Katherine (Katy) Abbott, PhD

Katy Abbott, is the Executive Director of the Scripps Gerontology Center and a Professor of Gerontology in the Department of Sociology and Gerontology at Miami University in Oxford, OH. Her research focuses on the preference-based, person-centered care of older adults receiving long-term services and support. She is the co-founder of Preference Based Living, whose mission is to conduct and translate scholarly research into practice to honor the needs and preferences of individuals receiving care in varied settings worldwide. She is leading research on the Individualized Positive Psychosocial Interaction (IPPI). The IPPI guides paid care partners to engage people living with dementia in the nursing home in positive ways that enhance wellbeing and address communications of distress. Her research has found that IPPIs improve the mood of nursing home residents experiencing distress and are a meaningful use of staff time. In the next few years, she would like to see the IPPI implementation adapted for use by family members of nursing home residents. In addition, she would like to adapt the IPPI for use in adult day service programs, as well as scale-up the IPPI in nursing homes across the United States.