Aging and mental health

Interviewing for advocacy
purposeful engagement, respecting boundaries, & creating mutual direction

Tom Meuser, Clinical Psychologist & Applied Gerontologist

GeroPsych Maine LLC

Introduction

Your success as a Community Connector or age-friendly volunteer hinges on two key factors:

By mastering respectful and empathetic communication with older people, you create a foundation of trust and rapport. Simultaneously, having a well-defined sense of your responsibilities and goals allows you to work with older people in your community more efficiently and ethically.

These skills work in tandem, enabling you to:

Resources - Introduction

Meuser 2011 Oral LIfe Review.pdf

“A common ageist stereotype is that older adults become frail in body, mind, and emotion, and so need to be ‘protected’ from undue distress and burden. If you live seven or eight decades, you have learned to manage life’s ups and downs. Certainly, some older adults, such as those with advancing dementia, are vulnerable and do need reasonable protection. Most that choose to participate in a life review interview, however, are not in this situation. An important “job” of the therapeutic listener is to accept what the reviewer wishes to discuss and follow the threads, even when painful and troubling at times.”


Activity - Introduction

Life story interviewing is a powerful and engaging technique for working with older adults. This approach involves guiding individuals through a structured reflection on their life experiences, memories, and personal history. By encouraging older people to share their stories, life story interviewing can provide numerous benefits. It offers a sense of validation and importance to the individual, helping them to feel heard and valued. The process can also enhance self-understanding and promote a sense of life review, which is often important in later life. For caregivers, family members, or healthcare professionals, these interviews provide invaluable insights into the person's background, values, and preferences, leading to more personalized and empathetic care. Additionally, life story interviewing can be therapeutic, potentially alleviating symptoms of depression or anxiety by allowing individuals to process past experiences and find meaning in their life journey. When conducted sensitively and respectfully, this technique can strengthen intergenerational bonds, preserve family and cultural history, and contribute to a more positive perception of aging. 

Reflection - Introduction

What are some ways that your age-friendly community could celebrate the lives of older residents? Reflect on how celebrating the lives of older residents could impact the community--from the very young to the very old.  Click here to complete the first of two reflections in this chapter. Completing your reflection will also record your progress.  Important: Complete each section before moving on to its corresponding reflection. When you return to the form, you will automatically be taken to where you last left off. 

Interviewing Vignettes

These short, focused scenarios provide examples of some of the conversations you may have with older residents who seek resources, support, and connections to social opportunities. The vignettes provide an opportunity to critically reflect on how you might approach a similar situation. 

As you watch the vignettes, please think about how Tom is maintaining healthy boundaries with Margaret that equip her to lead the life that she values.

Activity - Vignettes

This is a personal reflection and will not be recorded in the survey we are using to document your progress.

Before viewing the activity, think about the four vignettes,

Reflection - Vignettes

After you watch the debriefing video, reflect on your self-assessment as an interviewer:

Based on your assessment, which specific skills or areas would you like to develop further?

Please share your thoughts on these questions in your reflection. Your input will help us tailor future discussions and training sessions to address these areas of growth.

Click here to complete the second of three reflections in this chapter. Entering the reflection will also record your progress.  Important: Complete each section before moving on to its corresponding reflection. When you return to the form, you will automatically be taken to where you last left off. 

Conclusion

As a Community Connector or age-friendly volunteer in your community, one of your roles is to be a knowledgeable, supportive advocate for older community members to have a variety of resources that people need to thrive. While you're not a therapist, physician, or clinical professional, you possess powerful tools: the ability to listen attentively, validate experiences, offer encouragement, and facilitate connections. Although you may not be able to solve every problem, these skills enable you to make a significant positive impact. Most of the people you work with in the community will appreciate you and will want to collaborate with you to establish meaningful connections. Your role is centered on empathy, understanding, and bridging gaps between older adults and the resources they need, ultimately fostering a more supportive and inclusive community. 

Reflection - Interviewing for Advocacy

Thinking about your work with older residents in your community, what are some ways that you will make sure you are fully present when people are sharing some of the challenges they are facing? 

Click here to complete the final reflection in this chapter and record successful completion of the Interviewing chapter. Note: Clicking will bring you back to where you left off when you completed your last reflection. When you have finished, please click "submit" to record completion of the Interviewing chapter. 

