Center for Aging Research and Education, UW-Madison School of Nursing

09/09/2026

Thanks to Dane County Parks for organizing these inclusive, free events! Contact Susan with questions at [email protected]

Birding Your Way - September 19

In partnership with the Southern Wisconsin Bird Alliance, we are hosting a free Birding Your Way event at Fish Camp County Park on Saturday, September 19. The event will include a variety of birding-related experiences, including sits (birding by ear) with a nature journaling option, strolls, and bird photography. This special event is designed to make birding and the outdoors welcoming, inclusive, safe, and accessible for all. No birding experience is necessary!

Nature Based Memory Café - October 5

A monthly gathering space for individuals with dementia, their families, and caregivers. October’s Memory Cafe theme is “Thankful for the Changing Seasons!” We’ll begin with social time and warm beverages, then head out for an early‑autumn walk along our paved trails to admire the changing colors and gather a few fallen leaves. When we return indoors, we’ll use the leaves to create a “thankful tree,” highlighting things we’re grateful for and sharing favorite fall memories.

09/08/2026

What do we mean by the ?

CARE has developed toolkits and manuals to help family, communities, instructors, and healthcare staff support older adult health and well-being. We've made these resources widely and freely available through our website.

Simply visit the "CARE Products" page, read the descriptions, and use the online form to request something -- from our Support for Older People with Intellectual Disability manuals to our Geriatric Simulations toolkit -- and more.

CARE also offers an Implementing Change in Long-Term Care Manual, which covers how to prepare your organization for changes that improve quality of care, to assist your staff in developing a sense of ownership, and to sustain changes over time. You can download the manual for free here, and the atta...

09/01/2026

"There were 37 grants awarded throughout Wisconsin to help fight loneliness and make communities more livable for older adults and people with disabilities. The Healthy Aging Evaluation and Summary report explores the outcomes and lessons learned. With a focus on grassroots initiatives, the report highlights how small-scale funding can create outsized impact to build meaningful social connection and improve well-being through creative, people-centered approaches."

https://www.dhs.wisconsin.gov/arpa/hcbs-socialconnection.htm

08/25/2026

“The really core, essential component of ensuring that underserved marginalized populations get the care they need is trust, and empathy is core to building trust with patients and providers and interpreters,” says Maichou Lor, PhD, RN, FAAN. “And when that’s lost, that’s where you see a lot of disparities in care.”

UW–Madison researchers, including School of Pharmacy Professor Betty Chewning, are developing culturally sensitive tools to empower Hmong and other caregivers.

08/24/2026

The COVID pandemic shocked and strained healthcare providers. Yet, in spring 2020, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Nursing researchers successfully partnered with hospital units to test their program to increase older patients' mobility.

Read what they learned about building trust, being flexible, and helping hospital patients walk more in the August 2026 issue of CARE Connections, the monthly newsletter of the Center for Aging Research and Education (CARE). Here’s an excerpt:

“We said, okay, we have to figure out what to do. The unit is in crisis. How do we move forward without burdening the unit even more?”

This month’s CARE Connections also includes a profile of CARE Affiliate Beth Fields, PhD, OTR/L; CARE's Geriatric Care Simulations Toolkit; and news and events related to older adult health and well-being.

https://app.explore.wisc.edu/e/es?s=1427524768&e=2527231&elqTrackId=6bf940c8fcbe4d2896cdc087ece57e37&elq=64c67a95851545118e44fb2a2cccf78d&elqaid=86494&elqat=1&elqak=8AF5C60AFC1BA9F3856C491A67F5D2A4713B22299F6293B1F31801B0EAC3EAF2D8D0

08/19/2026

It's the ! CARE has developed toolkits and manuals to help family, communities, instructors, and healthcare staff support older adult health and well-being. We've made these resources widely and freely available through our website.

Simply visit the "CARE Products" page, read the descriptions, and use the online form to request something -- from our Implementing Change in Long-Term Care Toolkit to our Engaging Older Adult Community Members as Advisors on Health Research Toolkit -- and more.

CARE also offers an Implementing Change in Long-Term Care Manual, which covers how to prepare your organization for changes that improve quality of care, to assist your staff in developing a sense of ownership, and to sustain changes over time. You can download the manual for free here, and the atta...

08/18/2026

Registration is now open for the UW-Madison Institute on Aging's Fall Colloquium, on October 14 on campus. This free event showcases research and resources on positive aging, with speakers, a poster session, and a health & resource fair.

Speakers for this year's event will address:
- "The Social Genome: How Connection Shapes Healthy Aging"
- "Bridging Alzheimer’s Disease and Autism Research"
- "Mindful Eco-Wellness: Steps towards Healthier Living for People and Planet"
- "Supporting Wisconsin’s Caregiving Future: Resources, Tools, and Policies that Help"

Since 1988, the IOA has hosted an annual event known as the Institute on Aging Colloquium. It is free and open to the public, and now attracts a full-capacity crowd each year from the campus and community. Local researchers showcase cutting-edge science in diverse aspects of aging through talks and....

08/17/2026

"An 86.7% skilled nursing occupancy rate does reflect meaningful recovery. But it may also reveal scarcity. Understanding which force is driving occupancy in each community is essential to protecting older adults’ dignity and ensuring that families retain real choices.

"The question is not simply whether nursing homes are full. It is whether every older adult can reach the right care, in the right setting, at the right time—and whether our system is measuring what matters enough to know the answer."

Occupancy in nursing care communities keeps increasing. Is that a sign of recovery or scarcity?

08/14/2026

Thanks to Rural Wisconsin Health Cooperative - RWHC for being such a great partner!

For more on the CARE U program, check out the links in the comments.

08/06/2026

Currently, 42 states consider a parent’s disability as a reason to terminate parental rights. Lawmakers, says Kavanaugh, of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, “don’t know how to wrap their minds around how to support a kid that’s not part of the foster care system.”

Another factor contributes to keeping these children under the radar: Identifying those who care for family members can also mean having to reckon with child labor laws. “If we are to acknowledge these children as caregivers, then we’re also maybe by default acknowledging that children are working,” Kavanaugh says. “And we don’t want that.”

The modern health care system requires the work of caregiving to fall to whoever else lives in a household — even if they’re kids.