Yale University Library News

3/2: Retirement: Planning for the Rest of the Story

February 26, 2016

All are warmly invited to a talk on "Retirement: Planning for the Rest of the Story" on Wednesday, March 2 in the SML Lecture Hall, by Doctor Leo Cooney, the Humana Foundation Professor of Medicine at Yale University.

Retirement is a good time to “take stock” of your life and plan for the rest of the story. For most people the story includes two phases of the retirement years – an active phase filled with sports, hobbies, travel, and volunteer activities; and a later “reflective” period during which relationships and family contacts become paramount. Decisions made at retirement should take into account both of these phases. Most people who migrate to retirement communities return to their home settings in later life, where factors important to life-satisfaction include close contact with family and friends, roles in the family and community, good self-esteem, and leaving a legacy. Strengthening these relationships, roles, and personal satisfaction should be an important part of retirement planning.

Leo M. Cooney, Jr., MD, joined the Yale faculty in 1976 to direct the Continuing Care Unit at Yale New Haven Hospital. This unit was designed to help elderly individuals, who had lost function during their hospitalization, to regain their independence and ability to return home. This unit was the initial component of the Program in Geriatrics at Yale. Dr. Cooney received a Geriatric Medicine Academic Award from the National Institute of Aging in 1982. In 1987, he was named the first Humana Foundation Professor of Geriatric Medicine at Yale. He was President of the American Geriatrics Society in 1990. He has won a number of teaching awards at Yale. He stepped down as Chief of the Section of Geriatrics in 2012, but continues to have an active clinical, educational and program development role in the Section.

This talk is co-sponsored by the Yale Library and Yale Heath.