Volume 3, Issue 1
September 28, 2006
In This Issue
- Ten Grants Awarded by Hartford Trustees (September 2006)
- Hartford Initiatives Featured in Nursing Outlook
- JAHF Social Work Program is Model for $49 Million Hong Kong Initiative
- Evercare Partnership with Hartford Provides Five New Scholarships
- IMPACT Research on Suicide and the Elderly Presented to U.S. Senate Committee on Aging
- Remembering Paul B. Beeson: Geriatric Medicine Pioneer
- Communications Tip: Journal Watch Can Alert You to Hot Topics in Medical Research
1. Ten Grants Awarded by Hartford Trustees (September 2006)
At their recent board meeting, the trustees of the Foundation approved ten major grants, including renewals for the Social Work Faculty Scholars and Centers of Excellence in Geriatric Medicine and Training, as well as two projects related to the elderly and hurricane preparedness. The grants are:
The Hartford Geriatric Social Work Faculty Scholars Program
The Foundation has awarded a renewal grant to the Gerontological Society of America to provide financial and career support for 30 Hartford Geriatric Social Work Faculty Scholars, provide overall coordination of the Hartford Geriatric Social Work Initiative, and support projects to improve geriatric social work training and research. This grant seeks to address the next decade’s projected shortage of over 46,000 geriatric social workers by supporting aging-focused faculty who will advance the practice of geriatric social work through research and ensure that an increased number of social work students receive appropriate training to work with older persons. This project was first funded in 1999, and $7.8 million in grants have supported 60 faculty scholars to date.
Gerontological Society of America, Washington, DC
Barbara Berkman, DSW, and Linda K. Harootyan, MSW
Grant amount: $7,694,916 over five years
Centers of Excellence (CoEs) in Geriatric Medicine and Training Renewal Grants
The Foundation renewed grants for six Centers of Excellence in Geriatric Medicine and Training to continue their efforts to increase the number of physician faculty dedicated to geriatrics. This funding will support the training of at least 150 advanced fellows and junior faculty members to prepare them for careers in aging research and teaching geriatric medicine.
Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX
George E. Taffet, MD
Grant amount: $750,000 over five years
Boston University, Boston, MA
Rebecca A. Silliman, MD, PhD
Grant amount:$750,000 over five years
University of Chicago, Chicago, IL
Greg A. Sachs, MD
Grant amount:$750,000 over five years
University of Colorado, Denver, CO
Robert S. Schwartz, MD
Grant amount:$750,000 over five years
University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
Jerry C. Johnson, MD, PhD
Grant amount:$750,000, five years
University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio, TX
David V. Espino, MD
Grant amount:$750,000 over five years
Rebuilding Geriatric Medicine and Training at Louisiana State University: A Response to the Flooding of New Orleans
In the aftermath of the 2005 Hurricane Katrina disaster, most of the healthcare facilities in New Orleans were destroyed and medical personnel dispersed, leaving little qualified healthcare for elders. Academic training for geriatricians in the state was also curtailed in the wake of the disaster. The Foundation has awarded a grant to provide salary support for geriatric healthcare workers in New Orleans and to support the reestablishment of the geriatric medicine fellows program at Louisiana State University Health Science Center.
The Foundation for the Louisiana State University Health Science Center, New Orleans, LA
Charles Cefalu, MD
Grant amount: $501,945 over five years
Hurricane and Disaster Preparedness for Long-Term Care Facilities
The Foundation has made a grant to the Florida Health Care Association to develop a new Disaster Planning Guide, support the development and testing of disaster training exercises, and disseminate these tools across the country to nursing homes and assisted-living facilities in order to reduce the deaths and suffering of frail elders during hurricanes and other disasters. The inadequacy of planning for the evacuation and care of nursing home residents was clear during the Hurricane Katrina disaster of 2005, which resulted in the death of approximately 70 elders in 12 or more nursing homes in the days following the hurricane.
Florida Health Care Association, Tallahassee, FL
LuMarie Polivka-West, MSP
Grant amount: $361,556 two years
Developing Interdisciplinary Research Centers for Improving Geriatric Health Care Services-Supplement
The Foundation has supplemented a prior grant to the RAND-University of Pittsburgh Health Institute to provide funding for two additional Interdisciplinary Research Centers in Geriatrics, which will bring together faculty members from medicine, nursing, social work, and related disciplines to pursue new directions in health services and clinical research for older people. In 2005, the Foundation awarded $2 million for the second national competition to establish five Interdisciplinary Research Centers in Geriatrics at academic institutions, now bringing the total of funded centers to seven.
The centers are located at Cornell University, New York University, the University of California-San Francisco, the University of Massachusetts, the University of Missouri-Columbia, the University of North Carolina, and the University of Washington.
RAND-University of Pittsburgh Health Institute, Pittsburgh, PA
Harold A. Pincus, MD
Grant amount: $499,762 over three years
2. Hartford Initiatives Featured in Nursing Outlook
The Hartford-funded Centers of Geriatric Nursing Excellence (HCGNE)—Oregon Health & Science University, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, University of California, San Francisco, University of Iowa, and University of Pennsylvania—are the subject of the June/August special edition of Nursing Outlook.
