Michael John Stones | |
---|---|
Born | |
Nationality | British/Canadian |
Occupation(s) | Gerontologist, athlete and researcher |
Awards | Bayer Research Award, International Psychogeriatrics Association |
Academic background | |
Education | B.Tech., Psychology Ph.D., Medicine |
Alma mater | Brunel University University of Sheffield |
Academic work | |
Institutions | Lakehead University |
Michael John Stones (born April 26,1947) is a British born geropsychologist,athlete and researcher. He is an Emeritus Professor at Lakehead University. [1] Stones is best known in academia for his contributions to gerontology and has published several books,book chapters and over 140 scientific papers. He has primarily conducted research on psychological well-being,healthy aging,physical performance,elder abuse,sexuality,and the use of health informatics to promote quality of care in later life. His contributions to the arts include short stories and poems in literary journals. [2]
Stones completed his B.Tech. degree in Psychology from Brunel University in 1970 and earned his Ph.D. from the Faculty of Medicine in the University of Sheffield in 1974. He then moved to Canada the same year. [1]
Before his emigration to Canada in 1974,Stones worked in clinical psychology departments at Fulbourn Hospital in Cambridge,St James's University Hospital in Leeds and at the Open University. In Canada,he went through the ranks of Assistant,Associate and Full Professor of Psychology at Memorial University of Newfoundland from 1974 till 1994. He was also Co-Director of the Gerontology Center at that University from 1984-1994. He then left Memorial University and was appointed by University of Waterloo as a Professor in the Faculty of Applied Health Sciences. During this period,he also served as Scientific Director of the University Institute of Social Gerontology of Quebec. In 1998,Stones joined Lakehead University as a Professor of Psychology. From 1998-2003,he was also Director of the Northern Educational Center for Aging and Health and Coordinator of the Gerontology Program. He was appointed Emeritus Professor after retirement in 2018. [3]
Stones' article on "The Other Migrant Mother" was recognized by Don Nardo in his book Migrant Mother:How a Photograph Defined the Great Depression for contributing to the context and interpretation of Dorothea Lange's photograph. [4]
Stones’research falls within three main categories:subjective well-being and quality of life,health and safety in later life,and age trends in elite performances in Masters Athletics.
Stones is best known for his research with colleague Albert Kozma. In 2003,the North American Happiness Show respectively ranked these authors 3rd and 4th in a listing of the world’s Top Happiness Researchers. [5] Their research included the development and psychometric evaluation of a series of measures relevant to happiness and wellbeing. The most widely used measure is the Memorial University of Newfoundland Scale of Happiness (MUNSH),published in 1980. Translations of the MUNSH are used in many countries outside of North America and Europe (e.g.,Bangladesh,Brazil,China,Chile,South Africa,South Korea),with subsequent studies attesting to its satisfactory psychometrics throughout the adult age range. [6]
Chinese researchers report that although there are many good measures of subjective wellbeing,"only the MUNSH is particularly suitable for the elderly people."" [7] The MUNSH also shows moderately high stability of happiness levels over prolonged periods of time, [6] which is consistent with evidence for the influence of disposition on subjective well-being that render the latter "genetically indistinguishable from personality traits." [8]
In addition to research on quality of life,Stones' engagement in community service activities include the creation and early administration of Seniors Resource Centres in the Canadian province of Newfoundland in 1990. [9]
During the 1990s,Stones began research on elder abuse,caregiving and health informatics. The main thrust of his elder abuse research is the study of differences between populations in beliefs and attitudes about abuse and neglect. Findings by Stones and Bedard (2002) [10] are considered notable for two reasons:one of only two large-scale investigations of attitudinal differences between seniors and professionals;the inaugural comparison of attitudinal differences between seniors living in rural with urban locations. [11] His research on caregiving mainly examines people with dementia. One study was recipient of a 1997 Bayer/International Psychogeriatrics Association (IPA) Research Award. [12] Research on health informatics includes use of the home care,long-term care,palliative care and in-patient psychiatry versions of Resident Assessment Instruments (RAI). The RAI family of instruments is used world-wide for purposes of research,clinical caregiving and fiscal management. [13]
