Co-Directors Named To Interim IOA Leadership
Tony Waldrop, UNC-Chapel Hill Vice Chancellor for Research and Development, has appointed an interim leadership team for the UNC Institute on Aging (IOA). Three distinguished members of the faculty have agreed to serve as interim co-directors, effective July 27, 2009. The leadership team consists of: Dr. Mary Altpeter, Director of the IOA’s Healthy Aging Initiatives and Adjunct Lecturer in Public Health; Dr. Peggye Dilworth-Anderson, Director of the IOA’s Center for Aging and Diversity and Professor of Health Policy and Management in the Gillings School of Global Public Health; and Dr. Mary H. Palmer, Helen W. and Thomas L. Umphlet Distinguished Professor in Aging in the School of Nursing. Read the news release.
Nursing Home Interventions Improve Quality Of Care, Reduce Staff Turnover
A study recently released by the UNC Institute on Aging identifies three workplace interventions that are improving quality of care and reducing turnover of direct care workers in North Carolina’s nursing homes. The study interventions were funded by Civil Monetary Penalties—funds collected from NC nursing homes for deficiencies in care. The findings appear in the report, Workplace Interventions, Turnover, and Quality of Care Report, which was commissioned by the NC Department of Health and Human Services and authored by Thomas R. Konrad, PhD, Jennifer Craft Morgan, PhD, and colleagues at the Institute on Aging. Read the full news release.
CPHAR Program Predoctoral Opening: Apply By 8/17/09
An opening is available for one predoctoral trainee in the Carolina Program on Healthcare and Aging Research (CPHAR), a program of the UNC Institute on Aging, supported by a National Research Service Award (NRSA) Institutional Training Grant from the National Institute on Aging. Predoctoral applicants will have been accepted by the Graduate School of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, will have already matriculated as full time students in one of several aging-related academic departments or schools, and will have completed some doctoral coursework. Learn more and apply on the CPHAR web site.
Promoting Environmental And Policy Change To Support Healthy Aging, And The Aging Exchange- Conference/Event Registration Open
Registration is now open for the Prevention Research Centers-Healthy Aging
Research Network (PRC-HAN) Research to Practice Symposium, Promoting Environmental and Policy Change to Support Healthy Aging.
The symposium will take place September 15-16, 2009 at the University of
North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the William and Ida Friday Center for
Continuing Education. Register for this symposium separately from the Aging Exchange.
The Aging Exchange, sponsored by the UNC Institute on Aging, will take place on September 15th from 5:30-8:30 pm, in conjunction with the Symposium.
The program will feature: poster presentations by UNC-CH graduate students and faculty; presentations of the Gordon H. DeFriese Career Development in Aging Research Awards; a reception with hors d'oeuvres, and the PRC-HAN Conference keynote address by Larry Adelman, Co-Director of California Newsreel and Executive Producer of the award-winning PBS series, "Unnatural Causes: Is Inequality Making Us Sick?"
The Aging Exchange and the keynote address are free and open to the public, however, registration is required via email to diane_wurzinger@unc.edu, or call 919-843-2647, no later than September 8th. Free parking is available in the Friday Center lot.
Nominations Open For NC DAAS Service Awards
The North Carolina Division of Aging and Adult Services has issued a call for nominations for its 2009 service awards: the Ewald W. Busse Award; the George L. Maddox Award; and the Ernest B. Messer Award. The three awards recognize individuals, organizations, programs and communities that have made significant contributions in support of the Division’s efforts to enhance resources, services and opportunities for our state’s older citizens. Questions pertaining to the Awards or the nomination process can be directed to Mary Edwards at (919) 733-3983 or Mary.Edwards@dhhs.nc.gov. Nominations are due by September 4, 2009.
Aging Workforce Interest Group September Meeting
Karin Cross, Vice President of Human Resources and Senior Strategist for Aging Workers Solutions at APC Placement, will address the first Aging Workforce Interest Group meeting for Fall 2009, on Tuesday, September 29th from 1:30-3:30 p.m., at the Institute on Aging, 720 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., Chapel Hill (2nd floor conference room). This meeting is free and open to the public. For more information contact Peter Stein at: pstein@schsr.unc.edu
CEAL, Sheps Center Publish Manual For Assisted Living
The Center for Excellence in Assisted Living (CEAL) and the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research/University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) are announcing publication of a first-of-its-kind manual on improving practices and informing policies in assisted living communities, through the use of a collaborative method of research – community-based participatory research (CBPR). The manual can be downloaded from the CEAL website. Read more about the project.
WIN A STEP UP Launches New Web Site, Blog
WIN A STEP UP (Workforce Improvement for Nursing Assistants: Supporting Training, Education, and Payment for Upgrading Performance), a partnership of the NC Division of Health Service Regulation and the UNC Institute on Aging, has a new web presence and a blog available for discussion of long-term care issues. Winastepup.org presents information for direct care workers, supervisors and employers, and reports on the activities of this initiative dating back to 2002.