Additional Resources - listed in the Mental Health and Aging Chapter  (optional)

Meet Your Chapter Guide - Dr. Tom Meuser

Dr. Tom Meuser is a clinical psychologist with specialized training and experience in narrartive gerontology, the neuropsychology of dementing disorders, and psychosocial intervention approaches to enhance well-being in older adults.  Tom is on the Editorial Board for the peer-reviewed journal, Gerontology & Geriatrics Education, and he was named a Fellow of the Gerontological Society of America in 2011.

Personable and collaborative by nature, Tom is thrilled to be part of the UNE family and Portland area community! Directing the CEAH is a professional dream come true for a hands on, applied gerontologist. He welcomes involvement and suggestions from anyone who cares about promoting healthful, "meaning-filled" aging in Maine and beyond.

Tom was born and raised on the Connecticut coast, where he attended Fairfield College Preparatory School (""Prep") and later earned his undergraduate degree in Psychology from the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, MA. He has family in Maine and throughout New England, and this move to Maine is a homecoming on many levels. Tom's geneological roots in New England go back to the early 1600s and Nantucket Island. Tom's mother was a Macy, and he is a direct descendant of Thomas Macy, an early settler and leader of that Island community.

Tom earned his MA and PhD degrees in Clinical Psychology with an emphasis on aging from the University of Missouri - St. Louis (1992, 1997), and he completed a post-doctoral fellowship in clinical geropsychology practice at the Center for Healthy Aging in Akron, OH, in 1998. His fellowship training emphasized practice in nursing home and assisted living settings - important settings for thoughtful, person-centered intervention today.

The next decade of his professional career was spent in medical school settings where he honed his skills as a researcher and translational educator. He served as the Administrative Director for the Alzheimer's Disease Brain Bank at Saint Louis University School of Medicine in 1998-99. He then transitioned to the Knight Alzheimer's Disease Research Center (ADRC) at Washington University of School of Medicine (1999-2007) where he served as a center co-investigator and core leader on a "P50" center grant from the National Institute on Aging.  Just before coming to UNE, Tom served as an Interim Associate Dean for the College of Arts & Sciences at the University of Missouri - St. Louis, where is also directed the Gerontology Program starting in 2007. He was profiled by the St. Louis Post Dispatch for his latter work in 2012.

Tom is known for his work loss and grief in dementia caregiving (including a widely used measure - the MM Caregiver Grief Inventory), older driver fitness, and reminiscence and life review. His latest research focuses on legacy beliefs in older adults and cross-generational communication about what matters most in life. He spoke on the TED Stage about this work in 2017.

Tom founded the UM - St. Louis Life Review Project in 2008, and he and his students have conducted over 350 video recorded life story videos with senior volunteers since. One such volunteer was Fay Badasch with whom he later co-wrote an article on narrative intervention. He intends to continue this life giving work at UNE. "There's no better way to teach a young student about aging than by linking her with a willing older adult in the context of sharing a full life story," says Tom.

Tom's published research spans many issues in aging, while staying close to themes of independence, coping, meaning and successful life transition. He is experienced in all aspects of human subjects research, including study administration, grant writing, database development, mixed methods approaches, data analysis, and publication/dissemination of findings. He's a regular reviewer for over a dozen journals in aging, and he's participated in a number of NIH and other grant-related study sections (i.e., where research proposals are reviewed and scored) over the years. He looks forward to drawing on this experience as be helps grow new aging-related research and scholarship at UNE. 

Tom's wife, Christy, is an Occupational Therapist, and they have three children. He enjoys hiking, kayaking, biking, savoring a good craft beer, yard work, home repair, and other "fix it" projects of all kinds. In his spare time, he enjoys listening to NPR and reading nonfiction books on 20th Century history and adventure stories.

He's especially fond of WW2 History and he had the good fortune of knowing many participants in this seminal conflict, including a survivor of the Bataan Death March, a hero of Pearl Harbor on 12/7/41, and the last surviving pilot with kills in both the European and Asian Theaters. His grandfather served in the Navy in and around the Aleutian Islands. His uncle earned a Purple Heart for his service as an infantryman during the battle for Tarawa Island in the Pacific. The passing of so many veterans these days is sad, but they leave a tremendous legacy in the making of America and in the oral, film and written histories they leave for future generations.

During this chapter, we hope you gained a few tools to guide your conversations with older community members seeking resources or social connections.
If you have any questions as you are going through the material, please email: lifelong@maine.edu. 

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