Advances in Aging Research, 2014, 3, 109-112 Published Online May 2014 in SciRes. http://www.scirp.org/journal/aar http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/aar.2014.32017 How to cite this paper: Nehme, R., et al. (2014) From Crisis to Opportunity and Back Again: Is There a Response Shift at the Population-Level regarding Geriatric Training in Lebanon? Advances in Aging Research, 3, 109-112. http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/aar.2014.32017 From Crisis to Opportunity and Back Again: Is There a Response Shift at the Population-Level regarding Geriatric Training in Lebanon? Romy Nehme 1 , Lama R. Bazzi 2 , Christina P. C. Borba 1,3,4 , Zeina N. Chemali 1,3,4* 1 Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, USA 2 Division of Forensic Psychiatry, Case Western Reserve University Hospitals, Cleveland, USA 3 The Chester M. Pierce, MD Division of Global Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, USA 4 Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA Email: * zelchemali@partners.org Received 13 January 2014; revised 9 April 2014; accepted 28 April 2014 Copyright © 2014 by authors and Scientific Research Publishing Inc. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution International License (CC BY). http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Abstract Between crisis and opportunity, old age has many faces in Lebanon. While old age was first seen as a time of wisdom, the current trend accentuated by migration and the economic crisis sets a chal- lenge for the Lebanese elder; they may be left behind unless something is done in all communities at a national level. In this short communication, we attempt to broaden the scope of thinking about training programs to target population-shift and create a true change. We reflect on our results as an intermediate outcome of public health interventions. We suggest that it may be worthwhile to eva- luate population-shifts further and base the success of an intervention on measures of Health Re- lated Quality of Life through the response-shift created by such national public health programs. Keywords Capacity Building, Public Health, Elderly, Training, Quality of Life 1. Introduction The Lebanese elder population currently represents 8.5 percent of the entire Lebanese population [1]. Most of them usually live in their homes, and are often taken care of by their families [2]. However, with a high unem- ployment rate, many young Lebanese men and women leave the country to make a living, leaving the aging po- * Corresponding author.