Senior Care Academy - A Helperly Podcast
Senior Care Academy is the podcast for caregivers, senior care providers, and families with aging loved ones. Hosted by experienced professionals, we explore essential topics like elder care planning, dementia support, financial advice, and emotional wellness for caregivers.
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Senior Care Academy - A Helperly Podcast
Busting Myths About Getting Older with Briana Velarde
Aging is a privilege, not a problem. This perspective-shifting conversation with gerontologist Briana Velarde challenges everything you thought you knew about growing older.
Drawing from her expertise as coordinator of the Optimal Aging Program at the Huntsman Mental Health Institute, Velarde redefines successful aging as adaptability rather than the avoidance of change. She dismantles harmful stereotypes suggesting that aging inevitably leads to decline and dependency, offering instead a vision of continued growth, purpose, and joy throughout life's later chapters.
The science is clear—your mindset about aging significantly impacts your health outcomes. Velarde shares fascinating research showing people with positive outlooks on aging were 13% less likely to have heart attacks than their negative-thinking counterparts, even with family history of heart disease. This compelling evidence underscores why challenging our internal narratives about aging matters so much.
For those experiencing changes in physical abilities or health, Velarde offers practical guidance centered on three principles: never stop moving, never stop learning, and never stop connecting. She shares touching stories of patients in their 80s and 90s developing new skills and rekindling passions, proving it's never too late to find fulfillment. Her wisdom extends to younger listeners as well, emphasizing the importance of building identity beyond career achievements to prepare for a meaningful retirement.
The conversation tackles the critical distinction between isolation and loneliness, with actionable steps for fostering genuine connection. Velarde envisions ideal communities as intergenerational spaces where older adults are valued for their wisdom and experience. As Mark Twain wisely noted, "Aging is an issue of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter." Ready to transform how you think about aging?
Today on Senior Care Academy, we're joined by Brianna Velarde MS, a gerontologist with a focus on dementia care and exercise science. Brianna coordinates the Optimal Aging Program at the Huntsman Mental Health Institute Geriatric Psychiatry Clinic, where she helps promote healthy aging, social connection and caregiver support. She earned she earned her master's in gerontology from the university of Utah, receiving the best master's project award in 2020, and has presented her research on dementia education in rural aging communities at national conferences like the gerontological society of America and the American Society on Aging. Brand is passionate about helping older adults live with purpose, connection and joy. Today, we're going to talk about how we can all promote overall well-being as we age and build a more positive outlook on growing older. Thank you so much for joining us. I'm excited to jump into this.
Speaker 2:Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, kind of getting into it. The first question before we get into the shaping and mindset on aging is what got you into it? I think it's very unique and not common to have somebody go to school specifically to work in gerontology. A lot of people happen to end up in senior services in gerontology. So what got you into that?
Speaker 2:Well, I've always, I always was very, very close to my grandmother. She lived kitty corner to me, my entire life and she was just always there for me and she was kind of my inspiration to go in that direction, especially health. I would always be helping her. I was just her little helper all the time. And then when I started to look into physical therapy or occupational therapy, I heard of gerontology and I jumped right into it.
Speaker 1:That's awesome and you've obviously done well. It's cool the awards that you've gotten, the places you've been able to speak and actually start having an impact so quickly One thing. So when you think of aging well, what is the first thing that comes to mind?
Speaker 2:And then how would you say it differs from society's typical view of aging? Well, I think the first thing that comes to mind is adaptability. It's about being able to adjust to changes and challenges, and I mean this could be physical, emotional, social. And it's really different from society, because I think society has a more narrow definition of like, staying youthful, which is maintaining, like, a certain physical appearance, having high energy all the time, avoiding illness.
Speaker 1:And the reality is that aging well isn't about avoiding the change, it's about embracing it with just grace and resiliency like you know, moving, being healthy, having community connection, like it's like one of these micro buckets of what the umbrella of the term that you just said, which is adaptability, like having being able to adapt your community around your adapt your health, habits and things. So I like that a lot. Are there misconceptions around aging? That's one of them that aging the only way to age well is if you look 60, at 80. But are there other misconceptions about getting older that you would just like love to see go away?
