News Release

UNC-CH Interdisciplinary Certificate In Aging Students Forge Relationship With Kerr Drug To Meet Seniors' Needs

August 31, 2009

The UNC Certificate in Aging (CIA) seminars are not just to encourage interdisciplinary teamwork among rising new professionals in the health care realm at UNC, they have also more recently proven to provide valuable information to those who provide key services to the older adults in our community. The overall purpose of the Certificate in Aging Seminar Series is to provide a multidisciplinary forum to convey that life-long learning, critical inquiry, advocacy, and education are central to providing optimal care to older adults. Seminars are a key component of the CIA Program and they occur monthly over each semester. In the Fall of 2008, the interdisciplinary group of students represented: medicine, nursing, occupational therapy, pharmacy, physical therapy, public health and social work. The students considered a "case" of an older couple with health, function and resource needs. They identified items they would need from a local drug store, and then visited drug stores in the area to identify access and usability. Their findings identified key components of drug stores that need to be addressed to better meet the needs of older adults. The findings included areas of improvement in the following areas: accessibility, mobility, visibility, organization/layout and store organization.

The students presented their findings to a local Kerr Drug store manager, and the ideas got passed on to Rebecca Chater, the director of clinical services at Kerr Drug, Inc. Mrs. Chater is instrumental in ensuring that the services/products offered at the stores meet the needs of the community as a whole, as well as the older adult population. She has talked intimately with faculty, which has led to plans for Aging seminars to occur in select Kerr Drug locations, and is extremely excited about the findings from the student project and plans to use the recommendations to make the newest store opening up in Chapel Hill in the Fall as accessibly and user-friendly to older adults as possible. Mrs. Chater and faculty in aging at UNC hope to continue with this new-found relationship between at the University and the community to best meet the needs of the quickly growing senior population in Orange County and beyond.