Senior Leadership Initiative News
Biographical sketches of the 5 members of the IOA Senior Leadership Initiative Class of 2010 are now available. The Senior Leadership Initiative is an educational program of the UNC Institute on Aging, which recognizes the importance of older adult leadership in addressing issues affecting citizens, and provides the support necessary to complement the skills and experiences each participant brings to the program.
Student Scholarship Created To Honor Victor Marshall
As readers of NC*Aging know, Victor Marshall completed his tenure as director of the IOA on June 30th. Student mentoring has been a very important and significant aspect of Victor’s faculty career, and a student scholarship has been established in his name to support attendance at the annual conference of the Gerontological Society of America. All contributions are welcome by check made out to the UNC Institute on Aging (noting that it is for the Victor Marshall scholarship fund) to: Ms. Robin Burke, UNC Institute on Aging, CB #1030, UNC-CH, 720 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., Chapel Hill, NC 27599-1030.
Good News For NC Colleagues
Bonita L. Marks, Ph.D. FACSM, Associate Professor, Exercise Physiology, and Director, Fitness Professional Track in the UNC-CH Department of Exercise and Sport Science has been appointed to the ICAA (International Council on Active Aging) Visionary Advisory Board. She has also had a paper accepted by the Seniors Housing & Care Journal, "Utility of a Falls Risk Self Assessment Tool", for which the research was funded by the IOA's Research Stimulus Grant Program.
Ron Manheimer Retires From NCCCR
Ron Manheimer, founding director of UNC Asheville’s nationally renowned North Carolina Center for Creative Retirement (NCCCR), has retired effective July 1, 2009. Since August 1988, Manheimer guided the Center from a single classroom serving 165 participants to a 20,000-square-foot building with a range of programs serving more than 1,800 annual members. The Center has grown steadily in prominence, and its programs have been featured in Parade Magazine, USA Today and Business Week. In 2003, the Center won the prestigious Jack Ossofsky Award from the National Council on Aging as an outstanding educational program. Read more...
Aging And The NC Budget: New Report
A new report from the NC Center for Public Policy Research addresses the projected economic impact of an elderly population expected to double over the next 20 years, forcing our state to face four major public policy issues: differences in financial well-being among the elderly, the different needs of urban and rural seniors, work force shortages in health professions, and state budget implications. The Center’s study is part of a larger study to be published in North Carolina Insight. It is also available to download electronically for $10. Read the full news release.
NC Community College Receives MetLife Foundation/Civic Ventures Grant
Civic Ventures and MetLife Foundation have awarded eight $25,000 grants to community colleges, supporting programs aimed at retraining experienced adults for jobs as solar panel installers, bilingual community health workers, and math and science teachers, among others. Southeastern Community College in Whiteville, NC, will reach out to older low-income and dislocated workers via its Green Pathways Project.
JASP Call For Papers
The Journal of Aging & Social Policy is soliciting papers for a special issue consisting of recommendations for improvements in aging policy during the second decade of the twenty-first century. Contributions are sought on a wide range of issues as they are experienced and addressed in the United States and abroad, in manuscripts of 10 to 15 pages. Submit a one-page prospectus by September 30, 2009. Papers will be due on March 31, 2010. More information...
USC Andrus Center Postdoctoral Fellowships Available
Postdoctoral research fellowships in gerontology are available at the University of Southern California Andrus Gerontology Center through a grant from the National Institute on Aging. Trainees may be in the Departments of Sociology, Psychology, Neuroscience, Preventive Medicine, Economics or in the School of Gerontology. Monthly stipends, health insurance, some tuition, and related expenses will be provided to qualified applicants. Contact Eileen Crimmins, 213-740-0787, or crimmin@usc.edu for more information.
Quoting The Experts
IOA Associate Director for Public Service Bill Lamb was quoted in a News & Observer article on July 6, 2009, "Proposed care cuts prompt fight".
Aging & Health Promotion News
Fall Prevention Awareness Week in NC set for September. Did you know that falls are the leading cause of fatal injuries, and the second leading cause of nonfatal injuries, for people 65 and older in North Carolina? To bring attention to the issue and to help spread the word about how to prevent falls, the NC Falls Prevention Coalition has worked with Governor Perdue to proclaim Sept. 20-26, 2009 as “Fall Prevention Awareness Week". Consider how your organization can observe Fall Prevention Awareness Week with activities, publicity, and partners, by visting the National Council on Aging Falls Prevention Awareness web site.
Fit And Strong! Program Available To NC Seniors. Fit and Strong! is an award winning, evidence-based, multiple-component physical activity/behavior change intervention for older adults with lower-extremity osteoarthritis. This group-and facility-based program meets for 90 minutes 3 times per week for 8 weeks (24 sessions total). A map on the Fit and Strong web site shows 10 North Carolina sites currently using the program. An article in the July 15, 2009 issue of Arthritis & Rheumatism (Arthritis Care & Research) discusses the results of evaluating the program's efficacy. Originally, Fit and Strong! used physical therapists (PTs) as instructors, but a transition has been made to using nationally certified exercise instructors (CEIs) in order to translate Fit and Strong! into community-based settings. The impact of this shift in instruction type on participant outcomes was tested using used a 2-group design. Participant evaluations rated both types of instruction equally highly, attendance was identical, no untoward health events were observed or reported under either instruction mode, and outcomes are stable. These findings justify the use of CEIs in the future to extend the reach of Fit and Strong! nationally. The full citation to this evaluation article is: Seymour, R.B., Hughes, S.L., Campbell, R.T., Huber, G., Desai, P. (2009). Comparison of Two Methods of Conducting Fit and Strong! Arthritis & Rheumatism (Arthritis Care & Research), 61(7), pp 876–884.