Speaker 2:I would say the idea of just it's inevitable to have this major decline which can result in dependency and feeling obsolete. These thoughts are just so, so damaging and while there could be physical and cognitive changes in this process of aging, it's not what defines the person and it's not the normal part of aging. And you know, many older adults continue to learn new skills, they continue to contribute to society and communities and they can find purpose. So life is just rich with experience and potential and should not be seen as a loss as you age and should not be seen as a loss as you age.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I like that a lot. I mean, I've found myself even sometimes like the beginning thing that you said of like the rapid decline of aging is inevitable and it happens to everybody at some point, but it's not necessarily true Like my oh man. We had somebody on a while ago when he talked about stage not age, because you have those people that do have rapid decline at 62. And you have those that are 102 and still traveling the world, you know, and so it doesn't have to be a negative thing. Aging doesn't have to be, when you go about and think about aging, kind of touching on the positive outlook that comes with aging, especially those changes, those adaptability with health changes that happen for people.
Speaker 2:Even if it's not a rapid decline, maybe there's a shift in their health, what I guess how much does mindset really matter in all of that, when you think about those changes that happen, naturally, it really matters, um, you know, research has shown, uh, that there is a truly a clear link between a positive outlook on aging and better health outcomes.
Speaker 1:Interesting.
Speaker 2:Um. There is a study in from Johns Hopkins, um Hopkins, that they found people with family history of heart disease who developed a more positive outlook were 13% less likely to have a heart attack compared to their negative thinking counterparts. Positive mindset promotes you to lead you to healthier behaviors which can lower the stress levels and just impact your overall health.
Speaker 1:I love that and I agree. I think that having if somebody, if there's two people in the eye of the storm, if you will, and one person is like I'm going to make it through this and whatnot, I feel like they can see different paths forward than the other person, that's like we're all going to die. And so is there any practical tips? Because maybe somebody 60, 70, 80, or even younger, maybe they're 40 and they're starting to notice just the signs of getting older. Their knees are a little bit more sore. Are there practical tips or ways that you're able to actually go from the because there's reality in the downside of like man dang it, my knees hurt and so I can't like play basketball as long or something by the time I'm 50, maybe? How do you flip the script? Or how do you help those people flip the script and be able to see the positive sides of it, so that way they can have that positive outlook?
Speaker 2:I think they need to just keep moving and I would. I would say they just never stop moving, never stop learning, never stop connecting, and you just try to. You know, life comes at you with different barriers and you just need to now take a step back and look at it in a whole different way and see how you can continue your passions Maybe not how you did it before, but maybe you can apply it in a new way.
Speaker 1:I like that. There's this book that I really like called the Gap and the Gain. I don't know if you read it. Five second synopsis is the gap is like here am I here I am. Here's how far I have to go. The gain is like here am I, here I am, and look how far I've come. And I think that, even though it's not like they've come so far with whatever changes that have happened in their life, but they could. You know. The gap is I used to be able to ski for a whole weekend in park city and now I only can last one hour. That's the gap. But if they flip it and look at the gain of, like I'm still able to ski with my grandkids for a whole hour, you know, yeah, so I like that.
Speaker 1:It's like helping them see the, the net positive that they still have, even if there is like a negative, but it's just a perceived negative, if you let it be perceived right, it changes yeah, um, a question that I I know that gerontology right, it's specifically about older adults, but I think I'm sure that a lot of your research and everything that you do, kind of it, starts younger, because everybody gets older, a lot of younger people and this is a soapbox that I have a little bit of like you know, when we're five, we can't wait to be 10, because double digits and 10, we can't wait to be in junior high and high school, and then I can't wait to be done with my master's and whatnot.
Speaker 1:And then there's this time I don't know, maybe it's somewhere in the forties or something where all of a sudden people are pumping the brakes, being like slow down, wait, and they're not excited about what's next. Um, what advice would you give to younger people about preparing to have that healthy aging later in life and, specifically, I guess, the way that you define aging as adaptability?
