My name is Patrick Roden and I’m a nurse.
I have been caring for patients and their families since 1983 when I first began working in a nursing home to pay for my education. But my life with elders goes further back to when I was a baby crawling on the floors of the nursing home run by my grandmother who was the head nurse. That’s a lifetime of caring and insights that inform the website you’re now visiting.
Patrick’s Linkedin Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aginginplace
I have set 3 goals for this website:
1. Make it Relevant
2. Make it Simple/Intuitive (time-saving)
3. Make it Quality (deserving of your attention)
To help me achieve these goals I’ve asked the Top Experts in their given fields to provide feedback and guidance on content development–they all have graciously agreed. I’ve worked at getting the help you need and ideas you’ll want in a logical flow that respects your time, intelligence, and resourcefulness.
Aginginplace.com has been carefully designed with you in mind.
“Aging in Place Doesn’t get Real until it gets Personal.”
Patrick spent the first years of his life crawling around the floors of a nursing home where his grandmother was the head nurse. He feels this experience imprinted him and influenced his life’s work. It was his “chance meeting” with 85-year-old marathon participant, Mavis Lindgren in 1992 that set Patrick on his current path. Acting as Mrs. Lindgren’s med escort for 5 marathons changed his view of what is possible in old age.
Patrick’s nursing career spanned over three decades and included ICU, CCU, Trauma, Inner-city Public Health, YMCA Cardiac Therapy Volunteer, and post-surgical recovery.
Professional Activities
Patrick’s Motto: Eat < Move + Purpose + Growth Mindset + Sleep + AIP Design x Community = Healthy Inter-dependence for Life!
Meet My team of Advisors
Harry (Rick) Moody, Ph.D. / Expert Gerontology (the study of ageing)
Recently retired as Vice President and Director of Academic Affairs for AARP in Washington, DC. He is currently Visiting Professor at Tohoku University in Japan, and Distinguished Visiting Professor at Fielding Graduate University. Dr. Moody previously served as Executive Director of the Brookdale Center on Aging at Hunter College and Chairman of the Board of Elderhostel (now Road Scholar). Dr. Moody is the author of over 100 scholarly articles, as well as a number of books including Abundance of Life: Human Development Policies for an Aging Society, Ethics in an Aging Society and Aging: Concepts and Controversies, a gerontology textbook now in its 8th edition. His most recent book, The Five Stages of the Soul, was published by Doubleday Anchor Books and has been translated into seven languages worldwide.
A graduate of Yale (1967) and a Ph.D. in philosophy from Columbia University (1973), Dr. Moody taught philosophy at Columbia, Hunter College, New York University, and the University of California at Santa Cruz. From 1999 to 2001 he served as National Program Director of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Faith in Action and, from 1992 to 1999, was Executive Director of the Brookdale Center at Hunter College. Before coming to Hunter, he served as Administrator of Continuing Education Programs for the Citicorp Foundation and later as Co-Director of the National Aging Policy Center of the National Council on Aging in Washington, DC.
[email protected] (Contact to get his Human Values in Aging Newsletter)
Laurie Orlov / Expert on Aging in Place Technology
Laurie Orlov is the Founder of Aging in Place Technology Watch, a market research firm that provides thought leadership, analysis, and guidance about technologies and related services that enable boomers and seniors to remain longer in their homes.
Her perspectives have been quoted in Business Week, Forbes, Kiplinger, the Toronto Star, and the New York Times. She has been profiled in the New York Times and the Huffington Post. She has a graduate certification in Geriatric Care Management from the University of Florida and a BA in Music from the University of Rochester.
She is frequently quoted in CNN, Yahoo! Finance, Kiplinger, The Wall Street Journal, The NY Times, and USA Today. Laurie is profiled in Business Week’s Launching Startups, Huffington Post, and The NY Times.
________________________________________________________________________________________________
Louis Tenenbaum / Expert Aging in Place Built Environment
Louis Tenenbaum is the nation’s top visionary on aging in place. He is the founder of the Aging in Place Institute, is a leading authority on aging in place – the idea that our homes are the most desirable and economical place for housing and care. Tenenbaum is an enthusiastic speaker whose passion is evident and contagious. He works with communities, not for profits, business and foundations as well as families and individuals on home and community design, innovative business models for aging in place, marketing to older consumers and better ways to educate and motivate consumers and communities to act responsibly on their own behalf.
