In this, the final English language episode of Season One, we meet Adam Galchus, currently studying for a  Master's Degree in Special Education. 

Prior to commencing these studies, he obtained a Bachelor of Science in Music, with a concentration in Jazz and Commercial Music. 

He is also the composer of Aging Wisely: The Podcast theme music. 

Adam was born with a disability. Notwithstanding that, he and his parents found his gifts in the arts, specifically music. From the age of eight, his gift was cultivated and he began his journey to musicianship when he took up the drums and, later, the trombone (and some piano). 

Due to his own life experiences and interactions with disabled children, he decided to pursue a degree in Special Education. He hopes to incorporate his musical training and education, in the work he does with high school students. 

He's also hoping to continue and pursue a career as a musician, composer and producer. 

Adam is an example of not only perseverance and recognizing your talent, but also of how the support of a "village" can impact and change the trajectory of a child's life. 

If you'd like to learn more or connect with Adam, please go to: 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-galchus-808492112/

Theresa Lyons is a Yale trained computational chemist who had her eyes set on a career on the corporate side of the pharmaceutical industry. She started on that journey, but life had other plans after the birth of her daughter.  At the age of three she was diagnosed with autism and Dr. Lyons life would be forever altered.

Dr. Lyons journey alongside her daughter was difficult but through of all of their hard word, they both came out on the other side of that dark tunnel.

Today, Dr. Lyons works with families of children with autism. Her work is directly inspired by her daughter, her first client.  One of her clients called her "The quarterback" when describing what she does, and that is a pretty accurate description. 
 
Dr. Lyons follows the available scientific literature and studies in her work with families and endeavors to provide a roadmap for  each family and child towards their unique goals.  Her work in the pharmaceutical industry and training as a chemist also allows her to approach her work in a unique fashion. 
 
This episode is also is a testament to a parent's  unconditional love for their child and their determination to help. Love can move mountains- and Dr. Lyons certainly did. 
 
The interview is replete with a wonderful perspective and valuable insight for families who, at times, struggle to see progress and to celebrate all of the small, but incredibly important, victories achieved by their child with autism. 
 
The bottom line is: You can't give up. You have to have faith. 
 
To learn more about Dr. Lyons and her work, you can go to  https://www.awetism.net 

To purchase her book:  https://amzn.to/3gR24J9 

While working at the Center for an Urban Future, Christian Gonzalez-Rivera undertook a research project that sought to really look at the ever present. growing AND aging immigrant population in New York City. 

The result is a report, "The New Face of New York's Seniors" that is incredibly comprehensive and looks at practically every aspect of what aging in a city means for its resident and the impact that it has on a population that, in many ways, struggled to adapt to a new city, not to mention county.

 What we learn is that while cities, like New York, can offer a lot to aging populations, they almost always fall short. When we look at aging immigrant populations, their particular circumstances and challenges, this also remains true. 

The reason? Caring and providing for aging populations and permitting them to age to age as full and active citizens where they live is not just the job of one agency. It requires EVERY agency, cultural institution and government entity's involvement. 

It involves us all. 

If you are an immigrant. 
If you work in the aging space.
If you love an older or old person.
If you care about quality of life for older and old people. 
If you want to understand older immigrants better. 
This is an episode you should listen.

To learn more about Christian: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christian-gonzalez-rivera-35bb478/

To read Christian's report, go to: https://nycfuture.org/pdf/The-New-Face-of-New-Yorks-Seniors.pdf

To learn more about the podcast, go to: https://www.agingwiselypodcast.com 

In this episode you will meet Anne Foerg, who is a New York City based Geriatric Social Worker and a Program Manager at the NORC at Penn South, which is a naturally occurring retirement community in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan. 

She has been working with older and old people for twenty years, and has worn many different hats when in those roles. Currently, she works with a team of ten, other social workers, nurses and other professionals to provide socialization opportunities to approximately 1000 residents over the age of 60. They also provide critical long term care supports to approximately ten percent of those residents. 

During the interview we look into her journey to Geriatric social work, what keeps working with this population, and what they have taught her about her profession- and life. 

More specifically, Anne explains what the NORC model is about, how it works to allow older people, many in retirement,  to remain in their long-standing communities, and to most importantly, live out the rest of their days, receiving long term care in the homes.

Lastly, there is no shying away from the difficulties in caring for older people and, usually, they come down to money and specifically the funding that is needed to support the most vulnerable members of our aging populations. 

This interview is an education on the costs associated with aging and how our societies can learn from the NORC model and allow older people to age with dignity and as much self-determination and support as possible. 

To learn more about the podcast, please visit https://www.agingwiselypodcast.com 

Special Education, no matter where you live, can feel like you are running through a gauntlet. Caring for a child with a disability can present with many challenges, and one of them is navigating their education. It may feel isolating, but it doesn't have to be, especially if you are educated on how the system works and what to realistically expect. 