New from NC Researchers
Carder, Paula C.; Zimmerman, Sheryl; Schumacher, John G. (2009). Understanding the intersection of individual needs and choices with organizational practices: The case of medication management in assisted living. The Gerontologist 49(4): 463-473.
Dill, J.S., Morgan, J.C., Konrad, T.R. (2009). Strengthening the long-term care workforce: The influence of the WIN A STEP UP Workplace Intervention on turnover of direct care workers. Journal of Applied Gerontology, forthcoming. Available online ahead of publication.
Hess, Thomas M.; Emery, Lisa; Queen, Tara L. (2009). Task Demands Moderate Stereotype Threat Effects on Memory Performance. Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences 64B(4): 482-486.
Hess, Thomas M.; Germain, Cassandra M.; Swaim, Elizabeth, L.; Osowski, Nicole, L. (2009). Aging and Selective Engagement: The Moderating Impact of Motivation on Older Adults' Resource Utilization. Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences 64B(4): 447-456.
Tosun, Mehmet Serkan; Williamson, Claudia R.; Yakovliev, Pavel. (2009). Population aging, elderly migration and education spending: intergenerational conflict revisited. Bonn: Institute for the Study of Labor.
Utley-Smith, Queen; Colon-Emeric, Cathleen S.; Lekan-Rutledge, Deborah; Ammarell, Natalie; Bailey, Donald; Corazzini, Kirsten; Piven, Mary L.; Anderson, Ruth A. (2009). Staff perceptions of staff-family interactions in nursing homes. Journal of Aging Studies 23(3): 168-177.
For a list of items recently published by North Carolina faculty, see New & Notable Publications.
New from the Digital Library
These are selected new additions to the AgeLib Digital Library. The links below will open a new window displaying the AgeLib record.
50+ Hispanic workers: A growing segment of the U.S. workforce / report
view the record
2008 national survey of consumer and workforce satisfaction in nursing homes / report
view the record
Planning Complete Streets for an aging America / report
view the record
The working day: understanding 'work' across the life course / report
view the record
Featured Web Site:
Nursing Home Guide
www.consumerreports.org/health
Seeks to provide consumers with a tool to apply relevant criteria to nursing home selection. Includes various topical reports and features the Nursing Home Quality Monitor, which identifies nursing homes that are likely to provide better-quality versus poorer-quality care.
Upcoming Events In NC
August 6, 7, 10, 11, 2009
Living Healthy: Chronic Disease Self-Management Program (CDSMP) Lay Leader Training
9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Triangle J Area Agency on Aging, 4307 Emperor Blvd., Suite 110, Durham, NC
Participation on all four days required for leader certification
To register contact: Jane Armstrong, MSW, Regional Coordinator, Living Healthy Program
Email: jarmstrong@tjcog.org, phone: 919-558-9341
Save The Dates
September 15, 2009
The Aging Exchange
5:30-8:30 pm, Friday Center, Chapel Hill, NC
Note: This event is being held in conjunction with the HAN Symposium below
September 15-16, 2009
Promoting Environmental and Policy Change to Support Healthy Aging
A Research to Practice Symposium presented by the
CDC Prevention Research Centers-Healthy Aging Research Network
Friday Center, Chapel Hill, NC
September 20-26, 2009
Falls Prevention Awareness Week in North Carolina
September 29, 2009
Aging Workforce Interest Group
speaker: Karin Cross, Vice President of Human Resources and Senior Strategist for Aging Workers Solutions, APC Placement
1:30-3:30pm, 2nd floor conference room, 720 MLK Jr. Blvd., Chapel Hill
October 16, 2009
Pre-Retirement Planning In The Workforce Symposium
9:00 a.m. - 5 p.m., Raleigh Marriott City Center
Registration deadline: October 6, 2009
View our complete events calendar at www.aging.unc.edu/events/.
Community Bulletin Board and Jobs in Aging
Don't forget to check the Community Bulletin Board for other aging-related announcements for seniors, educators, students and professionals. Current listings include research studies in need of subjects. The Jobs in Aging web page lists notices we have received regarding statewide and nationally available positions.Publication of this newsletter is announced via email listserv. Current and past issues may be viewed at any time at http://www.aging.unc.edu/news/newsletter.html . To join one of our lists, please visit www.aging.unc.edu/news/lists.html for more information. If you have information that you would like to include in this newsletter in the future, please send it to aginginfo@unc.edu at any time.