Speaker 2:Okay, so well, first I would say, like slow it down. You know, you were just saying like we're always looking at the next, you know, decade.
Speaker 2:But, yeah, you know, be mindful and stay in the moment. But another one that I think, what I see in my own patients that I work with, you know don't prioritize your, don't prioritize your career as like the main thing. Prioritize your personal growth and well-being, because we live in a culture that promotes identifying ourselves with our job, but this can lead to significant loss after, like, retirement, and so really prepare for a healthy life by building a good core, a foundation of self-worth. So, which this means again, find a good exercise that you love to enjoy, your your favorite hobbies, continue to, you know, be curious and learn new things and just maintain, like good, face-to-face social relationships.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I like that, we definitely. Yeah, we definitely live in a society where, I mean, there's the saying to retire is to expire or whatever, because it's so career centric that once you lose that, if you're spending 80 hours a week for 40 years because you're trying to like do whatever with your career, and then you're like, oh wait, I never picked up golf when I was younger, you know, like I don't know whatever it is to have that that, so I like that career could be your passion yeah but, um, you can after, let's say, you're you're done with with working and you can retire, you have that privilege to.
Speaker 2:then I, you know what put that passion into something else. I volunteer, or you know there is other ways to apply your skills your skills, yeah.
Speaker 1:And then the face-to-face aspect, I think is huge, a, lot, of, a lot of the time, because we didn't and I'm I honestly am a little bit worried about like the newest generation that's so engulfed sometimes and to technology, they're not having the face-to-face. It's like man. I wonder what it's going to look like when, you know, when they get older and not have those those rock solid relationships and friendships and groups of people with common interests to hang out with. So that's really good advice, as you have your clients that you've met with over the years. I mean, you dropped one gold nugget of like prioritize or maybe not like don't prioritize your career, but it's make sure that you have room for other priorities, to be more of a whole person by the time you get to retirement age. But what other lessons of resilience or joy or connection have you learned from your patients?
Speaker 2:or connection have you learned from your patients? I think what I've learned most with working from the older generation and my patients is that it's never too late to find joy and meaning in your life. We often think that aging is the time of decline, but I've seen amazing skills of resiliency within my patients that overcome significant barriers like chronic health conditions and grief or discrimination. For example, I feel like I've seen patients in their 80s and 90s develop new skills and rekindle like old passions. I had a patient that just always had a passion to play the saxophone and you know what? We encouraged her to go try it and she did, and so, yeah, that is what I've seen.
Speaker 1:I love that. Yeah, we kind of have a program along those lines of like getting out and continuing experiencing life. We're kind of the idea is like do you remember Got Milk? Like just the classic milk bison. Basically, we want it to be like getting old it's good, right, like show her playing the saxophone, it's a good thing that you're getting old, show them skydiving or doing something like all all the things that they used to like to do, and it's like the idea of it used to be. Are you getting old? Oh no, like bad, pump the brakes, all these things, but it's like, no, it's good. Like you have the time or you have, um, the people you have. You've built this life and now you, you know, experience the fruits of it through your aging. So that's cool.
Speaker 1:Um, one thing that I talk a lot about and I'd love your expertise on but social isolation and loneliness is just like huge for seniors. I think, um, one of the good things that or if any of the good things that came from COVID, was that isolation got a ton of spotlight Like what impact is it having being isolated? And it has tons of health. Like people die years earlier because of isolation. So what's a practical step that people can do in their older years to adjust and try to stay connected.
Speaker 2:Well, first of all, I would like to note that you can be like loneliness and isolation is two different things. You can be, um, perfectly, you know, in, uh, surrounded by people, but feel absolutely lonely. So, and I think a lot of people feel that. So yeah, of course there's social isolation, but just feeling lonely is huge. I would say pick up a passion or hobby, it's this, is this is going to be repeated quite a bit.
