As part of the DOW Visiting Scholar Lecture series, SVSU invited Trini Stickle, Associate Professor of English at Western Kentucky University, on Tuesday April 4th to give a speech titled “Only the Lonely”. The event was held in Gilbertson Hall from 4-5 p.m.
Stickle is an applied linguist who shed light on the pressing issue of elderly isolation, and its effects on their wellbeing. Her expertise is in researching the persons’ access to meaningful interaction, including individuals diagnosed with autism and dementia.
While introducing her work to the attendees, Stickle mentioned the broad demographics she looks into.
“[I] look at some effects of loneliness not only on the elderly but also on young people”, Stickle said, “we’ll look at some data so you get some experience of what I do look at and how to facilitate conversations.”
Stickle also shed some light on the work she is currently doing and how diversity plays into her research.
“I also have some current research going on with the immigrant and refugee population of Bowling Green and its surrounding areas,” Stickle said, “Bowling Green, [in Kentucky] is a federally recognized immigrant refugee center and in our school systems we have 37 different languages being spoken so it makes it a very linguistically rich area”.
Stickle also presented some statistics about the social landscape of the elderly community.
“More recent information shows that persons’ age 60 or older are alone for more than half their daily measured time,” Stickle said, “the geriatric persons’ residing in nursing halls for whatever reason tend to only get six to eleven minutes per day of actual interaction.”
Stickle drew a parallel between this social deficit many elderly people experience to children who are acquiring a language and are not given the opportunity to interact.
Stickle reinforced the importance of her research in interdisciplinary work.
“[We didn’t want to keep] the silos to ourselves as researchers but how could we share that with caregivers with a clinical staff and build that bridge?” Stickle said.
Having a collection of 200 interactions for the purposes of her research between volunteers in nursing homes and elderly people, Stickle discussed the lessons she learnt from these conversations and how that shaped her understanding.
One example had a volunteer bombard an elderly woman with questions which agitated her.
The volunteer also talked with an elevated pitch like one would to a kid. Stickle emphasized how that would rightfully irritate the person who is being talked to that way.
“And while [people with dementia] may not be able to remember things, you can hear that agitation building, [the elderly person] is an adult and has things to say”, Stickle observed.
Stickle also reinforced the effects of covid on the general population and how that provided to her some insight on the problems elderly people face.
“If we remember what the COVID protocols did to us, it really put us into a situation where we were isolated from our normal conversations”, Stickle said, “I really started to think, wow, this is what a lot of older people go through everyday, whether they’re at their home or residential centers”.
