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| The Center for Creative Aging at Harold Washington College |
| Courses & Workshops - Summer 2007 |
| Counting on Kindness: Caring, Care Giving and the Elderly |
| Course Description: |
| This four-week course (8 CEU's) will provide participants with the resources and opportunity
to think critically and reflectively about aspects of providing care for elders and others who are
frail, physically challenged, cognitively impaired, chronically ill, or dying. It will also stress
the importance of honing caregivers’ empathetic skills in order to appreciate and respond
constructively to the dilemmas and challenges of being dependent that persons requiring care
typically face. Finally, the course will encourage exploration of the questions of who should
provide and finance care in a society that has increasing numbers of persons, especially of elders,
who need care to survive.
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| Readings in this course will introduce students to the research and opinions of
scholars and practitioners with widely divergent perspectives on caregiving. Assignments include
writings from the social sciences and from the fields of nursing and social work. In addition,
students will be assigned ethnographies, films, memoirs, and fiction that offer insight into the
realities of being ill, frail, dying, and dependent on others.
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| Hard Decisions: Values, Decision Making and the Elderly |
| Course Description: |
| The elderly, their loved ones, caregivers, advocates, service providers, and the
society as a whole, through its government, often are forced to make difficult choices in
situations where age is a major consideration or the primary one. In this four-week course
(8 CEU's) participants will be encouraged to critically examine and reflect upon their own and others’ values
and ethical principles as these relate to the opinions and actions of old people toward themselves
and others, and of younger people toward elders individually and as a group.
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| Through readings, films, and discussions the class will become familiar with common
ethical issues faced by older people, by the professionals serving them, by the organizations and
communities of which they are part, and by our aging nation. Students will consider how equally
well informed and concerned people of all ages frequently hold very different positions on
virtually every issue that involves the elderly singly or as a class.
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| Relaxation and Mindfulness for Busy People |
| Course Description: |
| If you spend sixty to eighty hours a week in a paid or volunteer job you love,
hate, or endure; juggle caregiving to family members or raising grandchildren while working outside
the home; or working in an emotionally and physically demanding helping profession, the chances are
high that you are often, stressed out, used up, irritable and unable to sleep restfully through the
night.
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| This six hour (6 CEU's) workshop will be an opportunity for you to learn how
meditation can help restore balance to the mind, body and spirit and allow you to practice mindful
relaxation techniques under the skilled guidance of a mental health practitioner who is one of the
most knowledgeable and experienced in the field of mind-body work in the Chicago area. Join us for
a whole new lease on life.
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