ASA Constituent Groups provide focused, in-depth information and connect members with professionals who share specific interests, affinities and work settings. ASA members can join any of the eight groups free of charg

ASA’s Constituent Group Programs are multi-session programs within the conference that are organized around a specific topic. You can attend the entire program or individual sessions. They are included in your registration fee and do not require pre-registration.

Accelerating Policy and Practice: Strategies for Enhancing the Health and Independence of Older Adults

Thursday, March 29 | 8:00 am–2:30 pm

Presented by ASA’s Healthcare and Aging Network

This program will illustrate recent trends in health care and their implications for older adults and their families. Strategies for forging innovative partnerships that promote the development of person-centered, culturally appropriate, and evidence-driven health and long-term supports will be highlighted. Special emphasis will be placed on approaches that leverage and maximize resources to support sustainability and systems integration. Presenters will describe best practices for developing and implementing evidence-based health and dementia programs, and will introduce evidence-driven strategies for promoting health equity in diverse communities. They also will identify an array of in-home care options that enable older adults to remain healthy and independent in their community of choice.

Taking Tools and Models for Supporting Aging in Place to Scale: Strategies and Barriers to Success

Thursday, March 29 | 8:00 am–2:30 pm

Presented by ASA’s Network on Environments, Services and Technologies for Maximizing Independence

Despite demonstrated successes, technologies, transportation, home design and livable community models to support aging in place for older adults have faced numerous challenges in being taken to scale. Factors include familiarity concerns by older adults, cost barriers, policy/regulatory issues, and lack of successful business models. This program will examine successful applications that help older adults in diverse communities maintain their health and independence, while exploring scalability strategies for providers, vendors and payers. Participants will learn how new developments in the areas of transportation, technology, home design and livable communities are expanding services to older adults, and gain new strategies for overcoming barriers to scalability for tools and models supporting aging in place.

Culturally Appropriate Services and Programs to Meet the Needs of LGBT Older Adults

Thursday, March 29 | 10:00 am–2:30 pm

Presented by ASA’s LGBT Aging Issues Network

Continuing its work to bring the lessons, insight and experience of LGBT elders and the professionals who serve them across diverse communities further into the mainstream of aging services and policy, LAIN presents three programs that address specific contexts and praxis where change is happening and where it is needed. The first session will examine the business case for identifying and meeting the goods and services needs of LGBT elders in for-profit and nonprofit contexts. Two subsequent sessions will focus on the barriers faced by older LGBT adults of color in accessing services, and offer outreach strategies and culturally appropriate solutions to service delivery. The premise is that supporting LGBT elders to age in community with culturally appropriate methods requires fresh thinking and innovation that draws on experiences often found outside the mainstream.

Business and Aging: Trends and Opportunities 

Friday, March 30 | 8:00 am–12:30 pm

Presented by ASA’s Business Forum on Aging

This half-day program will provide those interested in business and aging issues an opportunity to hear about new ways businesses are meeting the needs of an aging population. It provides a unique opportunity for sharing ideas, trends and solutions with colleagues around significant topic areas of health, money, transportation and technology. The program also will focus on how organizations of all kinds can work together through partnerships that help bring more services, products and information to all segments of the aging population.

Living Out Compassion Through Social Justice

Friday, March 30 | 8:00 am–3:30 pm

Presented by ASA’s Forum on Religion, Spirituality and Aging

This program will explore the moral and religious interconnections of social justice, faith and aging; community programs which carry out the mandate to serve and empower the elderly; and a prophetic call to justice through compassion. Participants will understand the meaning of “social justice” and its impact on the provision of aging services. They will learn best practices to encourage and empower older adults to engage in works of compassion, and discover how religion and spirituality impact a just society

The Impact of Demographic Changes on Elders of Color

Friday, March 30 | 8:00 am–12:30 pm

Presented by ASA’s Network on Multicultural Aging

This program will respond to questions about the social dilemmas that arise related to service provision, workforce concerns, and health care delivery from a policy standpoint as they pertain to the demographic changes reflected in the 2010 U.S. Census. The program will critically examine the assumptions of aging, social and health policies (rendered to impact older adults equally) and how they actually affect older adults differently when examined through the lens of race, class and gender. Participants will learn about new data from a Civic Ventures national survey on encore careers and how this is playing out in ethnically diverse sectors of the older population, as well as the impact of the Affordable Care Act on older adults and their families in multicultural communities.

Nurturing the Mind, Body, and Spirit of the Older Adults: A Holistic Approach

Presented by ASA's Lifetime Education and Renewal Network

This half-day program offers a road map for senior care organizations to develop creative, positive aging programs, enveloping cognitive/physical/spiritual enhancement through dance, theatre, music, story-telling and improvisation. Provided the mechanisms for creative self-expression, participants in such programs experience many benefits in terms of cognitive vitality, self-esteem and physical vigor. Session participants will learn about the latest neuroscience research, the mechanics of instituting arts programs and the benefits of creative activity on the aging brain and body.

Current Clinical Approaches to Mental Health for Aging and Culturally Diverse Populations

Saturday, March 31 | 8:00 am–4:30 pm

Presented by ASA’s Mental Health and Aging Network

This program will offer an overview of current clinical approaches addressing the mental health issues of a growing aging and culturally diverse population. Sessions will offer practical, replicable, skill building, and clinical interventions that will increase access to treatment and improve outcomes for elders with mental
health and dementia problems. Participants will review clinical interventions in group therapy models for diverse older adults with mental health issues and their families that are both efficacious and cost effective. They also will learn how to implement evidencebased mental health programs in their work settings.