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Boston College School of Social Work Associate Professor Christina Matz only had to look within her own family to realize the problems facing older adults鈥攁nd be motivated to do something about it.
While she was in college, her grandfather died, after having spent practically all of his adult life as a greenhouse owner and wholesale plant and flower distributor. When Matz came home for the summer, she found her grandmother had deteriorated, becoming less active, more isolated and insular; less than a year later, she died.
Christina Matz (Lee Pellegrini)
Her grandfather鈥檚 鈥渨ork until you die鈥� retirement plan, Matz adds, is the model for her father, also self-employed, and for Americans without employer-sponsored health insurance or 401(k) plans.
鈥淒efining 鈥榬etirement鈥� is one of the great struggles of our time,鈥� says Matz, who chairs the 亚色影库SSW Older Adults and Families concentration and is a research faculty member at the 亚色影库 Center on Aging and Work. 鈥淚n the past, we鈥檝e associated retirement with leisure and dwindling activity, but that鈥檚 not sustainable in an era when people are living longer. And there are questions beyond how long someone will have to work. A lot of us have stories of family members or loved ones who, when they became older, had a serious decline in the quality of their lives.
鈥淚 just remember my grandparents and think, 鈥楾here has to be a better way.鈥欌��
These experiences and impressions have helped fuel Matz鈥檚 interest in exploring the connections between health, wellbeing, and engagement during later life. In particular, she focused on the role of social and productive activities such as work, volunteerism, and caregiving in helping to promote more fulfilling lives among people 60 or older.听
Now, Matz is involved in multiple research projects and other initiatives that she hopes will lead to a better understanding of older adults鈥� physical and emotional health, and policies and practices that can improve their lives.
鈥淣ot surprisingly, we tend to see aging mainly in terms of disability and decline鈥攁nd death. But this population has incredible capabilities, expertise, and talents that have developed and been refined over many years. We need to drastically rethink how we view older generations, and what resources and opportunities can help them thrive and be active in their communities.鈥�
Critical to such efforts, Matz believes, is to have as comprehensive a picture as possible鈥攓uantitative and qualitative鈥攐f older adults鈥� everyday lives, and their attitudes and perceptions about themselves and their lives. One of her major activities has been Engaged4Life, a behavioral intervention designed to encourage community-dwelling older adults to embed physical activity, cognitive activity, and social interaction into their everyday lives in contexts that are personally meaningful and natural, via technology-assisted self-monitoring of activity levels, psycho-education, goal setting, and peer mentorship. The project has been supported by the Boston Roybal Center for Active Lifestyle Interventions and the 亚色影库 Institute on Aging.