Global Health Aging

  • The Healing Power of Optimism – A Positive Outlook Can Improve Quality of Life and Health

    The Benefits of Staying Positive There are many benefits associated with staying positive. This is supported by the fact that a continually growing body of research points to the benefits of viewing things in a positive light rather than negatively. Researchers believe that positive thinkers have no lasting negative effects since…

  • Italy: How Location Affects Mental Health

    Depression among the elderly is very common and can cause suicidal thoughts. People think that having depression is part of growing old and a disease that needs to be lived with. However, depression can be treated. There are many factors that can cause depression such as losing a lifelong partner…

  • Promoting Advance Directives, Reducing Medicare Spending

    *This article was extracted from a longer, in-depth, paper written during my internship with a policy forum in Washington, D.C.  More and more people are living to the age of 100. As our longevity increases, it is crucial to have an advance directive to make health care decisions, which may…

  • Why Growing Old in the U.S. Sucks…and There is Nothing (Something) We Can Do About It

    I am close to thirty years old. According to the latest data from the World Bank, I can expect to live another 45 to 50 years (Current U.S. life expectancy 78.7 years). However, the quality of those years is up for debate. Our current baby boomer population, on average, is…

  • Affected, not Infected – HIV/AIDS and the Elderly in Thailand

    Affected, not Infected – HIV/AIDS and the Elderly in Thailand

    The HIV virus is known to affect men and women in their reproductive age, between 15-49 years, leaving behind a large dependent population – children, the elderly, etc. The elderly play an important role in the epidemic although they are the invisible victims of this epidemic. They may not necessarily…

  • Caring for the Needs of the Aging Workforce

    As the American population continues to age, there is an opportunity and a need to adequately respond to the unique needs of older adults. Ensuring a social structure that considers the needs of the aging is important, particularly as it is projected that by 2030, the number of Americans 65…

  • Old and Homeless in Australia: It Can Happen to Anyone

    “In Australia, on any given night, 1 in 200 people are homeless.” One fifth of all people who are older than 55 years of age are homeless; many more live in unsecured housing. What is homelessness and what may cause someone to become homeless? A person is considered homeless when…

  • Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s: A Great Threat to the U.S. National Budget

    Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s: A Great Threat to the U.S. National Budget

    Since the last Presidential Election, the national budget has been a sore spot for Republicans and Democrats, the two major political parties in the U.S. While government programs such as the Affordable Care Act (ACA) are leading debates on reducing the national budget, politicians are oblivious of a looming threat…

  • Fighting Loneliness – Pet Therapy for the Elderly

    For many, retirement and old age is a welcome stage of life with few responsibilities, and a lot of time to pursue interests. To others, it brings on that dreaded feeling which no amount of pills and doctor appointments can cure – loneliness. According to AARP, over a third of Americans…