During this thirty-seven minute interview, Maria McGinley, an attorney practicing in New York City, candidly talks about the good, the bad and the ugly of special education and its sometimes companion litigation. We discuss Early Intervention, IEP meetings, transition planning and a lot more. 

She is a former special education teacher, who took her classroom experiences and transformed them into a rewarding legal career advocating for students and their families, who are seeking educational justice for a child. 

What she talks about is as applicable in New York, as it is in any major metropolitan city or a small town.  Some struggles are universal, no matter where you live. 

If you are a parent or a family member of a child with a disability, listening to this episode is time well spent and you will absolutely come away knowing at least one thing: you are never alone. 

To learn more about Maria McGinley, Esq., you can go to:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/maria-c-mcginley-2727b911/

To learn more about the podcast, please go to https://www.agingwiselypodcast.com 

In this episode, Attorney Deirdre Lok from The Weinberg Center for Elder Justice in New York City, discusses a topic that many of us really don’t want to talk about- elder abuse. The abuse of older people.

It sounds unfathomable and cruel, doesn’t it? Unfortunately, it is all too real. Any person, under certain circumstances, can fall prey to elder abuse.  It comes in quite a few forms and no two cases ever look the same.

The biggest culprit in elder abuse is…isolation. This is common for older people as their family and social circles becomes smaller as they age.  Hence…the title of the episode, eyes and ears everywhere are needed.

One in ten Americans over the age of sixty have experienced a form of elder abuse. The highest estimate is around five million people. Even so, the total numbers of elder abuse cases are underreported. Some statistics put the number of cases reported at one out of twenty-four.

The most common is financial abuse  but...it usually comes with other types. Abuse is never in isolation. 

If you don’t understand elder abuse, want to learn or, perhaps, are interested in working with older people,  Deirdre and Host Veronica Escobar, have a “soup to nuts” discussion about it all.

What is elder abuse? Who is affected by it?  How does the justice system aid victims? What can they do better? How did the Weinberg Center come into existence and how do they help those who need it most? What kind of people does The Weinberg Center help? Can this model be replicated elsewhere?  What can the public do to help?  

Working with older people brings challenges but it is also yields tremendous personal (and professional) rewards. Work should have meaning and this work certainly does as well as impact. 

The abuse of our aging population is everyone’s business.

We should all look out for one another, "Today for you and tomorrow for me."

To learn more about The Weinberg Center, go to: https://www.theweinbergcenter.org

To learn more about Aging Wisely: The Podcast, go to:  https://www.agingwiselypodcast.com 

Today you will meet Kathryn “Katie” Yohe, the co-founder and Executive Director of the A.B.L.E Ensemble, a Chicago-based performing arts non-profit that works with teenagers and young adults with cognitive and developmental disabilities, like down syndrome, autism, cerebral palsy-among others. Their members range from their mid-teens to their late twenties and early thirties.

As Katie said during the interview, once you are accepted into A.B.L.E, you can stay for as long as you like. In addition to being a place for the members to showcase their creative expression, in whatever way fits them, it is also a second home. For young disabled adults, life changes dramatically as they enter adulthood. One of Ms. Yohe’s objectives is to always be present for her performers and their families.  To be a constant in an ever-changing world.

During the interview, we learn about Katie’s childhood, putting on theatrical performances at home, and the eventual pursuit of her initial dream to become a classically trained theatre performer under the bright lights of Broadway.  A series of serendipitous events eventually led to the creation of the A.B.L.E. Ensemble.

Through Katie’s training in Applied Theatre, and with the collaboration of Teaching Artists and Facilitators, her team creates original stories in partnership with their actors or adapts classical theatre works, like Shakespeare, to modern times and to reflect the diversity of abilities within their ensembles.   

Even though Katie’s goals changed, she still accomplished her dreams. In the last five years, she has brought her love of performance and its transformative magic to young people who currently have no space in traditional theatre. She created a space for them, to be unapologetically themselves.

To learn more about the A.B.L.E. Ensemble, go to https://www.ableensemble.com

To learn more about Aging Wisely: The Podcast, go to: https://www.agingwiselypodcast.com

In this interview, veteran Geriatrician Jomarie Zeleznik, M.D. openly and sincerely talks about the practice of geriatric medicine. 

We talk about what inspired her to pursue geriatric medicine, later to homebound persons, what it takes to pursue a geriatric specialty, and what keeps her in practice. 

She also does not shy away from difficult topics, from the frustrations with long term managed care, with providing quality care to people in our current health system, the challenges faced by caretakers and family and her enlightening and profound view of what "end of life" truly means to her. 

Her enthusiasm for her profession and her patients is palpable. 

If you are caregiver, or have an older parent or are an older person yourself, this interview offers a wonderful overview to not only the practice of geriatric medicine but also to what everyone should know about aging and medical care.