LouisTenenbaum.com
Founder HomesRenewed
________________________________________________________________________________________________
Rosemarie Rossetti, Ph.D. / Expert Universal Design
Rosemarie Rossetti, Ph.D. is a powerful, internationally known speaker, consultant, writer, and publisher who walks her talk. On June 13, 1998, Rossetti’s life was transformed when a 3 1/2 ton tree came crashing down on her. Her life was changed in that instant! Paralyzed from the waist down with a spinal cord injury, Rossetti looked deep within herself and found new strength and new resolve. In her keynote speeches, she shares the lessons she has learned since that fateful day and demonstrates how to rise above misfortune and live life with conviction.
Rossetti is the president of Rossetti Enterprises Inc., founded in 1997, and Fortuna Press LLC, founded in 2003. She is a member of the National Speakers Association and served on the board of directors for the NSA Ohio Chapter from 1998-2003. Rossetti and her husband, Mark Leder, are on a personal mission to increase the awareness and discussion of the home of the future. They built a national demonstration home and garden in Columbus, Ohio, the Universal Design Living Laboratory www.UDLL.com.
________________________________________________________________________________________________
Ramiah Ramasubramanian MD, FRCA (England) / Expert The Science of Optimal Aging
“Dr. Rama” is newly retired! He had previously been a board-certified anesthesiologist with a fellowship in surgical critical care. He advocates for healthy aging and has himself overcome physical challenges to thrive in his life. He is a veracious reader and seeker of cutting edge research on optimal human health. Dr. Rama is a contributor to the Health-ebytes section of this website. He is happy to share his vast knowledge on health related issues. Dr Rama will be embarking on a new career of writing and publishing on issues of financial and physical health. He lives in Portland, Oregon and can be reached through our contact page.
________________________________________________________________________________________________
Kerry Hannon / Expert on Personal Finance, Career Transition, and Retirement
A national keynote speaker, author, and columnist, Kerry Hannon is an expert on personal finance, career transition, and retirement. Her latest books are Getting the Job You Want After 50, Love Your Job: The New Rules of Career Happiness. Other recent books include: What’s Next? Finding Your Passion and Your Dream Job in Your Forties, Fifties, and Beyond and Great Jobs for Everyone 50 +. I am a columnist for The New York Times. I am AARP’s JOB EXPERT. I write a weekly column for boomer women on the PBS website, NextAvenue.org. My journalistic journey has taken me from Forbes to Money to Kiplinger’s Personal Finance to U.S. News and World Report, where I developed the “Second Acts” column back in 2006, and then on to USA Today where I wrote the “Your Money” column. She runs her own media company with the following platforms: I write non-fiction career and personal finance books and online columns, I give keynote speeches on changing careers, finding work after 50, working in retirement, ways to learn to love your job and women, money and financial security.
Follow me on Twitter: @KerryHannon
Kerry on Dr. Phil
________________________________________________________________________________________________
Teepa Snow / Expert Dementia and Alzheimer’s Care
Teepa Snow is one of the leading educators on dementia and the care that accompanies it, in the US and Canada. As an occupational therapist with forty years of clinical practice, she has founded a company and an approach to support and engage people experiencing changes in brain function. This Positive Approach® to Care emphasizes making use of the skills retained while providing support, and substituting our skill, for what is no longer available. This belief led to Teepa creating the GEMS® States model for brain change. The GEMS model compares people to gemstones and focuses on retained abilities in order for us to see what is beautiful, and still available, for the person with whom we share time and offer support and care. Her company, Positive Approach to Care (PAC), provides training, services, and products around the world.
The letters behind Teepa’s name represent the following credentials: MS (Master of Science), OTR/L (Occupational Therapist, Registered and Licensed), FAOTA (Fellow of the American Occupational Therapy Association).
Email: [email protected]
Teepa Snow and Leeza Gibbins
Keren Etkin / Expert Gero-Technology Trends
Keren Etkin is the Creator of TheGerotechnologist.com, a website that covers the global age tech ecosystem. In 2019, she was named one of the most influential people in aging by Next Avenue. Keren is a public speaker and an advisor for age tech startups, investors in the longevity economy, care providers and organizations who work on innovation in aging. organizations who work on innovation in aging.
Keren was the first employee at Intuition Robotics, the startup behind ElliQ, the world’s first social robot designed with and for older adults, and co-founder & VP of Product at Sensi.Ai, a startup that developed the first and only audio-AI solution for remote care monitoring.
