1997 Annual Report
In August 1996, the North Carolina General Assembly
approved funding for the creation of an Institute on Aging under
the umbrella of the University of North Carolina 16-campus
system and based on the campus of the University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill. The three-fold mission of the UNC
Institute on Aging is to develop innovative programs of
interdisciplinary gerontological education and practice; provide
state-of-the-art information to policy makers, program
managers, service providers, clinicians, and the general public;
and promote collaborative applied and basic gerontological
research.
The Institute on Aging has had an extremely productive second
year, building on efforts reported in its first year of operation
that established the basic elements of the organizational
infrastructure and launched a wide range of educational, public
service, and research activities. During the 1997-98 fiscal year,
the Institute’s focus was on the continued growth and
refinement of the organizational infrastructure to handle the
Institute’s rapidly expanding programmatic activities. This
included nine additional appointments to the Institute’s
administrative staff or policy board, as well as the expansion of
the partnership base of the Institute to include 10 of the 16
UNC System campuses, the state’s private universities (Duke
University and Wake Forest University), and the network of
aging services and advocacy groups within the state. This
concerted expansion effort was carried out to further realize
the goal of building and securing the Institute’s interinstitutional
base and to more comprehensively represent and serve the
many interests in aging-related education, service and
research activities within the state.
Several associate directors have taken their place and are
actively engaged in Institute-sponsored activities along with the
other Institute leadership. This group includes
Acting Director: Gordon H. DeFriese, PhD, Professor of
Social Medicine, Epidemiology and Health Policy and
Administration, University of North Carolina at Chapel
Hill
Associate Director for Operations:
Mary Altpeter, MSW, MPA
Business Manager: Wendy Mann
Associate Director for Public Service and Extended
Education: James P. Mitchell, PhD, Professor of
Sociology and Family Medicine, and Director, Center on
Aging, East Carolina University
Associate Director for Graduate Education: Peter R.
Uhlenberg, PhD, Professor, Department of Sociology,
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Associate Director for Research: Carol C. Hogue, PhD,
Associate Professor and Associate Dean, School of
Nursing, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Associate Director for Clinical Affairs: Jan
Busby-Whitehead, MD,
Associate Professor of Medicine and Geriatrics, School
of Medicine, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Associate Director for Minority Aging Research:
Elizabeth J. Mutran, PhD, Professor, Department of
Health Behavior and Health Education, School of Public
Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
The Policy Board of the Institute has now been fully
appointed. Members of the Board are as follows:
Cynthia M. Freund, PhD, Dean, School of Nursing,
UNC-Chapel Hill, Chair
Jeffrey L. Houpt, MD, Dean, School of Medicine,
UNC-Chapel Hill
William L. Roper, MD, Dean, School of Public Health
John W. Stamm, DMD, Dean, School of Dentistry,
UNC-Chapel Hill
William H. Campbell, PhD, Dean, School of Pharmacy,
UNC-Chapel Hill
Richard L. Edwards, PhD, Dean, School of Social Work,
UNC-Chapel Hill
Risa I. Palm, PhD, Dean, College of Arts and Sciences,
UNC-Chapel Hill
Thomas J. Bacon, DrPH, Director and Associate Dean,
NC Area Health Education Centers Program
Bonnie M. Cramer, MSW, Director, Long-Term Care
Policy Support Unit, NC Department of Health and
Human Services
The Institute also invested considerable efforts, and about
60
percent of its total resources, in creating programming for
statewide events and incentive grant opportunities that flow to
the UNC System campuses and aging service agencies for
development of locally based educational, service and
research activities.
Aging-Related Educational Program Development
With respect to statewide educational activities, the Institute
has permanently established a widely publicized and highly
successful quarterly Distinguished Lecture Series that attracts
national scholars and activists in the aging field who illustrate
state of the art aging issues to audiences averaging between
75 to 150 faculty, students, providers, and older adults. As a
regular practice, the Institute publishes the text of these
lectures and distributes them to a mailing list of several
hundred persons and organizations working in the aging field.
The Institute co-sponsored and supported the 24th national
conference of the Association for Gerontology in Higher
Education in Winston-Salem, as well as three statewide aging
conferences, including the second annual NC Summer
Symposium on Aging in Chapel Hill, the eighth annual North
Carolina Association on Aging Conference in Morehead City,
and the fourth annual Geriatric Mental Health Conference in
Asheboro. The Institute on Aging is currently co-planning and
providing fiscal support for the upcoming NC Summer
Symposium on Aging in Boone in 1998 and in Fayetteville in
1999. In this connection, the steering committee for the
Summer Symposium approached the Institute with the request
that the Institute assume on-going responsibility for providing
logistical support for the annual NC Summer Symposium on
Aging.
The Institute on Aging has also been asked to assume the
responsibility for the program of the Year 2000 Annual Meeting
of the Southern Gerontological Society which will meet in the
Research Triangle Park in the spring of that year. The
Institute's Associate Director for Research, Dr. Carol Hogue,
has been asked to serve as program chair. She will be
assisted by the Institute's Associate Director for Public Service
and Extended Education, Dr. James Mitchell of East Carolina
University and Dr. Conrad Glass of North Carolina State
University.
