AgeLess Programs

These programs, and many others, are available for presentation at the site of your choosing, and to the audience of your choice.

Programs can be designed to meet your specifications.

Contact us to find out how YOUR organization can put on these programs.

Call 706 219 1020 or visit our website at www.agelessboomersandbeyond.com

Professional Development

The New Retirement presents an overview of aging from all angles. Gerontologist Kathleen McCormack, author of “Tips for Creating Your Own Retirement” and “Tips for Creating Your Second Career”, will discuss the seven topics in a general way, including discussions and exercises. Additional resources will be provided for participants to do their own research.

The New Workplace is based on the imminent need for Boomers and employers to plan for the years ahead. As Boomers enter their sixties, many businesses and public institutions are seeing a loss of not only employee numbers but skills, experience, and knowledge. Not all retirees will stay unemployed, and companies are now recognizing there is benefit in finding ways to keep their experienced workers on the payroll. However, employees’ expectations and those of employers may markedly differ. Bringing Boomers and employers together to discuss the “brain drain” and find solutions will benefit everyone. Kathleen McCormack

Managing Four Generations in the Workplace
What drives the four distinct generations (Traditionalists, baby Boomers, Gen X and Gen Y) and how does this affect the workplace? Learn what formed these generations: their characteristics, communication styles, workplace attributes, and core values. How do we meld these four distinct groups into an effective, well functioning team? This course will help you develop recruitment, communication, and management strategies to ensure a positive work experience for employer and employee. Kathleen McCormack

Manage Conflict Effectively
Unresolved conflict and broken communication patterns are expensive burdens for any organization, taking toll in unnecessary workplace stress, increased absenteeism and costly employee turnover. Learn to manage conflict on your team before the conflict begins to manage you. Rather than reacting on an emotional level, develop the professional skills to resolve the conflict and work more effectively with others. Kathleen McCormack

Planning and Managing Organizational Change
Turn change into a positive force! Change is inevitable. But when changes are in process, many employees lack the skills to deal with the situation. This seminar will help employees see how change affects them, realize what gets in their way in the process, and identify their strengths to manage
change successfully. They'll learn how to work with the changing environment and assist key stakeholders in ways that build support and ensure positive outcomes for your bottom line. Kathleen McCormack

Bringing the Work/Life Scales into Balance
Stressed out? Can’t find enough time for work, family, personal, recreation and down time? Learn tools and techniques that will help you bring order to your life based on your needs (personal and professional) and desires. The result? You will get more done is less time with less stress . . . And be more productive at work! Kathleen McCormack; Caroline Dott

Effective and Legal Hiring
The course offers a process to select and orient employees according to their fit and abilities to stabilize and enhance your company’s growth.

Customer Service
Mission Possible: to increase customer satisfaction through the SOLUTIONS process.

Financial Planning for Retirement - Effective planning for retirement must include financial knowledge and resources. Using a template to construct an analysis of where attendees are currently and where they want to be at retirement age sets the stage for developing strategies to reach financial and lifestyle goals.
These will be a tangible platform for other choices in retirement. Janice Plowden; Ron Whelan

How to Avoid Financial Crisis
Many Baby Boomers (and Beyond) have avoided decision-making around financial issues that will affect how, and where, they age. The facilitator, Ron Whelan is a veteran of the reverse mortgage industry having spent many years helping seniors and their adult children make decisions about their parents – and eventually about themselves. This program will enlighten the attendees to all the options, new and old, available to them in this process. They will learn about: Beginning the financial dialog with family members; The financial “check up” each generation needs to have; Making the residence choice; How to avoid making decisions in “crisis mode”; Going beyond wills and powers of attorneys; Steps to avoid “survivor stress”; And about how things change: what is appropriate today may not work tomorrow.

End of Life Issues is designed to empower people to make informed decisions about end-of-life financial planning, care and services. How do I convince friends and family to talk about end-of-life issues or make a plan? How can I make sure everyone has access to information and services they need? You will learn about the importance of having long term care insurance, a power of attorney, living will, will, and funeral considerations and how to structure these documents to get the results you want. Caroline Dott; Melody LeBaron

Health & Wellness

Healthy Aging
This program is divided into two workshops to promote wellness and mental acuity. By making changes in nutrition, physical and social activity level, and mental outlook, life is enhanced, dollars are saved, and years may be extended. As the single largest age segment in history moves into the second half of their lives, aging has become a priority topic and concern to Baby Boomers. Boomers have impacted dramatically on every segment of society. This age cohort, in turn, has been affected by a combination of starting their families at a later age and the longevity of their parents, therefore being termed “the sandwich generation”.

