NC DHHS Partners In Three-Year Direct Care Training Program Include UNC Institute on Aging
North Carolina was one of six states chosen as a grantee to develop a Personal and Home Care Aide State Training Program (PHCAST) for direct care workers in long term care settings. The proposal was led by the NC Department of Health and Human Services and will be managed in collaboration with the NC Foundation for Advanced Health Programs. UNC Institute on Aging investigators, Dr. Jennifer Craft Morgan, Associate Director for Research, and Dr. Thomas R. Konrad, Senior Research Scientist, will lead the evaluation team. Year one of North Carolina’s grant award is $578,745 with projected funding of an additional $1.4 million over the following two years. The six states that are participating in the three-year PHCAST Program are expected to train over 5,100 personal home care aides by 2013. Read the news release...
IOA Wins Two-Year Grant From RWJ Foundation
The UNC Institute on Aging (IOA) was awarded a two-year grant ($299,847) from the Evaluating Innovations in Nursing Education (EIN) program funded by The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. This work extends the IOA’s collaboration with the UNC School of Nursing and the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research to evaluate the impact of State-Based Support-for-Service Programs (e.g. loan repayment, scholarship programs) on the recruitment and retention of nurse faculty. The study team brings together accomplished researchers and educators across the campus. Drs. Marilyn Oermann and Mary Lynn contribute the nursing education and nursing work-life perspective. Drs. Don Pathman and Thomas R. Konrad bring their extensive experience in evaluating support-for-service programs across disciplines to the table. Dr. Jennifer Craft Morgan, IOA Associate Director for Research, will serve as Principal Investigator for this project. Read the full news release.
IOA Announces DeFriese Award Winners
The UNC Institute on Aging is pleased to announce the 2010 winners of the Gordon H. DeFriese Career Development in Aging Research Awards. These annual awards honor Dr. DeFriese's thirty-year distinguished career in the conduct and development of research to improve the quality of lives of older North Carolinians, and especially his unwavering commitment to developing and supporting the careers of his colleagues. This year's faculty award goes to Dr. Anna Song Beeber, Assistant Professor at the UNC-CH School of Nursing, and Research Fellow at the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research. The two doctoral student winners this year are Ashley Leak, UNC-CH School of Nursing, and Tiffany Washington, UNC-CH School of Social Work. Read more...
IOA, NC DAAS, LANC Collaborate On Senior Legal Needs Survey
In 2009-2010, the IOA conducted an assessment of the legal needs of older adults in North Carolina. The survey was made possible by a 2009 Model Approaches to Statewide Legal Assistance Systems grant funded through the US DHHS, Administration on Aging. The North Carolina Division of Aging & Adult Services (DAAS) and Legal Aid of North Carolina (LANC) contracted with the Institute on Aging to conduct the survey and analyze the data. Jennifer Craft Morgan, Associate Director for Research, William Lamb, Associate Director for Public Service, Ashley Rice, Data Manager and Lisa McQueen, M.S.W. worked on the project. Download the report.
IOA Associate Director for Research To Step Down, Focus On Workforce Aging
Dr. Jennifer Craft Morgan has decided to transition from her current role as Associate Director for Research to focus exclusively on the Institute's rapidly growing research activities in the area of workforce aging. As noted in this newsletter, Dr. Morgan has received significant new funding to continue her work on feminized and aging occupations such as nurse faculty, frontline healthcare workers and library and information science.
Institute on Aging Well-Represented at This Year’s GSA Annual Scientific Meeting
At the recent 63rd annual conference of the Gerontological Society of America, GSA President and IOA Interim Co-Director Dr. Peggye Dilworth-Anderson led the proceedings and conducted the Presidential Symposium, Diffusing Care Coordination Models: Translating Research in Policy & Practice. Dr. Mary H. Palmer, IOA Interim Co-Director, was the conference co-convener, and presented a paper entitled “Improving the Care of Acutely Ill Elders: Using Clinical Simulations in Evaluating Nursing Assistant Outcomes” in a symposium chaired by IOA Associate Director for Research Dr. Jennifer Craft Morgan. Dr. Palmer also served as a mentor at the Conference's Fellows Committee mentoring event for emerging scholars in aging. Other presenters from the IOA were Drs. Mary Altpeter, John Cagle, Malcolm Cutchin, Michael LaMantia, John Scott, and Sharon Williams, and Graduate Research Assistant Li-Jung Elizabeth Ku. Read more...
