Intelligent Aging : Lessons for Life
“Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” Intelligent Aging … Lessons for Life, is to give the tools to change the course of someone’s life.
OUR BEGINNING
The Healthy Aging Show started on radio in 2005. Being in the business of non-medical, in-home care, we started by talking about issues of the frail and very old. We soon realized that we were at the extreme end of the journey of aging. Getting old was the issue, not being old! The need was to help people improve how they will grow older. What could we do to help educate and inform people about doing things that make getting older better?
SHARING WHAT WE LEARN
One of the things we realized was that intelligibility by age is a major issue. As people age, their speech can become less intelligible, making it difficult for others to understand them. This can lead to social isolation, decreased quality of life, and even health problems.
The radio show could help to raise awareness of this issue and to provide tips on how to improve speech intelligibility by age. We interviewed experts on speech therapy, aging, and communication. Our staff shared stories of how they experienced challenges with intelligibility among their clients
The goal was to help people understand that verbal intelligibility by age is a real issue, but it’s not something that people have to accept. There are things that can be done to improve intelligibility and spoken communication. We wanted to provide people with the tools and resources they need to do so.
THE MISSION
To provide accurate, balanced information about aging and to help people make informed decisions about their health and well-being. We believe that aging can be a beautiful and rewarding experience, and we want to help people make the most of it.
Daily, we are bombarded with so much information, it’s next to impossible to sift through it all, much less separate the facts from the fluff. What we do is ask questions and then look for answers, researching topics that we choose or are requested by our listeners. The solution is not one-size-fits-all. We try to balance our information to show both sides of an issue, referencing our sources so you can dig deeper.
One thing is certain: we are the captains of our own ship. The days of the family doctor are in the past, and while we need a quarterback, more often than not we have to assume that role. What we deal with daily affects everything: how we look and feel, and how we relate to others in our social, work, and family lives. It’s mental, physical, and spiritual.
We don’t have to look very hard to find topics that affect us all in one way or another. Asking questions is a great start. If you remember Andy Rooney on 60 Minutes, he had many one-liners about aging. He often opened with “Did Ya Ever Wonder?” Well, that’s where we start.
Facing the mirror in the morning is always great. Once we’re sure that everything is still attached and in the right place, we take note of the little things and wonder how many people wonder about this too? If it happens to us, chances are good that many others are also interested.
OPPORTUNITY
Never before have we had so many opportunities in later life. Being productive and purposeful is important. Lessons for Life, learning something new every day makes each day more rewarding and defines what we mean by Intelligent Aging.
Lastly we have posted our shows and research material onto our website almost from the start. Podcasting, with its advent and rapid acceptance, has become the easiest and most effective way to reach a really large audience. The website is home to everything about us and is the archive of current and past shows. We share articles we use to help with show preparation as well as what would be of general interest to our audience. All this to Make Getting Older Better!
We hope you’ll join us on your journey.
- Stimulating Interviews and Articles
- Issues Relevant to You
- Interesting Discussions
- Tips and Ideas
- News You Can Use
- Multitude of Issues of Getting Older
- Entertaining, Lively Discussion
- Time Saving Episodes
Speech Intelligibility Links
Dysarthria Definition, strategies and exercises (motor speech disorder) berkshirehealthcare.nhs.uk https://www.bdct.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/DYSARTHRIA-pack.pdf
Strategies for improving speech intelligibility berkshirehealthcare.nhs.uk https://www.berkshirehealthcare.nhs.uk/media/109513958/strategies-for-improving-speech-intelligibility-slt.pdf