Boomers’ own aging process could be challenging because the current average number of 18 caregivers for each person needing care will drop to 4 caregivers in 2050. Setting up healthier lifestyles now will keep Boomers healthier in their later years.

The AgeLess goal is to provide information and support to enhance the physical aging process that will assist both caregivers and those receiving care to live an improved life. Increased well-being lowers our national healthcare bill, as well as our personal expenses for drugs, doctor visits, and treatments.

The second part of healthy aging is “Maintain the Brain”, a workshop that has been developed by the Alzheimers Association. Caroline Dott

Depression: Symptoms and Signs
Depression is one of the most common psychological problems, affecting nearly everyone through either personal experience or through depression in a family member. Each year over 17 million American adults experience a period of clinical depression. Clinical depression is a very common psychological problem, and most people never seek proper treatment, or seek treatment but they are misdiagnosed with physical illness. In this workshop we will learn about recognizing, managing and preventing depression. Caroline Dott

Overcoming Loneliness
We are social animals, needing connection to each other. Loneliness, the lack of connectedness, is a universal phenomenon that visits every human soul at some time in every culture, every race, every class and every age. But older people are more vulnerable, as their social networks thin and personal relationships are disrupted. Unhealthy effects of loneliness accumulate with time and accentuate health risks. Loneliness adds stress, hampers the immune system, raises blood pressure, disturbs sleep, increases risk of heart disease and other serious illnesses and speeds aging. In this session, participants learn how to recognize loneliness, understand how it affects us, and most importantly, learn that we have the power to overcome it. Thomas Boykin

Cutting Edge Food Programs for a Healthier Life

Life Transitions

Determinants for Alternative Living Arrangements for Seniors
Many older people find it necessary or sometimes just more convenient to move to housing where housekeeping, recreational and other services are available. Fortunately, housing options abound. Among the choices these days are independent living facilities, continuing care retirement communities, supportive housing and congregate care. Some facilities are privately owned; others are government supported or sponsored by religious or other non-profit groups. The distinctions among facilities aren’t always clear-cut: The way a facility describes itself may provide little or no indication of the services it offers. In this class you will be given some general guides to help you explore housing options for yourself or for someone you love. Scott Saulson

Living Alone
Is it better to remain in an unhappy marriage with someone you don't love than coming home to an empty house? Has a loved one made their transition leaving you alone? Is fear of not being able to take care of yourself keeping you from taking charge of your life? It's reasonable to be afraid of what you don't know or haven't experienced. A little fear is good, it keeps you from jumping before you think things through. It gives you time to consider all available options. When that fear of the unknown locks you into an abusive or destructive relationship, or keeps you from letting go of a love that is already gone, it's no longer working for you, it's now keeping you prisoner. Learn the tools necessary to transition to living alone and loving it. Scott Scott Saulson

Plan Z: A Road Map to Stress-less Management of Transitional Challenges
Elders and their families face many challenges related to transitions of life. Our community is blessed with a host of providers of resources to families with elder care concerns. Tapping into these resources effectively depends on how well the family has laid its internal groundwork. This seminar will offer not only references to some of our community resources but, more importantly, will focus on five proven ways to lay the groundwork: Contextual Visioning, Prioritization, Active Listening, Strategy Development, and Spiritual Grounding. We will also draw upon and consider some of the concerns offered by seminar participants. Duration: 1-2 hrs. Scott Saulson
Also, the Realities of Caregiving is another version of the above.

Leave Taking
We are a nation of immigrants – from “native” Americans who once crossed the Bering Straits to those most recently naturalized at the courthouse. And we are a nation on the move. Perhaps the main difference between earlier generations on the move and ours is that we live in a society in which the accumulation of stuff is a mixed blessing. The mix is especially evident when we change residences and downsize. This workshop will guide participants in determining what to take and what to leave (and how to leave it). Duration: 1-2 hrs. Scott Saulson

Shaping a Legacy of Character
A workshop devoted to exploring and sketching Ethical Wills. Ethical Wills flourished in usage and style in medieval Jewish communities. They sought to convey from one generation to the next behaviors and outlooks which ground one’s character for the good. As such, ethical wills are in keeping with all traditions and cultures. Participants will be guided in exploring their spiritual and ethical grounding as well as expressing admonitions of character to their heirs. Duration: 1-4 hrs., 1-4 sessions Scott Saulson

End of Life
When our loved ones are dying, we are being given a sacred opportunity to make room in our busy lives to reconnect to the sacred fullness of Life. A two-part series will teach us ways to create a positive and loving experience for the end of life.

