CELEBRATING THIRTY YEARS OF AGING
AND HEALTH 2012 ANNUAL REPORT
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TRANSFORM CURRICULUM

1983

Gerospsychiatric Nursing Collaborative

2008-2011 At some point in their careers, every nurse will encounter and/or care for older adults with mental health issues. Therefore, all nurses must have the skills to recognize and treat mental health conditions or refer the patient to an appropriate mental health professional.

The Hartford Foundation provided funding to the American Academy of Nursing to create the Geropsychiatric Nursing Collaborative, with the aim to improve the education of nurses at every level in the care of older adults suffering depression, dementia, and other mental health disorders.

The Geropsychiatric Nursing Collaborative created competencies and compiled a comprehensive set of curricular materials on geriatric mental health. These are posted on the Portal of Geriatric Online Education.

(Top) Nursing student Ashley King, MSN, RN, (left in top photo) learned the importance of mental health when she and her mentor, Pamela Z. Cacchione, PhD, RN, BC, (right in top photo) identified a previously missed diagnosis of delirium in an 82-year old man who had suffered a fall (below). 2008 “You can’t practice geriatric nursing without practicing geropsych nursing, because mental health and aging are intertwined.” Pamela Z. Cacchione, PhD, RN, BC
Associate Director
Hartford Center of Geriatric Nursing Excellence
School of Nursing
University of Pennsylvania

(Below) Gerospsychiatric Nursing Collaborative 2011 video.

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