HIV/AIDS and Aging

 

Thursday, September 18th is National HIV/AIDS and Aging Awareness Day

 

 

In honor of National HIV/AIDS and Aging Awareness Day I have put together a comprehensive list of resources available on the web about HIV and Aging. If you are in the Philadelphia area, join the LGBT Elder Initiative for the event listed below.

Gettin’ Older with HIV
Date: Saturday, September 20, 2014
Time: 10am – 12:30pm
Location” 330 S. 13th Street, Philadelphia, PA (St. Luke & The Epiphany)
Details: a free community workshop to update people living with HIV/AIDS, caregivers and service providers about the unique issues facing LGBT people with HIV/AIDS as they get older

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In the AIDS Library

Materials focusing primarily on aging

• Aging with HIV: A Gay Man’s Guide, by James Masten
• Aging with HIV: Psychological, Social, and Health Issues, by Janice E. Nichols et al
• What People Over 50 Need to Know About HIV and AIDS, by the PA Department of Health – a pamphlet, available in both English and Spanish
• The New Ourselves, Growing Older: Women Aging with Knowledge and Power,  by Doress-Worters and Paula Brown – part of the Our Bodies, Ourselves series
• Nutrition in Aging, by Eleanor D. Schlenker

Materials with sections focusing on aging:

• The Alternative Health & Medicine Encyclopedia, by James E. Marti – with a chapter called “Aging”
• Doctor, What Should I Eat?, by Isadore Rosenfeld, M.D. – with a section called “Aging: No One Lives Forever – But It’s Worth a Try”
• Extended Health Care At Home: A Complete and Practical Guide, by Evelyn M. Baulch – with a section “Care for the Elderly”
• The Gay Men’s Wellness Guide, by Robert E. Penn – with chapters called “Older Gay Men,” and “Aging”
• Natural Family Doctor: The Comprehensive Self-Help Guide to Health and Natural Medicine, by Dr. Andrew Stanway et al – with a section of “The later years” and “Death and bereavement”
• Our Bodies, Ourselves, by the Boston Women’s Health Book Collective – with a sections on “Midlife and Menopause” and “Our Later Years”
• The Planned Parenthood Women’s Health Encyclopedia, by Planned Parenthood – with an entry on “Aging” and entries on many other issues related to Aging
• The Women’s Complete Wellness Book, by Debra R. Judelson, M.D., and Diana L. Dell, M.D. – with chapters called “Mature Years: Ages 46 to 64” and “Older Years: Ages 65 and Over”

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The Basics

For a brief introduction to this issue, see AIDS InfoNet’s Older People and HIV.

For a longer introduction, see:

• The AIDS Community Research Initiative of America (ACRIA)’s HIV and Older Adults and Preventing HIV in Older Adults booklets, available in both English and Spanish
• AIDSinfo’s HIV/AIDS: Adults 50 and Over
• Positively Aware’s issue Aging with HIV: You’re Getting Older and Better

For a statistical introductions, see

• The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s webpage on HIV/AIDS in Persons Aged 50 and Older – for basic statistics
• GMHC’s Growing Older With the Epidemic – for more detailed epidemiological trends and policy recommendations

For a comprehensive patient handout, see the HIV Training and Resource Initiative’s Coming of Age: A Guide to Aging Well With HIV, a 68-page booklet filled with clear explanations of the aspects of medical care and practical advice for staying health.

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Specific Issues

For considerations of HIV risk among older folks (and people having sex with them), see:

• HIV Among Older Adults: Age-Specific Issues in Prevention and Treatment, a paper by a University of Illinois social work professor
• The British non-profit NAM’s Having Older Sexual Partners Increases HIV Risk for Younger Gay Men

For safer sex / prevention messages aimed at older adults, especially those at high risk, see:

• ACRIA and GMHC’s Still Got It at Sevety: Sexuality, Aging, and HIV
• Services & Advocacy for GLBT Elders’s Ten Things Every LGBT Older Adult Should Know About HIV/AIDS
• The National Resource Center on LGBT Aging’s An HIV/AIDS Trainer’s Perspective – for tips on talking with older adults about HIV/AIDS
• available in English, Spanish, Russian, Haitian Creole, and Chinese.
• The AIDS Institute’s webpage for National HIV/AIDS and Aging Awareness Day  (NHAAD, September 18^th), which includes a toolkit (at the bottom of the page), including posters, brochures, and PowerPoint presentations

