Greetings from the Center for Gerontology!

 

 

The Center for Gerontology emphasizes Healthy Communities, Healthy Lifestyles and Healthy Ages in its three strategic goals:

• Prepare new generations of aging advocates to work with older adults, their families and their communities.
• Contribute to new knowledge on aging populations, cohorts and communities in Kentucky and the southeast through the conduct of applied aging research.
• Enhance local capacity for older adults and the communities in which they live through the dissemination of community based research, best practices and sponsorship of programmatic activities.

 

Philosophy

The University of Western Kentucky’s Center for Gerontology is guided by the belief that healthy aging is attainable on both the individual and community level and requires implementing holistic strategies. Keys to successful healthy aging are increasing physical activity, improving eating habits, preventing disease, injury and disability, maximizing financial and physical independence and maintaining active participation with the community. Located within a historically rural environment, the Center recognizes the value of interdisciplinary and intergenerational collaboration in developing approaches that respect the needs of older adults and the rural communities that support them. Committed to balancing gerontological theory with practice, the Center nurtures dynamic partnerships between agencies working on aging issues, Western Kentucky University and the international community.