#INTERVIEW: Craig Lefebvre, Designer of Public Health & Social Change Programs, Discusses Social Marketing
R. Craig Lefebvre, Ph.D., is an internationally known designer of public health and social change programs. He is chief maven of socialShift, a consulting practice, and is a Research Professor at the University of South Florida College of Public Health. His blog, On Social Marketing and Social Change,” has been ongoing since 2005. He is the author of On Social Marketing and Social Change: Selected Readings 2005-2009 and a forthcoming textbook on Social Marketing (Jossey-Bass, 2013). The interview was conducted by Don Akchin, a principal of Nonprofit Marketing 360 and a frequent contributor to the MKCREATIVE blog.
MKC: You got into blogging back in 2005. You must have been one of the first ones.
CRAIG: I was in there pretty early.
MKC: Does the blog get much response? Is there a conversation going on?
CRAIG: I would say there are periodic conversations going on. In the neighborhood of 4,000 people a day are coming on to it. It’s a long way from six years ago, when we were getting readers by the ones and twos!
(more…)
Popularity: 3% | Category Advice, Blogs, Campaigns, Case Study, Cause Marketing, Communications, Community, Cross-Post, Facebook, Health, Interview, LinkedIn, Marketing, Marketing Skills, Nonprofit, Perspectives, Perspectives, Pinterest, Posterous, Scoopit, Social Marketing, Social Networks, Tumblr, Twitter, Wellness, YouTube | | 0 Comments
Written by: Don Akchin
#PROAGING: Technology Improves Exercise of Body And Brain
Last week we introduced an AARP report encouraging the development of ‘Technology for All,’ namely, technology that includes the interests, expectations, and needs of Baby Boomers. Here is an example of how technology makes a common exercise machine that much more interesting and beneficial: a computer screen offering a virtual tour for a stationary biker.
Hans Villarica of TheAtlantic.com presented a report found in The American Journal of Preventative Medicine that brings computer screens and visual stimuli to recumbent bikers in elder-care homes. The experiment was to encourage exercise among residents on incumbent bikes – some used bikes with screens that monitored their effort and presented a ‘tour’ while others simply rode the bikes for the same amount of time.
Not surprisingly, those who got a tour on what the study calls ‘exergaming’ found the experience of exercising more pleasurable. But the long-term study also showed added cognitive benefits of having the tour inspire/follow the exercisers who had the computer addition. As Hans summarizes the study’s medical/statistical conclusion: “Even though there was no difference in exercise frequency, intensity, or duration between the two groups, the cybercycle riders had significantly better executive function than those who used a plain stationary bike. They also experienced a 23 percent reduction in progression to dementia compared to the control group.”
The addition is simple, the technology is not expensive, and the user gets physical, mental, and emotional benefits. What’s not to like?
Popularity: 7% | Category Aging, Assisted Living, Boomers, Fitness, GI Generation, Health, Healthcare, Independent Living, News and Current Affairs, Newspaper Article, Nursing Home, Resource, Retirement Living, Reviews, Seniors Life, Software Review, Study, Technology, Technology for Aging, Wellness | | 0 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#ProAging: Which US Cities Offer The Best Lifestyle To Their Older Citizens?
Dave Letterman offers only a “Top 10″ list, but Bankers Life and Casualty has just published its Top 50 “Best US Cities For Seniors 2011″ and the list contains a few surprises – though, admittedly, not so many laughs.
The list was drawn up with an effort to establish some stable criteria that were, in turn, weighted to reflect the importance of each issue with older Americans. For example, healthcare opportunities are weighted to 10 at the top of the scale, whereas housing was weighted at 5, because many kinds of housing arrangements can be made for many kinds of seniors, whereas healthcare is a priority for all older people.
The good side about a weighted standard is that readers can judge for themselves if a certain concern outweighs other issues. For example, the city noted as having the lowest crime and the safest urban environment for seniors is Nassau-Suffolk County, New York (Long Island), yet the area did not quite crack the top 10. But if security/low crime is most important for you, you now know where to retire.
Popularity: 7% | Category Affordable Housing, Aging, Boomers, Community, Environment, Health, Healthcare, Healthcare, Independent Living, Marketing, Report, Resource, Retirement Living, Seniors Life, Wellness | | 0 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#ProAging: iPad Technology Can Draw Out Memories And Skills For Elderly
One stereotype of the elderly and long retired is that they fear new technology. Yet many of the GI Generation and Silent Generation were, in fact, the ones who started the phenomenal research and development in the middle of the twentieth century that give us our hybrid cars and smart phones today. A recent report from the McClatchy-Tribune Information Services demonstrates how the caregivers of these generations are discovering how quickly and happily their clients and patients are responding to the latest mobile technology, the iPad.
