Creating elder-friendly communities: preparations for an aging society

Because many communities where older people live were not designed for their needs, older residents may require support to remain in the least restrictive environment. "Age-prepared communities" utilize community planning and advocacy to foster aging in place. "Elder-friendly communities" are places that actively involve, value, and support older adults, both active and frail, with infrastructure and services that effectively accommodate their changing needs. This paper presents an analysis of the literature and results of a Delphi study identifying the most important characteristics of an elder-friendly community: accessible and affordable transportation, housing, health care, safety, and community involvement opportunities. We also highlight innovative programs and identify how social workers can be instrumental in developing elder-friendly communities.     

Connecting local environmental knowledge and land use practices: A human ecosystem approach to urbanization in West Georgia

Issues of urban sprawl and migration of exurban residents into the surrounding countryside of metropolitan areas have generated considerable debate across the US. These debates often revolve around the ecological footprint of urban areas and the erosion of quality of life indicators associated with rapid expansion of urban and residential areas. Although there has been much research done on the environmental and socioeconomic impacts of urbanization, little attention has been given to cultural impacts. This paper focuses specifically on the role of local environmental knowledge as an important resource in human ecosystems, and looks at the implications of environmental knowledge loss associated with urbanization and its related demographic changes. We compared environmental knowledge among rural, urban, and developing watersheds in western Georgia, and also look at relationships between local environmental knowledge and variables such as gender, education, income, and participation in outdoor recreational activities. We then explored how variations in environmental knowledge affected land use practices at the household level. The mean knowledge scores of residents in all three classifications of rural watersheds were higher than those living in developing and urban watersheds. We found residents of managed pine watersheds possessed the highest mean scores (p = 0.006), while urban watershed residents were the lowest. We also found that local environmental knowledge was influenced by active participation in outdoor recreation, with active bird-watchers having the highest environmental knowledge scores. However, we found less influence of factors such as education and income on environmental knowledge. We also found a clear connection between local environmental knowledge and land management practices. Timber owners scored higher than non-timber owners (p = 0.099), and landowners who constructed streamside management zones (SMZs) scored higher than those who did not (p = 0.034).     

压力伤害你的胃

我的好友LISA因几个月来一直在紧张地筹备婚礼，几天前忽然感到胃痛，随之而来的就是严重的腹泻，那阵势几乎要把她击垮。当时她以为自己的身体出了严重的问题例如胃癌什么的，赶紧去看了医生后才松了一口气，原来只是压力引起的胃痛。     

An epidemiological model applied to planning and evaluation of local health department services

Utilizing epidemiological methods in the planning process, the Georgia Department of Human Resources, Division of Public Health, focuses on community-based and patient-based standards. These standards are identified and applied in the evaluation of local health department programs. Emphasis is first on prevention, taking into consideration life style, environment, health systems, and biological factors, in developing objectives from which these standards are derived. The evaluation process is based on sampling techniques to obtain patient data and vital statistics for community data. The success of this model is a function of decentralization.     

Social gerontology as public sociology in action

Burawoy (2005) argues that sociology needs to re-establish a public sociology oriented toward society’s problems and the practice of its unique knowledge if it is to again be taken seriously by the public, policymakers, and others. Yet, it is unclear how best to achieve these goals. We argue that the relatively young field of social gerontology provides a useful model of successful public sociology in action. As a multidisciplinary field engaged in basic and applied research and practice, social gerontology’s major aim is to improve the lives of older people and to ameliorate problems associated with age and aging. Thus social gerontology has routinely reached beyond the academy to engage with its publics. We review the field’s historical and theoretical development and present four examples of public sociology in action. Several factors have contributed to social gerontology's success in achieving the goals of public sociology: (1) Working in multidisciplinary teams which promote collaboration and respect for diverse perspectives. (2) Its ability to advocate “professionally” for its publics without favoring one group at the expense of another. (3) The unique affinity of its theories and practices with its disciplinary values. (4) The constructive effects of its ongoing questioning of values and ethics. Working in a multidisciplinary field with multiple publics, social gerontologists have been able to blend professional, critical, policy, and public sociologies to a considerable degree while contributing toward improvements in well-being.     

A Note on Stagewise Regression

Suppose one estimates the coefficient β₂ in E[Y] = β₀ + β₁ X ₁ + β₂ X ₂ by stagewise regression. That is, first the model E[Y] ≌ β₀ + β₁ X ₁ is fit using simple linear regression followed by a simple linear regression of the residuals from this model on X ₂ to yield the estimator β₂. The ratio of the squared t statistic for the estimate b ₂ from multiple regression to the squared t statistic for β₂ is greater than or equal to 1.0 and is shown to be a convenient function of correlation coefficients among Y, X ₁, and X ₂. Examination of stagewise regression can provide useful insights when introducing concepts of multiple regression.