Speaker 2:But, you know, find something like a book club, a volunteer group, a painting class, the senior center, a church, and the key is to just find something that you enjoy and you'd like to share with others and learn and meet new people, and it just makes it easier to build connections and friendships. But you can't. You know, don't be afraid to be vulnerable. You just have to know that everybody's in the same boat. A lot of people are nervous to meet new people and socialize and you know you might find somebody that's also thinking the same exact thing and you just connect. And that's what I see in my optimal aging program that I do is that you have these strangers that come together. They're very nervous at first. Then, when they start opening up to each other, they're like oh, that's, that's happening to you, oh, that's happened to me, and then they, the spark happens.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, we had, we did a virtual, we called it a like daily connect and it was just virtual and we had two ladies that got on. One was like late sixties, One was like late seventies and the lady that was in her sixties had been working, got injured. Um wasn't able to work anymore, the lady in her seventies. Because the lady in her sixties was willing to like be vulnerable and be like yeah, I'm kind of going through this, I've got PT and stuff. Um, this 70 year old lady was like oh my gosh, I had that same injury.
Speaker 1:And then, like they talked about she's, like, I did these three exercises, like all the other ones didn't help as much, but this one was awesome. And then they started talking about family and their hobbies and where they live, and so, yeah, it really starts with like a little, an inch of vulnerability can really open up the gate. Um, how, what would you say to people that cause? Like I said I, I like how you, you double clicked on that.
Speaker 1:Isolation is definitely different than loneliness. Like, um, my grandpa, for example, is relatively isolated. He lives in a really small town in Idaho, but he's not lonely cause. He's very well connected with his, the small community that's there, his kids, his grandkids. And then you have the opposite, somebody that's maybe living in a 300-bed assisted living or independent living community that feels incredibly lonely. What would you say or how would you try to motivate the person? Cause I think loneliness is more right, it's psychological and not physical. And sometimes people, when they're feeling lonely and isolated and maybe depressed, like they don't have that activation energy to be like I'm going to join a book club. So how do you, how do you help them? Like what's boiling it all the way down to like that first baby step.
Speaker 2:The first baby step is to first, I guess, identify that you are lonely, and I think that is one. A lot of people go around saying they're depressed and sad and they don't know why. Well, first we got to recognize that it's loneliness Number two, I would say it's hard, but you kind of have to. You really do have to push yourself because nobody is going to. Usually a lot, a lot of people don't come to you. You have to open up to go to other people.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Um, and I gotta say, if there's at least one person, can that can be your accountability to go you know, get yourself out and, and, um you know, push yourself. I would say that that's, that's the only way. I would in my opinion.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I like that first baby step of realizing like that it probably can be loneliness and maybe that goes back to education, like realizing that all of these health things that you're having could root back to just being emotionally lonely and and realizing that we are tribal beings and want that connection, you know you have control over this, like you can get yourself out and start talking to people.
Speaker 2:It's just that initial push, but you do have control.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, you have, even if it's on. I think one of the good things about social media is it can lower that barrier to finding your account. About accountability, how'd you say it is your? Friends on Facebook. You can just shoot them a message like hey, you know, like very low barrier of entry of just shooting a message and not needing to necessarily go to a random book club, but you can just message Sarah from junior year. There's a lot of good things with technology and social media.
Speaker 2:That really can help our older adults as well, and I really encourage them too. That's one of their new skills that they should continue to learn, because it is great to connect long distances. So it does help with that loneliness feel to keep on connected to your family that's far away or your friends that are far away. It just shouldn't replace your face to face-face interaction, yeah, but it really can.
Speaker 2:You know those are. You can find meetup groups online. You can find um so many like, yeah, virtual book clubs, um, and you know, as we get older, we maybe lose our ability to drive, yeah, so that's another reason why we feel isolated and lonely is that we can't get out of the house as much, and that's where, actually, technology really plays a good role in helping isolation and loneliness.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. And even if your accountability buddy is a long-distance friendship but you're telling them, hey, I saw this book club it's you're telling somebody that you're going to go do something and so then you can go like I think about one of my best friends. We tell each other of like, oh, I signed up for this Spartan race or whatever, and it keeps us accountable, to be like, how'd it go? And so having something like that, that's cool and working. You know, working on, you've worked on building the dementia education curriculum for healthcare professionals and even like family caregivers. But why is education so important on how we approach aging?