Popularity: 11% | Category Aging, Apple, Assisted Living, Communications, GI Generation, Health, Healthcare, iDevice, Independent Living, iPad Apps, iPhone Apps, Newspaper Article, Nonprofit, Nursing Home, Retirement Living, Seniors Life, Silent Generation, Technology, Technology for Aging, Wellness | | 5 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#ProAging: Study Shows Americans Optimistic and Unprepared For Heath In Retirement (Part 2 of 2)
Last Thursday we shared a report conducted by National Public Radio (NPR), who has been presenting the findings of their in-depth survey concerning how recent retirees and soon-to-be retirees (those over 50) view retirement. The report was conducted by NPR, the Robert Woods Johnson Foundation and the Harvard School of Public Health. The takeaway of the survey shows that those close to retirement are strikingly optimistic about what their retirements will entail in terms of economic and social stability (which we discussed last week), as well as about their good health and longevity (to which we turn today). Retirement for those already well into it has lost much of its romantic sheen – a distinction between the two demographics stressed in the report.
Popularity: 6% | Category Aging, Audio Interview, Boomers, Community, Diet, Fitness, Health, Healthcare, Independent Living, Internet, National/International, News and Current Affairs, Politics, Report, Seniors Life, Wellness | | 0 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#ProAging: Study Shows Americans Optimistic and Unprepared For Retirement (Part 1 of 2)
Click to enlarge
Over the last few days, National Public Radio (NPR) has been presenting the findings of an in-depth survey and study of how recent retirees and soon-to-be retirees (those over 50) view retirement. The report was conducted by NPR, the Robert Woods Johnson Foundation and the Harvard School of Public Health.
The findings show a general optimism about retirement, though that general optimism is dampened by the credit crisis of the last three years. Yet that optimism is strongest among those who have not yet actually retired. Among the retirees themselves, optimism has been checked by the harsh realities of decimated IRAs, a credit crunch, and unexpected health issues.
What seems to be the state of retirement in the new millennium? The issue may be not that the state of retirement is so bad, but that expectations are strikingly high.
Popularity: 8% | Category Aging, Audio Interview, Communications, Community, Health, Healthcare, Independent Living, News and Current Affairs, Nonprofit, Public Media, Report, Resource, Retirement Living, Seniors Life, Wellness | | 2 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#ProAging: Small Ailments, Left Unchecked, Can Lead To Big Concerns
Most (post-)industrial western societies tend to see aging as a decline from the creativity and energy of young adulthood. The experiences and wisdom of longer life tend to be downplayed against the physical changes wrought by age. But older people tend to know better: they want the young to appreciate that the teens and early twenties are the difficult years, whereas the engaged peace of being over 50 is really where the action is.
That said, those moving beyond 50 can not – and do not – deny changes in the body that must be dealt with: quicker fatigue, joint and tooth aches, changes in eyesight and/or hearing… The AARP’s website is reporting a new study at Neurology.org that links the ongoing and unresolved physical discomforts help increase the likelihood of the onset of dementia as well.
Popularity: 7% | Category Aging, Assisted Living, Blogs, Fitness, Health, Healthcare, Independent Living, Resource, Retirement Living, Seniors Life, Study, Wellness | | 0 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#Aging: We May Have To/Want To Work Longer. Will We Live Longer?
Golden or just a Goose Egg?
For many, the Stock Market Crash of 2008 wiped out most of their retirement savings. For some, working longer past the traditional retirement age is a key to ongoing engagement, community involvement, and mental health. For most, working beyond 65 (or whatever the retirement age is in your country) is an economic expectation, for better and/or worse.
Nevertheless, older people continuing in the work force provides at least two striking challenges to the larger economy, which already faces a number of challenges in this Great Realignment.