She holds an M.A. in Gerontology B.Sc. in Life Sciences.
Website thegerontechnologist.com
A critical care nurse, Patrick Roden, was a medical volunteer at the Portland Marathon of 1992 when he came to the aid of the celebrated 85-year-old marathoner, Mavis Lindgren. They became fast friends and he was her escort for many marathons until her last at age 90. “Mavis changed the way I viewed aging,” Patrick said, “The medical model tends to focus on what goes wrong in aging–and neglects to inform us about what goes right. She inspired me to begin working on a Ph.D. in aging and human development.”
My Story
Night’s chill lingered in the air and the silence was broken by the sounds of songbirds. The sun was just beginning to rise on a crisp October morning in 1992. Suddenly the squeaking brakes of a rental truck and the clanging of folding chairs shattered the serenity. With military precision, the volunteers began to set up the first aid station at the 18-mile marker. I was one of those volunteers and this was the annual running of the Portland Marathon.
It took an hour to set up and go through my checklist. The first aid kit was in order and the communications were working. We were ready. Soon the elite runners would be flying through, followed by a seemingly endless sea of participants. The conditions were perfect: a bright clear indigo sky, golden fall leaves. All of us were anticipating an inspiring day.
The morning had been uneventful at our station. The usual blisters, Vaseline applied to the chaffed skin, hydration to the dehydrated, and lots of moral support. One pregnant woman reached the 18-mile point and could go no further so we loaded her into the ambulance. They taxied her to the finish line and her anxiously awaiting husband.
It was now late afternoon and the sea of runners had dwindled to a trickle of determined souls. The frequent and now familiar static that preceded a message from the EMS broke the airwaves. An elderly woman was reported down near the 18-mile mark, in our territory. I waited for a person fitting the description to pass, and no one did. Strapping on my first aid kit, I set out to investigate.
Running upstream, I began to think, how elderly could they mean? Whoever it was, he or she had gone 18 miles, and this was a marathon after all…50, maybe 60, I thought.
As I rounded the bend I saw a young woman attending the injured runner who looked like Mother Theresa in running shorts! The young woman explained that another runner had cut in front of the injured woman and knocked her down as she stepped towards the curb. As I listened, I assessed the situation. The injuries included an obviously fractured wrist as well as a small bump on the head. “Her name is Mavis,” the young woman said.
“Mavis, I would like to escort you to the first aid station,” I began… “Young man, I’m going to finish this race,” she politely interrupted. After a few seconds of negotiating, I held up her injured arm and we briskly took off for the station (or so I thought).
Amazed, I blurted out “How old are you?” “I’m 85.” She pointed to her number pinned to the front of her T-shirt. “Every year, they give me the number of my age. This year I’m number 85. “What do you mean each year?” I asked.
Mavis Lindgren had run all over the world. She had appeared many times on TV, radio, and magazines such as Runner’s World, Sports Illustrated, and The New York Times, and been mentioned in books such as Age Wave (Ken Dychtwald) and Grandma Wears Running Shoes (Patricia Horning Benton). She was no stranger to Portland, either. All along the course, there were signs encouraging her and the cheers followed her every step! Two middle-aged women ran up and hugged her exclaiming that they wanted to be just like her when they grew up.
Mavis and I reached the finish line arm-in-arm, right into interviews for the 6’oclock news (I have the video). I was asked to escort her to the entire race the next year in 1993, and it became a tradition.
She retired from running at age 90 after the 1997 marathon. It was her 75th and final 26.2-mile outing. Phil Knight of Nike had a custom pair of “Air Mavis” running shoes made especially for her final marathon. Her two daughters and grandchildren accompanied us and it was an emotional finale to an illustrious running career.
What makes her story all the more exceptional to me is that at age 62, Mavis was leading a sedentary life, spending most of the time reading, writing, and knitting. She had suffered four bouts of pneumonia in five years and, as a retired nurse, she knew the antibiotics weren’t the long-term solution. Something had to change. A doctor urged her to join an early birds walking group. At age 70, encouraged by her son, she ran her first marathon! Two years later, she established a record of 4:33.05, and for the next eight years, held world’s best time for women 70 and over. And at 84 she finished the Los Angeles marathon in 6 hours 45 minutes-the fastest woman in her age category. “After I started running, I never had another cold,” she said.
Asked what his message was, Gandhi replied: “My life is my message. “This could well be said about Mavis Lindgren.
Thank you for visiting,
Patrick