Research on age trends among Master Athletes has significance for an understanding of human later life potential. Ray Fair notes that finding by Stones and Kozma on cross-sectional age trend in running performance are the first to report exponential age declines that are greater in longer runs than in the sprints. [14] Bradley Young and Janet Starkes report that early studies by Stones and Kozma provide what became classical data analytic procedures for age trends in sport performance and describe the first comparisons of cross-sectional and longitudinal age trend - with lower decrement in longitudinal age trend. [15] A later publication by Stones provides comprehensive discussion of research on age trends in sport during the preceding quarter-century and advocates the adoption of more advanced statistical modeling to differentiate between cross-sectional and longitudinal trend. [16]
Geriatrics, or geriatric medicine, is a medical specialty focused on providing care for the unique health needs of the elderly. The term geriatrics originates from the Greek γέρων geron meaning "old man", and ιατρός iatros meaning "healer". It aims to promote health by preventing, diagnosing and treating disease in older adults. There is no defined age at which patients may be under the care of a geriatrician, or geriatric physician, a physician who specializes in the care of older people. Rather, this decision is guided by individual patient need and the caregiving structures available to them. This care may benefit those who are managing multiple chronic conditions or experiencing significant age-related complications that threaten quality of daily life. Geriatric care may be indicated if caregiving responsibilities become increasingly stressful or medically complex for family and caregivers to manage independently.
Elder abuse is a single, or repeated act, or lack of appropriate action, occurring within any relationship where there is an expectation of trust, which causes harm or distress to an older person. This definition has been adopted by the World Health Organization (WHO) from a definition put forward by Hourglass in the UK. Laws protecting the elderly from abuse are similar to and related to laws protecting dependent adults from abuse.
Grandparents, individually known as grandmother and grandfather, are the parents of a person's father or mother – paternal or maternal. Every sexually reproducing living organism who is not a genetic chimera has a maximum of four genetic grandparents, eight genetic great-grandparents, sixteen genetic great-great-grandparents, thirty-two genetic great-great-great-grandparents, sixty-four genetic great-great-great-great grandparents, etc. In the history of modern humanity, around 30,000 years ago, the number of modern humans who lived to be a grandparent increased. It is not known for certain what spurred this increase in longevity, but it is generally believed that a key consequence of three generations being alive together was the preservation of information which could otherwise have been lost; an example of this important information might have been where to find water in times of drought.
Elderly care, or simply eldercare, serves the needs of old adults. It encompasses assisted living, adult daycare, long-term care, nursing homes, hospice care, and home care.
A caregiver, carer or support worker is a paid or unpaid person who helps an individual with activities of daily living. Caregivers who are members of a care recipient's family or social network, and who may have no specific professional training, are often described as informal caregivers. Caregivers most commonly assist with impairments related to old age, disability, a disease, or a mental disorder.
As populations age, caring for people with dementia has become more common. Elderly caregiving may consist of formal care and informal care. Formal care involves the services of community and medical partners, while informal care involves the support of family, friends, and local communities. In most mild-to-medium cases of dementia, the caregiver is a spouse or an adult child. Over a period of time, more professional care in the form of nursing and other supportive care may be required medically, whether at home or in a long-term care facility. There is evidence to show that case management can improve care for individuals with dementia and the experience of their caregivers. Furthermore, case management may reduce overall costs and institutional care in the medium term. Millions of people living in the United States take care of a friend or family member with Alzheimer’s disease or a related dementia.
Family caregivers are "relatives, friends, or neighbors who provide assistance related to an underlying physical or mental disability for at-home care delivery and assist in the activities of daily living (ADLs) who are unpaid and have no formal training to provide those services."
Edward Francis Diener was an American psychologist and author. Diener was a professor of psychology at the University of Utah and the University of Virginia, and Joseph R. Smiley Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of Illinois, as well as a senior scientist for the Gallup Organization. He is noted for his three decades of research on happiness, including work on temperament and personality influences on well-being, theories of well-being, income and well-being, cultural influences on well-being, and the measurement of well-being. As shown on Google Scholar as of April 2021, Diener's publications have been cited over 257,000 times.
