- Culture and Extension
Academic will offer a conference on preventive tools for healthy aging in the elderly
Opening the horizon through everyday examples typical of our idiosyncrasy with respect to old age is what this activity aims to achieve.
Changing the thinking of society and older adults, creating awareness and acceptance of the capabilities that the adult population has to continue dedicating themselves to their daily lives, is what the conference “Aging-being” seeks to establish and put into practice. "Aging as a revealer of truths" that will be taught next Monday, August 25, by the academic from the Department of Nursing at the University of La Serena. Carmen Retamal Valenzuela, Master in Social Gerontology.
As part of the “Opening Horizons” lecture series of the ULS School for the Elderly, the academic will address erroneous concepts and comparisons around the most adult stage of life, which are increasingly common today. Continuously, talking about “older adults” or about “old age” is seen as “a problem”, therefore, we seek to reverse this situation, injecting a paradigm shift, stimulating the self-valence of the individual and providing tools that allow us to reach this point in life, in a healthy, active and participatory way.
“In America, older adults have not believed the story of their value, they do not recognize themselves as valuable. For the same reason, because of a response to society that makes him feel invalid, that he does not contribute because he no longer works, that he is full of illnesses, that it is a pure health problem and he is going to spend a lot of money on everything. The older adult assumed that image, made it his own; So, they themselves believe that they are of no use. My job at this moment is to try to get them out of that inertia, get them out of that thinking so that they believe the story,” commented the teacher.
For the Mg. Carmen Retamal, giving and extending this conference to the entire community of the Coquimbo Region, without age ranges, is very important. “If we want to achieve healthy aging from a mental point of view, we have to prevent before, in time (…). We remain people until the end of our days; It is not that we reach a final stage of life, but that we reach a stage in the course of life that is called old age. And that is what I intend to teach the people who want to attend, who can be adults, middle adults, older adults, young people, whoever wants, because from any stage of life we are in, we can do prevention.”added the professional.
The activity is free of charge and will take place in the ULS Exhibition Hall, at 950 Benavente Street, La Serena, on Monday, August 25 at 17:00 p.m.