KATY HAR
In a move designed to increase the study of aging, the gerontology minor, formerly part of the Health Science Department, will move to the College of Family, Home and Social Sciences. The change was also made in an effort to increase student awareness of that discipline.
“We want to integrate the study of quality of life for the elderly into the study of human development from infancy to old age,” said Dean Clayne Pope, of the College of Family, Home and Social Science.
A university committee will meet throughout the semester to work on revisions and expansions to the program, Pope said. The final changes are expected to begin next fall.
The gerontology minor is multi-disciplinary and attracts students from a variety of majors including health science, recreational management, business, sociology, psychology, social work, family science and pre-medical, said Steven Heiner, director of the gerontology program at BYU.
Course offerings in the minor come from different departments and include such classes as health and aging, accessible recreation, geography and tourism, psychology of adulthood and leisure in contemporary society. The minor also incorporates social work, speech pathology and audiology, business and dietetics, Heiner said.
The growing senior population denotes a need for greater visibility of gerontology, Pope said.
“The demographic changes in our society would indicate that the study of aging and how to improve the quality of our lives is increasing,” Pope said. “This change will help people understand that most older people live active lives and contribute a great deal.”
A knowledge of gerontology also increases job opportunities as the baby boomer population increases, Heiner said.
“Seniors will be a bigger factor,” Heiner said. “There will be more seniors to take care of and to provide services for.”
The greater need for services comes as senior citizens’ health and independence increases, said Rachel Leonard, a graduate student from Phoenix, Ariz., who minored in gerontology.
Leonard’s interest in gerontology was a result of positive experiences with senior citizens.
“My own grandparents were not sickly, and so I never had the perception of older people being sickly and needing help,” she said.
In filling the minor’s required internship, Leonard worked at the Seville Retirement Residence in Orem, planning activities and finding out which resources are available in the community.
“I was fascinated by how difficult it is to fill an entire month with activities to keep the seniors out and about,” Leonard said.