Speaker 2:Um, it's, it's really crucial because um many mistakenly as health professionals, us, everybody, um mistakenly think that, oh, you know, that's just a normal part of aging. You know, um when something like for a memory loss, oh that's just normal, you know?
Speaker 1:no, it's not, it's not normal.
Speaker 2:Um Education helps healthcare professionals and the public move beyond the stereotypes and see older adults not as just the diagnosis or just a number in age, but as individuals, and with this education we can really help build a system of care that really respects the dignity and autonomy of our older adults and when particularly in dementia education.
Speaker 2:I mean the older adult population is growing so fast. By 2040, nearly 78.3 million Americans will be 65 years and older, and so it's inevitable for these healthcare workers to encounter a patient with some form of dementia or memory decline, cognitive decline, and they need to be prepared to provide the best possible care for these patients. And that really ensures you know, educate, proper education can ensure you know that, having that knowledge and empathy to connect to their patients.
Speaker 1:I like that. Yeah, I think education one of the biggest I. I like what you said, like you touched on education really is like showing what you don't know, changing what the norm is like. Um, the funny example whenever I eat, uh, watermelon, my oat, my throat gets itchy and I was like, yeah, that happens to everybody. Um, and then I talked to somebody about it and they're like no, you're allergic to watermelon. Anyway, so like little simple things of changing what normal or good looks like in aging, I think, is what education is. We're getting super close on time. This has been a fun, fast conversation, but two fun questions. If you could design the ideal community for older adults, what would it include? What would kind of the pillars be?
Speaker 2:um, I would say, uh, I would love it to be more intergenerational, like I would embrace that intergenerational connection. I think we segregate ourselves way too much amongst our age groups, and so I would create better community centers, community gardens, just places where everybody from all ages can interact. It would be much more accessible and walkable, better public transportation and I would say, just a place where they can be seen as active, contributing members to society, where we really cherish all their wisdom and experience.
Speaker 1:I love that, yeah, neighborhood house in Salt Lake. I think they do so good at that, like trying to incorporate the intergenerational pieces. So having that be interwoven into just our society as a whole would be really, really impactful, I think.
Speaker 2:Yes, other countries are doing it and it's looking really good, so I hope we start to take that in ourselves.
Speaker 1:Yeah. And then last question if you could leave listeners with one mindset shift about aging, what would it be?
Speaker 2:Aging is a privilege, not a problem. Aging should not be seen as a decline, but as an opportunity for personal growth, strong relationships and a chance to build knowledge. When we embrace this perspective, we can approach our later years without dread, but more with gratitude. And you know, unfortunately, the people that continue to fuel those negative mindsets of aging is none other than us ourselves.
Speaker 1:That's true.
Speaker 2:So if we can all just take a moment to reframe our aging within ourselves, we can maybe start to go towards, like, getting rid of those stereotypes. So we got to call ourselves out when our inner voice is starting to talk negative about our age and I love this quote. I like to end on this quote with Mark Twain. Mark Twain said aging is an issue of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter.
Speaker 1:That's a great quote. That's an awesome quote. No, I've loved that. I love this conversation. It's been really fun. And I guess, the real last question you do put on like a class or type thing, or you have clients and things, class or type thing, or you take you have clients and things. If people want to connect with you specifically or go to that class, what should they do or how could they get in? How should they?
Speaker 2:reach. They can reach out to me. I have, you know maybe, my work phone number, my direct work phone number is 801-587-8221, um. And, yes, I, we have a um optimal aging program, which is for older adults that are struggling with mental health issues. Um, it's a, it's a day treatment program over there. So so, if you want to reach out, you can Awesome.
Speaker 1:This has been so great. I appreciate you a lot spending some time, Brianna, and sharing the mindset shifts that we should all have when it comes to aging.