Part I -Preparing the Space - Consider the effort that goes into creating just the right environment for baptisms, graduations, weddings, and other life transitions. The space itself supports the rite of passage that will be honored, calling our attention to and symbolizing the transition about to occur. We can honor our dying loved ones in similar ways. You’ll learn to create a space that supports the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual process of your dying—as well as how to empower your dying loved one to guide that process.

Part II - Preparing the Self - During the death of a loved one, you need to know how to stay fully present, how to stay in balance, and how to access your strength even as you process your grief. Learn to use music, meditation, breath work, and aromatherapy; learn how others have said their last goodbyes and begun their grief work. In this class, we’ll gently prepare ourselves to support the death of our loved ones in ways that empower us to live more fully. Melody LeBaron

Stress Management - AgeLess can present several versions of stress management workshops by facilitators Caroline Dott, Joyce Dillon, Kathleen McCormack

Energy: How to get it, How to keep it.
Feeling energetic and full of life, only to find your energy draining as the day progresses? Learn to eliminate environmental influences that are toxic to you and how negative emotions affect your personal energy level. In this workshop you will learn how your energy is depleted and how to seal the energy “leaks” and restore your energy. This workshop emphasizes six steps to increasing vitality and optimal health for all participants, regardless of their chronological age. Caroline Dott, Joyce Dillon

Mind/Body Connection: How Your Emotions Affect Your Health
Can your mental state influence your susceptibility to disease? Your body responds to the way you think, feel and act. This is often called the “mind/body connection.” When you are stressed, anxious or upset, your body tries to tell you that something isn’t right. The chatter of our own mind mirrors the intense outer stimulation and inhibits the universal inner guidance necessary for healthy minds and healthy bodies. A quieted mind can clearly perceive and make an informed decision on what we want to matter. This course will show you how the mind/body connection works and teach you ways to control and quiet the mind and create an emotionally and physically healthy body. Caroline Dott

Manage Conflict Effectively
Small problems poorly handled can distract from doing what you really need to do. And while many are ready to complain about situations, we don't often engage in constructive talk about how to manage and minimize the troublesome issues when they arise. Learn to manage conflict on your personal and professional colleagues before the conflict begins to manage you. Rather than reacting on an emotional level, develop the personal skills to resolve the conflict and work more effectively with others. Kathleen McCormack

Traveling: Going it alone
Almost one in three adult Americans is single, one in four of us has taken a vacation alone during the last three years, and, on average, the typical American will spend more of their life between 15-85 single than with a partner. But few of us enjoy traveling alone. Single travelers have plenty of options to make single travel as pleasant (and affordable) as possible. This class will prepare you for traveling alone. We will explore such things as preparing for your trip, what to take, what to leave behind, health issues, safety and security, passports and visas, cultural differences in foreign countries, and resources for teaming up with others should you choose to do so. Betty Brown

Effective Eldercare: Laying the Groundwork
Our community is blessed with a host of providers of resources to families with elder care concerns. Effectively tapping into these resources or relying on one's own depends on how well the family has laid its internal groundwork with respect, integrity, and compassion. This seminar will focus on proven ways to lay that groundwork, and will draw on sacred texts to see how this process plays out. The seminar will also provide opportunity for participants to share their care-giving wisdom and raise questions. Two 1 hr. sessions Scott Saulson

Conversations Between The Generations
This experiential workshop strives to begin the dialogues between the generations that are, typically difficult to enter into. Professionals assist adult children, siblings, parents and grandparents to begin discussions about final stages of life, choices and wishes. This workshop is an introduction to becoming comfortable with issues surrounding the mysteries of death and dying. Caroline Dott

The Realities of Care-giving
Practical approaches to help family members get through some of the challenges of care giving while sustaining the quality of life for all involved – with Respect, Integrity, and Compassion. We will also draw upon and consider some of the concerns offered by seminar participants. Duration: 1-2 hrs.
Scott Saulson

AgeLess Pre-Designed Programs