Presented by ASA's LGBT Aging Issues Network (LAIN) 

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Twenty years ago, a person diagnosed with HIV/AIDS faced almost certain death within years, if not months, of diagnosis. But anti-retroviral therapy (ART) has transformed HIV into a manageable chronic illness, manifested in the “graying” of the HIV epidemic. The CDC predicts that by 2015, 50 percent of the HIV-positive population in the United States will be ages 50 and older. Multiple studies confirm that people in their 50s and early 60s who are living with HIV have more age-associated comorbidities—cardiovascular disease, multiple cancers, osteoporosis, hypertension, depression, and liver and kidney disorders—than do uninfected people 10 to 20 years older. This webinar will detail the challenges of managing such multimorbidity in older adults with HIV. And it will address polypharmacy, plus how best to manage the historically high levels of depression seen in HIV-infected populations.

Participants in this webinar will be able to:

• Understand the “graying” of the HIV epidemic;
• List three principles of geriatric care for achieving optimal health outcomes in the population of older adults with HIV;
• List three reasons why addressing mental health issues, especially depression, are essential for managing multimorbidity in older adults with HIV; and
• Describe the enormous shift occurring in HIV management—a shift from treatment being focused on HIV (silo) to integrated healthcare.

Presenter:

Stephen Karpiak, Ph.D., has spent 25 years on the faculty of the Columbia University Medical School researching neurobiology and immunology. For the past decade, as senior director for research at ACRIA (AIDS Community Research Initiative of America), Karpiak has conducted research into the psychosocial parameters defining the needs of older adults living with HIV. He also serves on the faculty of the New York University College of Nursing.