2025 EAS Event Program - Flipping Book

The Embodied Labs experience is an immersive learning platform that allows participants to view the world through the perspective of older adults experiencing disease or disability -- and the caregivers who support them. Virtual reality allows you to step into someone else’s shoes – to deeply understand the lived experience of another person. After embodying someone, knowing more about what to expect, how to relate, and how to respond allows you to communicate more clearly, support more confidently, and serve with greater purpose. Because real understanding isn’t just about knowing.

It's about feeling.

Several “laboratories” will be available during the Elder and Dependent Adult Abuse Symposium, where attendees will have the opportunity to engage in the following experiences – where you’ll embody an older adult and step into their perspective:

The Dima Lab

Dima is a Lebanese-American immigrant living with symptoms of both Lewy Body Dementia and Parkinson’s Disease, as she transitions from life at home to a residential community. You experience how symptoms progress and differ, why someone living with LBD or PD may exhibit agitation or anger, how family care needs evolve as these diseases progress, and particular competencies related to providing care for minority cultural practices.

The Clay Lab

Clay is a 66-year-old veteran with stage IV, terminal lung cancer coming to terms with the reality of his diagnosis, alongside his family. As Clay, you'll experience what it may feel like to transition to hospice care, understand how clear, compassionate communication about end-of-life decisions can impact people at the end-of-life, and be able to see first-hand what a person might experience in their final days of life. The Embodied Labs experience will empower participants to provide more effective services to disabled older adults.

42 2025 Elder and Dependent Adult Abuse Symposium