Seniors Take the Stage: SLU Healthy Aging Conference Highlights Community Impact
When Virginia Watson, 70, lost her husband and transportation two years ago, she refused to stay isolated. Today, she's a regular at Northside Youth and Senior Service Center, a nonprofit community hub in the city's Ville neighborhood. Alongside other seniors, Virginia Watson exercises, shares meals, plays games and travels. Whatever the program, she said she stays busy to stay alive.
"I choose to live and be happy living. I choose to serve and be happy serving," Virginia Watson said. "I'm doing it happily because I love my sisters and I can help them do better. We care for each other. Lift each other up."
Virginia Watson was one of four Northside representatives invited to speak at Saint Louis University's 2026 Healthy Aging Conference, an annual two-day event offering professionals solutions to help older adults thrive. She was joined by fellow Northside client Myrtle Sharp as well as Northside staff members Shana Watson, senior program director, and Mary Black, senior program assistant.
During the presentation, Shana Watson and Black emphasized the need to balance meeting older adults' needs while helping them maintain independence. Shana Watson said collaborating with SLU has been a major asset; the University's Mobile Health Clinic provides on-site screenings and assessments in the Northside parking lot --- a tremendous value to older adults with limited mobility.
Black stressed the importance of serving older adults with patience and respect, regardless of age.
"Everyone deserves respect. In that you are encouraging one another to be better. And being better makes your surroundings and your community even better," Black said.
Reaching the Vulnerable
SLU's impact on older adults extends far beyond the Northside parking lot. The Family Center for Healthy Aging, which organized the conference, serves as the administrative hub for SLU's Geriatric Workforce Enhancement Program (GWEP), a federal initiative designed to improve older adult healthcare. Through GWEP, University faculty, researchers and students team with community partners to offer support for loneliness, dementia care training, fall prevention training, cognitive stimulation therapy and more.
This year's Healthy Aging Conference featured presentations from experts in healthcare, medicine and mental health. But it was the first time conference attendees heard from a panel of older adults on the receiving end of services.
Max Zubatsky, Ph.D., co-director of the Family Center for Healthy Aging, said those community perspectives are not the sort of thing you can get in a textbook or 20-minute appointment.
"Having the people who we're able to see and treat and serve --- it's important for them, as experts of their own healthcare, to inform us," he said.
Many GWEP programs are designed to benefit older adults who have low incomes and/or live in medically underserved areas. That's why it's important to push services directly into the community, actively seeking out those who need them most, Zubatsky said.
"As healthcare is expanding, we have to get out of the ivory tower," he said. "Get out of the clinics and really reach vulnerable areas."