Greetings from Boston! Most of the John A. Hartford Foundation’s program staff are here in the land of “Hahvahd,” “cahs,” and “pahking,” preparing for a busy weekend at the 64th annual meeting of the Gerontological Society of America. Many of our grantees will be in attendance as well, and we are pleased that several of them will be honored with awards. Today I want to highlight two of our grantees, one in medicine and one in nursing. Both have contributed greatly to the growing awareness of the prevalence of elder abuse and neglect.
On the medicine side, we have Beeson scholar (2008) XinQi Dong, MD, PhD, the recipient of the Maxwell A. Pollack Award for Productive Aging. The award is given annually to a mid-career researcher whose work bridges the divide between research and practice in the field of aging. Dr. Dong studies elder abuse and neglect in the United States and China, with a particular focus on adverse health outcomes across different racial and ethnic groups. Associate Director of the Rush Institute for Healthy Aging at Rush University Medical Center, Dr. Dong is also a 2010-11 Health and Aging Policy Fellow, allowing him the opportunity to work with policy leaders to improve public policy relevant to elder abuse and neglect.
Nurse Terry Fulmer, PhD, RN, FAAN, has also focused much of her academic research career on issues of elder abuse and neglect. Dr. Fulmer is this year’s recipient of the Doris Schwartz Gerontological Nursing Research Award, given jointly by GSA’s Health Sciences Section and our Hartford Institute for Geriatric Nursing to a GSA member whose career reflects an outstanding and sustained commitment to geriatric nursing research. Currently the Dean of the Bouve College of Health Sciences at Northeastern University, Dr. Fulmer also served as the principal investigator for our Geriatric Interdisciplinary Team Training program (GITT).
We congratulate Drs. Dong and Fulmer for their awards as well as their work in this important field. Last December I highlighted their work in a blog called, “Shining a Light on Elder Abuse and Neglect.” For too long, elder abuse and neglect have been ignored or dismissed as unimportant, even though they affect the quality of life of millions of older Americans. We are pleased that two of our grantees who have contributed so much to this field of study are gaining recognition this weekend. Stay tuned for more reports from Boston, once I can find a spare moment to write them!