Caregiver syndrome or caregiver stress is a condition that strongly manifests exhaustion, anger, rage, or guilt resulting from unrelieved caring for a chronically ill patient. This condition is not listed in the United States' Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, although the term is often used by many healthcare professionals in that country. The equivalent used in many other countries, the ICD-11, does include the condition.
Well-being, or wellbeing, also known as wellness, prudential value, prosperity or quality of life, is what is intrinsically valuable relative to someone. So the well-being of a person is what is ultimately good for this person, what is in the self-interest of this person. Well-being can refer to both positive and negative well-being. In its positive sense, it is sometimes contrasted with ill-being as its opposite. The term "subjective well-being" denotes how people experience and evaluate their lives, usually measured in relation to self-reported well-being obtained through questionnaires.
May Louise Hinton-Wykle, is an American nurse, gerontologist, educator, researcher, and the first African-American Marvin E. and Ruth Durr Denekas Endowed Chair at the Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing of Case Western Reserve University. Wykle also serves as a professor at Georgia Southwestern State University and teaches Geriatric Nursing, Mental Health Nursing, Nursing Administration, and Minority Student Recruitment and Retention.
Subjective well-being (SWB) is a self-reported measure of well-being, typically obtained by questionnaire.
Bob G. Knight, is the former associate dean of the USC Davis School of Gerontology, the Merle H. Bensinger Professor of Gerontology and Psychology and the director of the Tingstad Older Adult Counseling Center. He is best known for research and theory development on cross-cultural issues in stress and coping during family caregiving for dementia and also for theory and scholarship on adapting psychotherapy for work with older adults.
The Institute of Gerontology (IOG) at Wayne State University conducts research on the behavioral and social aspects of aging. Located in Detroit, Michigan, the Institute has a strong focus on urban issues, especially disability, mobility and transportation, financial challenges, and disparities in health between ethnic groups. Faculty at the Institute are jointly appointed with a home department in a complementary discipline, such as economics, physical therapy or nursing. The Institute also maintains a Lifespan Cognitive Neuroscience of Aging laboratory currently profiling brain changes in normal aging through traditional testing and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of participants brain structure and function.
Caregiver burden is the stress which is perceived by caregivers due to the home care situation. The subjective burden is considered to be one of the most important predictors of negative outcomes from the home care situation.
Intrapsychic humanism is a comprehensive general psychology and philosophy of mind that provides a new understanding of what it is to be human. Intrapsychic humanism is a nonderivative depth psychology that provides a unified and comprehensive theory of child development, psychopathology, and psychological treatment.
Gerodiversity is the multicultural approach to issues of aging. This approach provides a theoretical foundation for the medical and psychological treatment of older adults within an ecological context that includes their cultural identity and heritage, social environment, community, family system, and significant relationships. Gerodiversity encompasses a social justice framework, which considers the social and historical dynamics of privilege and inequality. In addition to issues of aging, gerodiversity includes race, ethnicity, language, gender identity, socioeconomic status, physical ability or disability, sexual orientation, level of education, country of origin, location of residence, and religion or spirituality.
Well-being is a multifaceted topic studied in psychology, especially positive psychology. Biologically, well-being is highly influenced by endogenous molecules that impact happiness and euphoria in organisms, often referred to as "well-being related markers". Related concepts are eudaimonia, happiness, flourishing, quality of life, contentment, and meaningful life.
Dov Shmotkin is Professor Emeritus in the School of Psychological Sciences and Head of the Herczeg Institute on Aging at Tel Aviv University.
Jiska Cohen-Mansfield is the Igor Orenstein Chair for the Study of Geriatrics at Tel Aviv University Medical School and a professor at the Department of Health Promotion at the School of Public Health in the Sackler Medical Faculty at Tel Aviv University. She is the director of the Minerva Center for Interdisciplinary Study of End of Life at Tel-Aviv University.