The five Centers, part of Hartford’s Building Academic Geriatric Nursing Capacity (BAGNC) initiative, have significantly expanded the cadre of emerging geriatric nursing leaders. Although different in their approaches, each Center developed their strengths to enhance clinical practice and models of care, improve education and training, implement better treatment methods, conduct research, and positively affect health care policies. They have also made the practices, materials, and models that have resulted available to all nursing schools.
This special issue of Nursing Outlook provides the historical framework for Hartford Centers of Nursing Excellence and provides a detailed look at each of the Centers’ programs and accomplishments in the areas of geriatric nursing practice, education, and research. The issue also highlights the BAGNC scholars and fellows programs and the American Academy of Nursing Coordinating Center.
The final article in the journal discusses the major outcomes of the HCGNE and BAGNC initiative as well as additional results from the independent evaluation of the initiative. Lessons learned from this multifaceted effort can be used by schools of nursing throughout the country to build geriatric nursing capacity within their institutions.
3. JAHF Social Work Program is Model for $49 Million Hong Kong Initiative
The Hartford Foundation’s geriatric social work Faculty Scholars program is the model for a new initiative funded by the Hong Kong Jockey Club, the largest foundation in Hong Kong. The Jockey Club is providing $49 million for CADENZA, a wide-reaching community project designed to revolutionize the way Hong Kong views and cares for its elderly population. The project includes five components: a leadership program to encourage more faculty members and post-doctoral students to specialize in gerontology; an education and training program for professionals who work with the elderly; a public education program targeting the entire community; district-level demonstration models to pilot new approaches to elder care; and an evaluation. Hartford Faculty Scholar National Research Mentor Ada Mui of Columbia University and 2001 HFS Terry Lum of the University of Minnesota are Co-PIs for the initiative. For more information go to: http://www.hkjc.com/english/charity/trust_20060519a.asp.
4. Evercare Partnership with Hartford Provides Five New Scholarships
Evercare, a division of UnitedHealth Group, has donated $100,000 to fund scholarships for graduate nursing students at the five John A. Hartford Centers of Geriatric Nursing Excellence.
The “Evercare Scholars” program will support the development of leaders in long-term care who will advance the nursing profession, shape public policy, and improve the care and well being of frail older adults. The grants will be awarded during the 2006-2007 academic year. Each $20,000 scholarship will be awarded to a graduate nursing student who is studying ways to improve health care delivered in long-term-care settings. The scholarship recipients will receive tuition assistance, and will be brought together during the course of their scholarship year to share their experiences, knowledge, and research.
Each of the five Hartford Centers of Geriatric Nursing Excellence—which were established in 2000 as part of the Hartford Geriatric Nursing Initiative (HGNI)—will administer the scholarship review and award process and select an Evercare scholar.
5. IMPACT Research on Suicide and the Elderly Presented to U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging
David C. Steffens, MD, MHS, Head of the Division of Geriatric Psychiatry at Duke University Medical Center, and co-author of a new study on the Foundation-funded IMPACT (Improving Mood: Promoting Access to Collaborative Treatment) program, testified before the Senate Special Committee on Aging on September 14, 2006. His testimony, which occurred in conjunction with National Suicide Prevention Week, presented IMPACT as one solution addressing the alarming prevalence of suicide in older adults.
Steffens and 2002 Beeson and principal investigator, Jürgen Unützer, MD, MPH, recently co-authored a study published online in the October issue of the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. It showed that a team-based approach to treating depression in primary care can significantly reduce suicidal thoughts in older adults. Patients receiving IMPACT depression care were half as likely as patients receiving usual depression care to report suicidal thoughts, even up to 12 months after they stopped receiving IMPACT care. To read more about IMPACT, please read the Foundation’s issue brief available at http://www.jhartfound.org/pdf%20files/IMPACT.pdf or go to the IMPACT Web site.
6. Remembering Paul B. Beeson: Geriatric Medicine Pioneer
Paul Bruce Beeson, a distinguished physician, researcher, and teacher whose compassionate dedication to patient care inspired generations of medical students, died on August 14, 2006. He was 97 years old.
The Paul B. Beeson Career Development Awards in Aging Research Program, funded in part by the Hartford Foundation, is named for Dr. Beeson. He was a visionary in the field of aging research and geriatric medicine, recognizing early on the need for a greater focus on the study of aging integrated with the training of more physicians specializing in geriatrics. In 1978, he chaired an Institute of Medicine study on “Aging and Medical Education,” which advanced academic medicine by integrating the medical, academic, and scientific training of junior investigators who have become leaders in geriatric medicine and clinical care.
To learn more about Dr. Beeson and his distinguished career, visit: www.beeson.org.
7. Communication Tip: Free Journal Watch Can Alert You to Hot Topics in Medical Research
In order to do effective media outreach, it is helpful to know when your issue or topic is getting coverage. It’s also important to identify the publications and writers who are interested in your area of research. One way to stay on top of what’s in the news is through the free email services available from The Massachusetts Medical Society, publisher of the New England Journal of Medicine. The Society offers free e-mail updates with news from 11 different medical specialties on its Journal Watch site. The latest addition to the updates is called Physician's First Watch, “designed to provide a highly concise synopsis of the last 24 hours of important medical news within the first three minutes of a physician's day." Physician's First Watch is a free email that is sent by 7:30 a.m. ET each weekday morning and features three to
five clinically focused
briefs.
It includes current medical news with full citations and links to Medline
abstracts.
Copyright 2004 The John A. Hartford Foundation
|
