EGen2019

Call for Papers

Perspectives on the aging lifecourse and the role of the elderly within society have undergone massive change in the past decades. Once the later stages of aging were seen as a period of withdrawal from social interactions as the elder reflected on a life lived and prepared for an inevitable death. This viewpoint has changed dramatically in recent years with new opportunities for enhancing their quality of life, better medical care, support services and life extension technologies available. Similarly, changing demographic compositions of many low-fertility nations have made the elderly more essential to maintaining the workforce and offer opportunities for older adults to remain economically active long after traditional retirement ages. The growth of the elderly population has also encouraged growth in the institutional and home care industries, often creating a growing demand for immigrants to provide services to the growing number of elders who require assistance to maintain an independent lifestyle.

This year’s EGen conference theme will take the reflective concepts of “Independence and interdependence” as its lens, exploring any number of questions and issues surrounding the independence and interdependence of individuals within society, and from a variety of disciplinary perspectives, from sociological studies to those in politics and policy.

An example area of study would be a focus on assistive devices that help an aging population maintain independence and get the help they need to be autonomous, including companion robots, exoskeletons, and the field of gerotechnology which has developed an entire series of tools and resources to make living at home more practical and enhances the autonomy of the aged. Traditionally, quality of life among the aged was measured by the concept of frailty, which used measures such as Activities of Daily Living (ADLs) to measure loss of functioning, and declines in ability to accomplish tasks seen as essential to independent living. Under a “resilience” model, however, we seek to measure the aging process from a more positive perspective that focuses on the ability of the elder to maintain an independent life in spite of potential barriers. Once we saw disabled elders as merely surviving with the reduced function associated with senescence, now we seek new ways to help elders thrive and overcome limitations. There is also the theme of support services; how can family and support programmes better assist the aged in remaining independent and productive and what point do we as an individual, family, community, or clinician make a reasoned decision about institutionalisation and 24-hour care.

These are only a few of the broad themes on which we seek research papers and posters for EGen2019, and we welcome any paper or analysis which addresses the conference theme of “Independence and interdependence”.

Submissions are organised into the following streams:

• Housing
• Neighbours
• Healthcare Design

• Independent living
• Agility

• Fall Prevention

• Representation
• Ageism

• Integrated Care
• Nutrition

• Health Tourism
• Wellness
• Technology