One of the nation’s leading voices in elder care is coming to Atlanta in May, bringing with him a theatrical presentation designed to dispel negative stereotypes about aging.
Dr. Bill Thomas, a well-known geriatrician and senior health care innovator, has been touring the country for more than four years in an effort to change the culture of aging from the ground up. His ChangingAging tour uses live music, storytelling and science to challenge myths about growing old.
In an entertaining way, Thomas gives the aged back their dignity. It's really not all about decline, disease and disability, which he says is the accepted cultural narrative. To age well, you must view it in a positive light, Thomas says. Elders should be recognized as mentors, and those who need care should have care-partners, not care-givers.
The ChangingAging tour is Saturday, May 5, 2:30-6 p.m., at the Westin Buckhead Hotel, 3391 Peachtree Road NE, Atlanta. Tickets and information can be found at ChangingAging.org/tour. The presentation is being held in conjunction with the 2018 Eden Alternative International Conference also at the Westin on May 3-5.
Thomas is best known for two innovations that have altered nearly every aspect of long-term care for older people — the Green House nursing home model of small, home-type settings and the Eden Alternative standard for person-directed care, said Mike Bolinder, director of dwellings for Minka, another one of Thomas’ innovations for senior living.
Thomas also developed the senior emergency room model and is working to transform acute care services provided to elders.
With Minka, Thomas hopes to change the way seniors live outside of group housing. He wants to create small, fabricated homes, known as “Minkas,” so seniors can age in place within a larger intergenerational community. The idea is to offer affordable, independent living with care and social interaction close by.
“After a distinguished career as a physician and a professor, Bill dedicated his life to ending ageism,” Bolinder said. “While Green House and Eden were wonderful accomplishments, they did not get at the root of ageism, which is our culture’s unhealthy and damaging obsession with youth.”
To reach the culture of aging, Thomas went straight to the heart of it with a theatrical format he calls “non-fiction theater.”
The ChangingAging tour emerged from an online journalistic format, ChangingAging.org, a public forum for provocative ideas, news, essays and opinion about aging and culture, Bolinder said.
“I’ve heard it described as a ‘HuffPo for aging,’” Bolinder said.
Bolinder said the tour is a blend of storytelling and live original music featuring two live stage shows. The first, "Disrupt Dementia," is a 90-minute production embracing the life journey of those who live with dementia. Instead of seeing dementia as a tragedy, the audience is shown that those who live with it are fully capable of love, relationships and self-advocacy.
The second show, “Life’s Most Dangerous Game,” is a 90-minute blend of storytelling by Thomas, live music, visual art, and science challenging the cultural obsession with youth and offering a new take on aging as a form of continued growth.
The tour has been in more than 150 communities and presented at hundreds of live events to many thousands of audience members for more than four years, Bolinder said.
WANT TO GO?
ChangingAging Tour with Dr. Bill Thomas
» May 5, 2:30-6 p.m., Westin Buckhead Hotel, 3391 Peachtree Road NE, Atlanta.
» Tickets and info at ChangingAging.org/tour
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