IOA Info Center 'Aging Facts & Figures' Pages Reorganized
The IOA Information Center has created several new web pages in order to improve the accessibility of its collection of links to Aging Facts & Figures. The resources are now organized into Quick Facts, Data and Data Sets (each with further breakdown to the state, national and international levels), and Slides, Charts & More (with links to data presented graphically).
NC Colleagues Share Expertise
IOA Interim Co-Director Mary Palmer was a visiting scholar at Flinders University School of Nursing and Midwifery in Adelaide, Australia from November 29 to December 10, 2010, planning a 2012 conference with Flinders University and the Johns Hopkins University Schools of Nursing on geriatric nursing education. She was also the keynote speaker at the Critical Issues in Health Care of Older People conference sponsored by Flinders University on December 8, and presented two papers: “The Chicken and the Egg: The Relationship Between Mobility and Urinary Incontinence” for the Nurses for Continence Interest Group of Adelaide; and “Geriatric Clinical Simulations: Lessons Learned” at the Flinders University School of Nursing and Midwifery.
IOA Research Scientist Peter Stein was a recent speaker on "The Economics of Aging" at the NC AARP Mature Workforce Workshop.
A recent special issue of Health Care for Women International, 'Surviving Natural Disasters: Gender and Age Make a Difference' (v.31, no.11), was co-edited by Dr. Eleanor Krassen Covan of UNC-Wilmington and Dr. Dena Shenk of UNC-Charlotte.
Aging & Health Promotion News
Falls Prevention Policy Workshops Held Across the State
Through the support of a grant from the National Association of Chronic Disease Directors, falls prevention policy workshops were held in Asheville, Greensboro, Charlotte and Greenville in October and November. The workshops, “Catch ‘Em Before They Fall: Preventing Falls Through Policy Change,” promoted an understanding of the importance of policy; presented examples of falls prevention policies at the organizational, community, state, and national levels; and helped to serve as a catalyst for regional and local falls prevention policy action. Attendees included aging services providers, health care providers, city planners, AARP representatives, researchers, and many others. Senator Joe Sam Queen opened the workshop held in Asheville. Workshop presenters were Ellen Schneider, UNC Institute on Aging; Rebecca Hunter, UNC Center for Aging and Health; and Jennifer Woody, NC Division of Public Health. Presentations from the workshop will be available by the end of December on the NC Falls Prevention Coaltion website.
New from NC Researchers
Covan, Eleanor Krassen; Fugate-Whitlock, Elizabeth. (2010). Emergency Planning and Long-Term Care: Least Paid, Least Powerful, Most Responsible. Healthcare for Women International 31(11): 1028–1043.
Hawkins, S.Y.; Park, J.; Palmer, M.H.. (2010). Interest in information about urinary incontinence among diabetic and nondiabetic heart failure patients. Journal of Wound Ostomy & Continence Nursing 37(5):536-41.
Laditka, Sarah B.; Murray, Louise M.; Laditka, James N. (2010). In the Eye of the Storm: Resilience and Vulnerability Among African American Women in the Wake of Hurricane Katrina. Healthcare for Women International 31(11):1013–1027.
Shenk, Dena; Mahon, Joan; Kalaw, Karel J.; Ramos, Blanca; Tufan, Ismail. (2010). Understanding the Disaster Experience of Older Adults by Gender: The Experience of Survivors of the 2007 Earthquake in Peru. Healthcare for Women International 31(11):965–980.
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.
Assessment of the legal needs of older adults in North Carolina : A collaboration of the UNC Institute on Aging, the NC Division of Aging and Adult Services and Legal Aid of NC / report
view the record
Strengthening older people's rights : Towards a UN convention / report
view the record
Featured Web Site:
Adult Meducation: Improving Medication Adherence in Older Adults
www.adultmeducation.com
The American Society on Aging and the American Society of Consultant Pharmacists Foundation have collaborated on the development of Adult Meducation: Improving Medication Adherence in Older Adults. This web-based program educates ASA and ASCP members on important aspects of medication adherence in older adults, especially behavioral factors. The site contains several resources and tools for consumers as well.
Save The Dates
February 10-11, 2011
Bryan Alzheimer's Disease Research Center 25th Anniversary Conference:
Alzheimer's Disease Breakthroughs
Sheraton Imperial Hotel and Convention Center, Research Triangle Park, NC
View our complete events calendar at www.aging.unc.edu/events/.
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Current and past issues of NC*Aging may be viewed at any time at http://www.aging.unc.edu/news/newsletter.html . 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.