During the past year, the Institute has convened a regular
biweekly seminar series featuring presentations by more than
20 faculty from throughout the UNC System who have
expertise and ongoing research experience related to The
Meaning and Measurement of Function. These seminars have
been intended to encourage further interdisciplinary
collaboration among UNC System faculty and graduate
students in areas of high relevance to the field of aging. These
sessions have been well attended and have received strong
encouragement from participants for continuation in the
coming year. The number of UNC System faculty who have
worked on problems and issues under this general rubric is
impressive; this series of working seminars has illustrated the
potential for further applications of faculty talent to these
complex problems in the years ahead.
During the year, a total of 13 small incentive awards
encouraged course development on aging-related topics at the
undergraduate and graduate levels at UNC System campuses,
supported graduate student internships for leadership
development in aging at the Duke University Center for Aging
and Human Development, and funded five of the state’s Area
Health Education Centers (AHECs) for regionally-based
continuing education for the aging services professional
community. Of particular note is the funding of two projects to
establish interdisciplinary certificate programs in gerontology at
the School of Social Work at UNC-Chapel Hill and at
UNC-Wilmington. See Appendix A for more details about the
Institute’s lectures, seminars, publications and training
programs.
Initiatives in Aging Research
In addition, there were more than 14 research grants awarded
to faculty, postdoctoral, and graduate students on the UNC
System campuses to pursue a broad range of medical,
nutritional, social, and psychological problems faced by the
older adults in the state. Planning for a Fall Research
Conference at UNC-Chapel Hill is underway to showcase the
21 research projects that have been funded since the inception
of the program. Plans are in process to schedule a
Distinguished Lecture on Aging followed by a two-hour poster
session displaying the work of those supported by the Institute
for attendees to examine and discuss with the investigators.
We will encourage a wide spectrum of aging field
professionals to be present for this event. See Appendix B for
more details about the Institute's research grants.
Aging-Related Public Service Activities
With respect to public service to the aging community,
the
Institute has been involved in a variety of activities. It has
invested resources to create and maintain a new world wide
web site, <www.aging.unc.edu>. This site is designed to
include a wealth of information, including details about the
Institute on Aging, web resources, events related to aging,
courses on aging topics, databases on older adult populations,
and discussion groups.
In addition, the Institute’s Acting Director, Dr.
Gordon H.
DeFriese, has been appointed to the Governor’s Advisory
Council on Aging. Several Institute staff have been participating
in a locally-based collaborative planning effort with the towns of
Chapel Hill and Carrboro government and community leaders,
Orange County government, the UNC-CH, UNC Hospitals and
local service providers to explore the potential for building a
shared campus of programs and institutions serving older
adults in the Southern Orange County area.
Institute staff have met on several occasions with groups
of
local aging services providers throughout the state to learn
about issues and problems of concern to these aging services
professionals and to determine how the Institute may be
helpful. Efforts are underway to structure new and innovative
ways of bringing the expertise of aging research together with
the experience base of these agencies to seek more effective
translations of research-based knowledge into practical
applications to benefit older adults in our state.
New Center for Minority Aging within the Institute
In addition to its research, education, and public service
divisions, the Institute on Aging also houses the Center for
Minority Aging (CMA) which is funded by a $3.3 million grant
from the National Institute of Nursing Research, the National
Institute on Aging, and the Office of Research on Minority
Health of the National Institutes of Health. This year has been
highly productive for the CMA. It has pursued its mission of
promoting research and training in minority aging on the
campuses of the four collaborating institutions: Fayetteville
State University, North Carolina Central University, East
Carolina University, and UNC-Chapel Hill. The CMA, in
partnership Fayetteville State faculty member Dr. Maxwell
Twum, successfully applied for an NINR four-year
supplemental grant that adds more than $220,000 to minority
aging research in the state. Through the eight grants awarded
in the past two years through this new program of the Institute,
the CMA has provided more than $100,000 to launch research
in minority aging. With respect to research training activities,
the CMA Measurement and Methods Core has instituted a
series of research design and methods seminars and is
providing one-on-one mentoring to individual investigators from
these campuses. To expand its reach to all of the UNC
campuses, the CMA is also supporting two teleconferences in
minority health research through the UNC-CH Summer Public
Health Research Institute.
With respect to community service activities, the CMA has
initiated programming to raise awareness of the needs of
minority elders and to build many community/campus
partnerships. These activities include the establishment of a
“community review board” to serve as a mediary between
community member and academic researchers, and the
creation of a database of African American churches in the
Durham area that serve as a mechanism for gaining insights
into the educational needs of minority elders. The CMA is also
establishing minority aging interdisciplinary discussion groups
on campuses and conducting presentations to students to
raise awareness of the field of minority aging research. See
Appendix B for more details about the Center on Aging's
research grants.
Summary
These are but the highlights of a very diverse and creative
set
of activities that took place during 1997-98 under the umbrella
of the new Institute on Aging of the University of North Carolina.
Those interested in the development of the Institute are
encouraged to follow its activities via the Institute’s world wide
web site and periodic publications from the Institute. Further
information may be obtained from the address below:
Further inquiries should be addressed to:
Gordon H. DeFriese, Ph.D.
Professor and Acting Director
Institute on Aging
University of North Carolina
730 Airport Road, Campus Box 1030
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-1030
Telephone: (919) 966-0225
Fax: (919) 966-5764
email: gordon_defriese@unc.edu
Internet: www.aging.unc.edu
