Thursday Three - 24 10 2024

  • This week is Spiritual Care Week 20th to 26th October
  • AAG Meet the Member Series - Getting to know Ilsa Hampton
  • AAG Blog - Is laughter really the best medicine?

Sunday, October 27th is Grandparents Day! 

Grandparents Day celebrates the contributions of older people to their families and communities and recognises the diversity of grandparent relationships and roles. According to the NSW Government, ‘it’s a day to spend time with older loved ones and connect across the generations.’

A big shout out to all AAG members who are grandparents, or ‘grandparent figures,’ of the next generation. We hope you all have opportunity to connect in meaningful ways with those you love this weekend.

This week is Spiritual Care Week 

The importance of Spiritual Care, especially in ageing, has long been a topic of discussion in Australia and around the world. For many years, AAG Member Rev Prof Elizabeth MacKinlay, Ageing Well Research Group, Charles Sturt University, one of AAG’s Collaborative Research Centres (CRCs), has been researching and writing about spiritual care and ageing in a secular society and the importance and benefits of attending to the spiritual tasks of ageing, especially for baby boomers as they enter adulthood.

This week, both Meaningful Ageing Australia and Spiritual Care Australia are offering a number of events, webinars and activities to promote the work of spiritual care practitioners, from health professionals to counsellors, pastoral care workers and everyone in between. Essentially, we all can have an impact on how older people age well, when we consider and understand the relationship between spirituality (in all its forms) and the older person.

Meaningful Ageing Australia has generously offered this resource for AAG members for their own professional use. You can find out more about the work of Spiritual Care Practitioners by clicking on the image below. 

 

AAG Meet the member series - getting to know Ilsa Hampton  

AAG is pleased to release the first episode of our new AAG ‘Meet the Member’ Series.

This month, we meet Ilsa Hampton, AAG Member and Chair, AAG Victorian Division Executive Committee.

Ilsa has over twenty years’ experience in health, community services and aged care and is currently CEO of the Australian Dental Association Victoria Branch, having previously served as CEO at both Optometry Victoria South Australia and Meaningful Ageing Australia.

Ilsa is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and an experienced board Director (most recently with Palliative Care Australia). As an Adjunct Senior Research Fellow with La Trobe University, Ilsa began thinking about ageing in the mid-2000s. This led to collaborating with her husband, Mark, and Ilsa’s parents to build an extension on their home so that her parents could age in place. This has provided a ‘living lab’ for many ideas about ageing and intergenerational living that has profoundly influenced her life and work.

Click on the image below to hear more about Ilsa, including what’s happening within AAG’s Victorian Division.



We hope to bring new episodes in this series each month to highlight the great work and research currently happening within AAG’s membership. If you would like to participate in the AAG ‘Meet the Member’ series, contact Christina at [email protected] for more information.

AAG 500 Blog - Is laughter really the best medicine?

‘Many of us have heard the old adage that ‘laughter is the best medicine.’ But even though we feel better after a good laugh, do we know what’s really going on behind the scenes?” 

In this week’s AAG 500 Blog , Dr Meg Polacsek, AAG Distinguished Member and Senior Research Fellow at ARIIA, takes a closer look at why laughter is “if not the best, certainly a strong medicine”.

Have you got something to say in an AAG 500 Blog?

You can ask a question, promote best practice, technique or new technology, highlight a problem, or take a stand on a particular topic of interest addressing AAG membership, stakeholders or current priorities. Simply send your entries in approximately 500 words to Christina at [email protected].

Note: The Editor reserves the right to make changes to submissions due to word count, formatting and as otherwise required prior to publishing.

Keep those photos and stories coming!

Thank you to everyone who has already contributed to our first celebrating 60 years photo reel! (click again if you missed it)

After last week’s showcase, we've been receiving so many fantastic submissions. Please keep them coming, we’d love to see even more of your photos and memories as we celebrate this incredible milestone together. We can’t wait to hear from more of you and continue building this amazing collection!
 
Simply send your photos and stories to Christina at [email protected].

Pictured: Four past AAG Presidents. Prof Christine Stirling, Dr Helen Barrie, Prof Briony Dow and Em Prof Julie Byles.  
photo credit Briony Dow