The Forum on Aging is a two-day conference providing continuing education units for social workers, nurses, activity professionals, and nursing home administrators.
2024 Conference Dates:
March 5 & 6, 2024
Location:
Sharonville Convention Center
11355 Chester Rd.
Cincinnati, OH 45246-4002
(513) 771-7744
Conference Contact
Amy Leonhardt
Registration
Registration will open January 2024.
- One day fee: $125
- Two days fee: $195
- Annual Meeting and Awards: $30
Conference Schedule
Tuesday, March 5, 2024
7:30 — 8:30 a.m. Registration, Breakfast, Networking, and Exhibit Hall
8:30 – 11:30 a.m. Intensive Concurrent Workshops
11:30 am– 12:30 p.m. Buffet Lunch, Networking and Exhibit Hall
12:30 – 1:45 p.m. Welcome and Opening Keynote
1:45 – 2:00 p.m. Break
2:00 – 4:00 p.m. Concurrent Breakout Workshops
Wednesday, March 6, 2024
7:30 — 8:25 a.m. Registration, Breakfast, Round Table, Networking, and Exhibit Hall
8:25 — 9:30 a.m. Welcome and Keynote
9:30 — 9:45 a.m. Break
9:45 – 11:45 a.m. Concurrent Breakout Workshops
11:45 — 12:45 p.m. Buffet Lunch, Networking and Exhibit Hall
1:00 — 2:00 p.m. Keynote
2:00 — 2:15 p.m. Break
2:15 — 4:15 p.m. Concurrent Breakout Workshops
Continuing Education Credits
Twelve clock hours will be available to the following professions:
Social Workers
Nursing Home Administrators
Nurses*
Activity Professionals
Continuing Education Credit Certificates will be mailed to attendees of the Forum on Aging. Please allow 4 weeks to process.
*Any continuing education activity that has been approved by Ohio Board of Social Workers is accepted by the Ohio Board of Nursing for all nurses in the State of Ohio.
Keynote Speakers
Raising Awareness and Implementing Changes to Combat Ageism
April Ibarra, MGS
Negative stereotypes of aging have resulted in discrimination and unfair treatment towards older adults. Research has shown that older adults often assimilate negative age stereotypes from the surrounding culture, leading to negative self-definitions that have a detrimental effect on older individuals. It’s time to create a world of age equality by making discrimination based on age as unacceptable as any other bias and the first step is awareness.
April Ibarra is known for her sassy and passionate approach towards aging. April is a gerontologist and aging woman who inspires and motivates others to fight against stereotypes and ageism. Her personal blog, “A Piece of My Mind,” is dedicated to empowering women to embrace aging without any hesitation or fear. She encourages everyone to use the aging process as an opportunity to realize their dreams, instead of fading away. With thirty years of experience in healthcare and aging, she aims to inspire everyone on their aging journey to live a vibrant and fulfilling life where age is just a number and the possibilities are endless.
Grief Happens: Let’s Talk About it Already
Lisa Keefauver, MSW
In this one-hour keynote address, grief activist, Lisa Keefauver, guides participants to reimagine grief. How are we so illiterate and ill-informed about something 100% of us experience, multiple times in our lives? Lisa combines metaphor, science, and humor to help us all feel more equipped to name, move forward with and support others when grief arrives at our door.
Lisa Keefauver is a social worker and widow turned in-demand grief activist, speaker, and author. Lisa’s grief advocacy inspired her to found Reimagining Grief, with a mission to illuminate and dismantle the limited and misleading collective story of grief that causes unnecessary suffering. Best known for her interview skills as host of the top-rated podcast, Grief is a Sneaky Bitch, you can also see her passion for the subject by watching her viral TEDx Talk, Why Knowing More About Grief Can Make it Suck Less. Her heavily-anticipated book, Grief is a Sneaky Bitch: An Uncensored Guide to Navigating Loss is due out this summer. Lisa lives in Southern California with her rescue pup, Ms. Frankie.
Interpersonal Effectiveness: The Secrets to Successfully Dealing with Just About Anyone
Gregory W. Lester, Ph.D.
Being able to deal effectively with many different types of people has been shown to be the key to happiness and success in life. Traditional advice on handling people fails because it relies on having to remember categories or Atypes@ of people. This presentation will show how new brain science has uncovered powerful and effective methods for dealing with virtually anyone, in any situation, without any need for memorizing techniques or personality types.
Gregory W. Lester, Ph.D. is a clinical psychologist licensed in Colorado and Texas. Dr. Lester has been in practice for over 40 years and specializes in the diagnosis, treatment, and management of personality disorders. He has personally treated over 1,000 of these cases and has trained more social service professionals on the diagnosis and treatment of personality disorders than any other individual, having presented over 2,000 trainings to over 250,000 social service professionals across the globe. Dr. Lesters articles and research has appeared in over a dozen professional and popular publications including The Journal of the American Medical Association and The Western Journal of Medicine. Dr. Lester has served as a special consultant to the United States Department of Justice, and was a member of the DSM-5 committee for the revision of personality disorders, for which his office served a research site.
Workshops
Information coming soon.
Annual Meeting and Awards
Annual Meeting and Awards Ceremony
Wednesday, March 6, 2023
11:30 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.
Sharonville Convention Center
11255 Chester Road
Cincinnati, OH 45246
COA’s Annual Meeting and Awards Luncheon will include a buffet lunch, a brief overview of COA’s 2022 Annual Report, an awards ceremony, and a special keynote presentation from Gregory Lester, Ph.D.
The awards ceremony will honor home health aides who work to make life better for older adults. Click here to learn more and complete an online nomination form. Nominations are due December 15, 2023
Agenda
11:30 a.m. Lunch
12:15 p.m. Annual Meeting and Award Ceremony
1:00 p.m. Keynote Speaker Gregory W. Lester, Ph.D
Cost to attend the luncheon and keynote presentation is $30. Registration will open in January.