Projects and Assignments
1. Visit a local nursing home or personal care home for Black older adultsfor a pre-arranged question and answer session featuring Black older adults(men and women, preferably) talking about the history of their health and health care.
2. Participant observations through grand rounds and/or case conferences can also be useful ways of developing and reinforcing insights into conceptions of illness and treatment approaches.
3. Invitations to a traditional medicine practitioner to make a class room presentation and/or visit his/her office to discuss his/her conceptions of illness, treatment and health.
4. Observe a case conference of an interdisciplinary team meeting with a focus on an older Black patient.
5. Assigned readings, lecture, and discussion can be augmented with the following assignments:
a. downloading the latest data on life expectancy and mortality rates for older adults from different ethnic populations from web sites (e.g., Trends in Health and Aging at www.nchs.gov) and making comparisons
b. interviewing African American older adults on the help they give and receive, or other specific topics (See Interview Strategies)
c. presenting the results of the interviews in class to compare and discuss
d. similarities and differences, group projects that address individual disease risks, such as diabetes
e. a field trip to a historical museum (e.g., Carver Museum in Tuskegee, Alabama) on African American History to see film, pictorial displays and other objects pertinent to the health history of Blacks
f. film and video, such as “Old Black and Alive” produced by the National Center on Black Aged, Washington, D.C.,
g. problem-posing discussions
