GSA on Aging

Science and Storytelling: Stigma of Dementia

Stigma of dementia is one of the greatest barriers for people living with dementia and their care partners. It can lead to low self-esteem, poor mental health, and a decreased quality of life. Research shows that older adults fear dementia more than cancer, stroke, and heart disease combined. Despite this knowledge, few studies focus on actions to improve understanding and reduce stigma of dementia. In this episode, Dr. Marc Viger sits down with podcast host Dr. Juanita-Dawne Bacsu to chat about stigma of dementia and discuss some key actions for challenging this issue and improving the quality of life for people living with dementia and their care partners. 

Guest:  Marc Viger, MD (Bio)—Family Physician and Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Saskatchewan, Canada. 

Host:  Juanita-Dawne Bacsu, PhD (Bio)—Postdoctoral Fellow, Rural Dementia Action Research Team, University of Saskatchewan, and Research Associate, Saskatchewan Population Health and Evaluation Research Unit, University of Regina, Canada. 

This podcast episode is supported by the GSA Innovation Fund: 75th Anniversary. 

Science and Storytelling: Family Caregiving and Older Adults

Approximately 42 million family caregivers in the United States provide unpaid care for an older adult. Family caregivers can spend countless hours engaging in complex activities—such as medication management, wound care, and care coordination—that can influence their own financial security, health, and well-being. In this episode, Dr. Susan Reinhard talks with host Dr. Jo-Ana Chase about the science and policies impacting family caregiving in the United States and how Dr. Reinhard’s nursing practice influenced her path to science and policy making. 

Guest: Susan Reinhard, RN, PhD, FGSA, FAAN (Bio)—Senior Vice President and Director, AARP Public Policy Institute, and Chief Strategist, AARP Center to Champion Nursing in America and Family Caregiving Initiatives. 

Host: Jo-Ana D. Chase, PhD, APRN-BC (Bio)—Associate Professor, University of Missouri Sinclair School of Nursing.  

The Gerontologist Podcast: Emotional Labor of Home Health Aides with Dr. Emily Franzosa

Dr. Degenholtz interviewed Dr. Emily Franzosa at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and the James J. Peters VA Medical Center about her paper on the emotional labor of home health aides. Her paper, “Who’s Caring for Us?”: Understanding and Addressing the Effects of Emotional Labor on Home Health Aides’ Well-being, published in the December 2019 issue of The Gerontologist, reports on focus groups conducted with groups of aides, finding that being close and having trusting relationships with clients were important to aides’ emotional well-being.  The conversation highlighted the importance of recognizing emotional labor and the limitations of the current system that do not reward or even explicitly acknowledge the psychological toll that caring can have on paid caregivers.  Dr. Degenholtz talked to his mother about the people who have cared for their relatives, including his uncle and his grandmother, and tried to parse out what motivates people above and beyond pay to do this challenging work.

Article (December 2019 Issue of The Gerontologist)

Disclaimer: This interview does not represent the views of the US Department of Veterans Affairs or the United States government.