promotion policy means no wake times 12
am to 6 am, unless absolutely necessary for vitals/meds/labs. (Like Medicare for All, let's have Sleep Promotion for All!) Tour included visits to gym for PT/OT and
activity room for shared meals and activities.
During their stay, patients have access to supplies, such as iPad with
interpreter services, pocket talkers, hearing aid batteries, tilt-in space
wheelchairs, reading glasses, large print newspaper subscriptions, essential
oils, etc.
Tax dollars at work: Surveyors announced their annual Medicare/Medicaid inspection in
this poster at skilled nursing facility.
SF Main Librarian
Janet Tom organized How Different Faith Traditions View Death, as part of Death and Dying series.