Popularity: 5% | Category Aging, Blogs, Civics, Community, Diet, Fitness, Health, Healthcare, Independent Living, News and Current Affairs, Retirement Living, Seniors Life, Wellness | | 0 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#Aging: GE & Intel Combine Forces To Improve Independent Living For Seniors
Thought GE & Intel announced in 2009 a partnership to develop technologies for retiring Baby Boomers to enhance their independence, they announced the finalized plans for the organization this week. According to a GE press release, the final legal steps are being taken to create the joint venture by the end of this year. The symbiotic opportunities of these two high-tech companies is stressed by the announcement: “GE and Intel share a common vision to use technology to bring more effective healthcare into millions of homes and to improve the lives of seniors and people with chronic conditions. With the dramatic increase of people living with chronic conditions, and a global aging population, there is a need to find new models of healthcare delivery and extend care to the home and other residential settings.”
What are some of the technological avenues that the new “Care Innovations” company will be developing?
Popularity: 4% | Category Automobiles, Communications, Health, Healthcare, Independent Living, Press Release, Retirement Living, Seniors Life, Technology, Wellness | | 0 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#SocialNetworking: Jumo And Good Join To Create Largest Nonprofit Network
We have followed the development of the Jumo website and network over the last year or so, and that organization has recently announced a development ‘merger’ with Good.is that will make it/them arguably the largest nonprofit socially-conscious network around.
The union will bring together Jumo’s model of searching for and supporting projects by topics with Good.is’s focus on stories, data, and news about a myriad of projects near and dear to the ethically-driven, the socially-engaged, and the community-oriented. What will the merger entail, and what might it mean for nonprofits and social-action groups who want to extend their outreach?
Popularity: 4% | Category Advocacy, Blogs, Campaigns, Civics, Communications, Community, Crowdfunding, Development, eNewsletter, Environment, Fundraising, Marketing, Media Review, News and Current Affairs, Nonprofit, Nonprofit, Permission Marketing, Politics, Public Media, Public Relations, Research, Reviews, Social Media, Volunteerism, Wellness | | 0 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#Aging: Health-Care Reform Showing Small Advantages For Medicare Recipients
Shrinking, but not gone until 2020
Politics have roughed up most of our attitudes towards health reform. Sometimes it is difficult to sort out what has changed, what seems to be improvement or expansion or cut in service or cost. As the reforms of 2010 move through the courts, we all might need ever greater concentration to keep an eye under which shell is the benefit and under which shell is the cut.
Some experts, fortunately, are keeping a close eye on the ever-shifting Medicare debate – and many of them are noting some of the improvements that have already been enacted. (more…)
Popularity: 3% | Category Aging, Communications, Health, Healthcare, Independent Living, Low-Income, National/International, News and Current Affairs, Newspaper Article, Politics, Retirement Living, Seniors Life, Wellness | | 0 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#Aging: Caregiving For Parents So Common Most Do Not Report It
Caregiving among younger people as their Boomer parents move toward retirement is so common that they do not even consider it caregiving. The American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) considers any fairly regular activity, like taking a parent to the doctor or over-the-counter testing for blood sugars, as part of their ‘Caregiver’ category, though the person giving the care rarely notes such activity in surveys or tax forms.
But what is also happening, according to research by the AARP, is that many children in their middle age are giving fairly advanced care without the training required to do things like taking care of catheters or monitoring medications. What might this kind of off-the-books care mean for those giving it?
Popularity: 4% | Category Aging, Assisted Living, Communications, eNewsletter, Healthcare, Independent Living, Publications, Report, Resource, Retirement Living, Seniors Life, Wellness | | 0 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#Aging: Upcoming Movie Documents The Revolution Of Growing Older
From the people who brought us the Civil Rights Movement and Haight-Ashbury, draft-dodging and fuel-efficient draft airplanes comes a new movement meant to revolutionize the ways we think about aging. The Baby Boomers have never really moved gently from one stage of life to another, so we should not be surprised to discover that they are not prepared simply to go gently into that long cold night.
Boomers and many of their Gen.X offspring want to challenge society to reconsider how we perceive aging and what aging is for – both for the individual and for his or her family and community. An upcoming documentary will help tell the story of that challenge.
Popularity: 5% | Category Aging, Communications, Community, Health, Independent Living, Interview, Movie Review, News and Current Affairs, Retirement Living, Seniors Life, Storytelling, Video Interview, Wellness | | 1 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#Aging: Some American Cities Meeting The Challenges Of Boomer Residents
NYC has added 4 seconds to each crosswalk
The vitality of many American cities comes from our perceptions of them as hives of industrial, commercial – youthful – activity reinventing those very cities with each generation. Though such regeneration still goes on, the fact of the so-called ‘silver tsunami’ of aging Baby Boomers means many cities are having to reconsider how to service and accommodate ever growing proportions of older residents.
