KINGSTON, R.I. – April 8, 2011 – How can we best negotiate health as we age? This is the question Mathy Mezey will answer as the featured presenter for the Rhode Island Geriatric Center’s sixth annual Malford Thewlis Lecture at the University of Rhode Island on Wednesday, April 20.

Mezey is professor emeritus, senior research associate and director of the Hartford Institute for Geriatric Nursing at the New York University College of Nursing. She will present “Coming of Age: Negotiating Health and Health Care as We Age” in Edwards Auditorium at 3 p.m. In her lecture, Mezey will discuss how self care, exercising, eating well, maintaining meaningful relationships, knowing what to expect from and how to use the health care system all can have a profound influence on our health.

The lecture is free and open to the public. A reception following the event will be held in the URI Alumni Center on Upper College Road.

Mezey’s research and writing focus is on geriatric nursing education and quality of care for older people. She has authored numerous books and publications relating to nursing practice with older adults and bioethical issues that effect end-of-life decisions. She is Co-Editor of Evidence-Based Geriatric Nursing Protocols for Best Practice and The Encyclopedia of Elder Care.

A Fellow in the American Academy of Nursing, Mezey received the Kent Award and Doris Schwartz Gerontological Nursing Research Award from the Gerontological Society of America. She also received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Gerontological Nursing Association and was the first nurse to receive the American Geriatrics Society Nascher-Manning Award.

The annual lecture is named for Malford Thewlis, one of the founders of the American Geriatrics Society in 1942. A former resident of Wakefield, Dr. Thewlis wrote The Care of the Aged: Geriatrics, a 1919 textbook on geriatric medicine.

This program is sponsored by the Rhode Island Geriatric Education Center, the URI Program in Gerontology, the URI College of Human Science and Services, the URI College of Nursing, and the URI Department of Nutrition and Food Sciences: SNAP-Ed Program.

For more information, visit the Rhode Island Geriatric Education Center website or call 401.874.5311 for information regarding parking and directions. Download a flyer about this lecture.