For more on the way HIV can effect aging, see

• ACRIA and GMHC’s Aging Before Your Time? – with a rundown of common manifestations of again and the way that HIV effects many of these issues
• The Black AIDS Institute’s Living Longer with HIV/AIDS Includes Developing Chronic Diseases
• Science Daily’s Premature Aging Caused by Some HIV Drugs
• Medscape Medical News’s HIV Speeds Brain Aging

For a couple other specific issues around living with HIV in older age, see:

• The Well Project’s Menopause and HIV
• AIDSMeds.com’s Exercises Guidelines Published for People with HIV Over 50

News & Personal Accounts

For news, see

• The Body’s Aging and HIV/AIDS: Research
• An Aging Epidemic, originally published by Canadian AIDS Treatment Information Exchange

For personal accounts, see

• ACRIA’s Let’s Face It: Older Adults Speak About HIV – a booklet with twelve personal stories, available in both English and Spanish
• Aging with HIV – a blog by James Masten, a Therapist and Social Work professor, which includes both professional opinions and personal opinions as someone working in the field for over 20 years.
• AARP’s Meet 6 unforgettable people over 50 living with HIV
• Helena Bushong: In Her Own Words – the story of an HIV+ older transwoman
• How to Age with HIV – Gracefully, a personal narrative from POZ magazine
• The Graying of AIDS, a photo series with personal narratives

For video personal accounts, see:

• Aging POZitively – a 35-minute video profiling three older HIV+ adults
• AARP’s Standing Up to Stigma – an article and 6-minute video profiling a retired doctor who was kicked out of an assisted living facility because of his HIV status
• The Graying of AIDS – the website of a documentary currently in progress, with dozens of interviews

Info for Providers

For longer introductions about HIV/AIDS and aging aimed at providers:

• Achieve Magazine published an entire issue in 2009 called Growing Older with HIV
• ACRIA, the American Academy of HIV Medicine, and the American Geriatrics Society publish a blog updated periodically with comprehensive information about HIV and Aging called the HIV and Aging Blog
• ACRIA published a report called Research on Older Adults with HIV
• The U.S. Administration on Aging hosted a webinar in June of 2011 aimed at providers called Positive Aging: HIV Turns 30
• The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS published a report in 2013 called HIV and Aging

For clinical research on HIV/AIDS and aging, see:

• University of California, San Francisco’s HIV InSite’s pages HIV and Aging: A Paradigm Shift in the Management of HIV Disease, a narrated slideshow, and HIV and Aging: Related Resources, an aggregation of journal articles, conference reports, provider education modules, and more
• ACRIA’s HIV & Aging Research: A Roadmap for the Future
• The University of Michigan’s Center for the Demography of Aging’s Research Network on HIV/AIDS and the Elderly – for research around the world
• The Body’s Updates from the First International Workshop on HIV & Aging
• Critical Interventions in Aging’s article on Religion, Spirituality, and Older Adults With HIV: Critical Personal and Social Resources For An Aging Epidemic
• The Body’s Aging & HIV/AIDS: Research page – which collects dozens more studies and reports on the topic

For an educational video aimed at providers, see the AIDS Education & Training Center’s HIV and Older Adults, a 28-minute video about co-morbities, treatment, psychosocial issues, the importance of testing older adults, and more.

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Upcoming Webinars

For upcoming webinars,

ACRIA HIV & Aging Training  
All webinars take place from 1-3pm EST.

Health Promotion for Older Adults Living with HIV (October 22, 2014)
REGISTER HERE

This two hour webinar will provide an overview of how HIV progresses and affects the overall health of older adults. This information will then be related to how service providers can play a role in promoting and helping older adults living with HIV stay linked to care and maintain viral load suppression.
Sexual Health of Older Adults (December 17, 2014)
REGISTER HERE

This two-hour webinar is designed to provide a comprehensive overview of sexual activity among older adults and the need for effective and tailored HIV/STI prevention messages to help improve sexual health. Data on the sexual activity and function of older adults will be provided from a number of sources, including ACRIA’s research with older adults.

Resiliency of Older Adults Living with HIV/AIDS (November, 12, 2014)
REGISTER HERE

This two hour webinar will provide an overview of the different types of resiliency qualities and how their associations with positive healthy behaviors impact the health of older adults living with HIV.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Varying times.

HIV/AIDS, Aging, and Social Service Providers Webinar: Why Should I Care and What Can I Do? (September 16, 2014) 12:00-1pm EST
REGISTER HERE

HIV/AIDS, Aging, and Health Care Providers Webinar: What All Practitioners Should Know (September 17, 2014) 1:00-2:00pm EST
REGISTER HERE