An Associated Press story carried by NPR discusses the efforts of a few cities to get ahead of the demographic shift, and to ensure that their communities do not become ghettoes of like-aged residents.
Popularity: 5% | Category Civics, Community, Environment, Healthcare, Independent Living, News and Current Affairs, Public Media, Retirement Living, Seniors Life, Volunteerism, Wellness | | 1 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
Aging: Study Reveals Being Homebound is Linked to Alzheimer’s
Image via Wikipedia
Steve Gurney (ProAging Information Network) reports on a new study that looks at the incidence of Alzheimer’s in “housebound” seniors. The study suggests that being housebound nearly doubles the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease.
The new study, published online April 15 in the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, looks at something known as “life space.”
“[Life space] is actually a measure that has come into vogue with gerontologists lately,” said lead investigator Bryan D. James, a postdoctoral fellow at Rush Alzheimer’s Disease Center in Chicago. “Mostly it’s been a measurement of mobility, figuring out whether people are getting around their environment, how much they’re seeing that’s different from their couch or bedroom or living room.”
“The research doesn’t prove that being confined to the house causes dementia, and other factors could explain the association. Still, the findings raise questions about the possible cost of isolation,” said James.
Read the full article here.
Popularity: 4% | Category Adult Kids, Aging, Assisted Living, Grandparents, Health, Healthcare, Independent Living, Nursing Home, Report, Resource, Retirement Living, Seniors Life, Study, Wellness | | Comments Off
Written by: Marco Kathuria
Aging: Video On Design & Marketing To Baby Boomers
A number of weeks ago we presented a news story about how retiring Baby Boomers are changing the ways we all perceive design and consumerism in older age. Since then NBC news filled out the report with a posted video that includes Today’s Peter Alexander conversation with Joseph Coughlin, director of MIT’s Age Lab. We also get to see him don “AGNES,” a suit designed to impose the physical aspects of aging on a younger person. That suit has been used by commercial designers and engineers to help create products and access to products meant to improve the lives of older Americans. But don’t call them ‘Old.’
Popularity: 4% | Category Advertising, Assisted Living, Design, Health, Independent Living, Marketing, Research, Retirement Living, Technology, Video Interview, Wellness | | Comments Off
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#Aging: Marketing To Retiring Baby Boomers
Have you noticed the lower shelves and softer lighting in CVS pharmacies?
This past weekend, Rita Braver gave a report on Sunday Morning With Charles Osgood on how industries from drugstore chains to auto manufacturers are taking the ever-expanding senior population into account when designing their markets and products. The transcript of her report was put online earlier this week.
Companies are looking for ways to market to the retiring Boomer population without either patronizing them with references to their age or mobility or turning off younger consumers with an over spin toward seniors and retirees. According to Ms. Braver’s report, achieving these goals with the products and presentations has proven easier than the marketing of those products and presentations.
Popularity: 12% | Category Advertising, Aging, Design, Health, Independent Living, Marketing, Research, Retirement Living, Technology, Wellness | | Comments Off
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
Sustainability: Corporate Responsibility = Sustainability?
The MKCREATIVE blog welcomes Maria Lilly, principal of MJLilly Associates LLC, to our blog. She is a communications strategist who develops positioning programs that unite corporate, marketing and financial messages to create and support a company’s brand.
As I canvas the business marketplace, I am thrilled to see the ongoing emergence of corporate responsibility and sustainability as a critical piece of the business lexicon.
Ironically though, there appears to be some confusion about the connection between these two terms. Nomenclature issues and old definitions continue to confuse people – even some professionals working in the space. Let me connect these dots.
Popularity: 6% | Category Advocacy, Banking & Finance, Cross-Post, Environment, Greening, Public Relations, Sustainability, Volunteerism, Wellness | | Comments Off
Written by: Maria Lilly
Health: Would You Recognize a Heart Attack?
Image via Wikipedia
AARP recently published a great article on how to recognize whether or not you’re having a heart attack (women tend to wait longer to call 911 than men) and what to do if you think you’re having one.
Here’s what AARP advise: Don’t waste valuable time questioning the signs of a heart attack if you think you’re having one — call an ambulance first. Be prepared and learn the signs and symptoms now…
Clicking on the link above will take you to the AARP site where you can learn how to recognize the (many) symptoms of a heart attack in progress.
Popularity: 2% | Category Health, Report, Wellness | | Comments Off
Written by: Marco Kathuria