Volume 6, Issue 2
December 21, 2009

In This Issue

1. Hartford Trustees Award New Grants (December 2009)
2. In Case You Missed…from the Health AGEnda Blog
3. Nursing Highlights from GSA
4. Foundation Conducts Communications “Audit”
5. Cory Rieder Gives Keynote Address at AAN Annual Meeting
6. Nora O’Brien-Suric Speaks at HPPAE Annual Meeting
7. Upcoming Hartford Program Funding Deadlines
8. Communications Tip: Writing Op-Ed Pieces and Letters to the Editor

1. Hartford Trustees Award New Grants

In December 2009, the trustees of the John A. Hartford Foundation approved the following grants:

Ensuring the Advanced Practice Registered Nursing Workforce is Prepared to Care for Older Adults—Phase II

The Foundation has awarded a grant to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN), in collaboration with the Hartford Institute at New York University in response to the new uniform, national model for Advance Practice Nurses. This project will foster the implementation of the recently developed adult-gerontology competencies via learning resources, faculty development opportunities, and new certification exam. In addition, AACN will establish a Web-based resource center and a speaker/consultant bureau to assist faculty in implementing the competencies.

For information on Phase one of the GNEC program, visit www.aacn.nche.edu/GNEC.htm.

American Association of Colleges of Nursing, Washington, DC
Geraldine Bednash, PhD, RN, FAAN
Joan Stanley, PhD, RN, FAAN
Grant amount: $647,336 over two years

Medical Student Training in Aging Research Program (MSTAR)
This renewal grant for the Medical Student Training in Aging Research (MSTAR) program will fund up to 330 new participants. Since 1993, the MSTAR program has provided a focused eight- to-twelve-week research, didactic, and clinical experience for 1,354 medical students at designated geriatrics training centers around the country. The program is designed to encourage students early in their education to consider careers in academic or clinical geriatrics, or in aging-focused careers in other specialties by providing an intellectually stimulating, supportive, and positive educational experience in geriatric medicine.

To learn more about the MSTAR program, visit: www.afar.org/medstu.html.

American Federation for Aging Research (AFAR), Inc., New York, NY
Odette van der Willik
Grant amount: $665,235 over 3 years

The full list of grants awarded by the Foundation in 2009:

Centers of Excellence in Geriatric Medicine and Training National Program Office
American Federation for Aging Research, Inc., New York, NY
Odette van der Willik
Grant amount: $8,400,000 over three years

Hartford Geriatric Social Work Faculty Scholars Program and National Network
Gerontological Society of America, Washington, DC
Barbara Berkman, DSW
Grant amount: $4,606,637 over five years

Paul B. Beeson Career Development Awards in Aging Research Partnership
American Federation for Aging Research (AFAR), Inc., New York, NY
Odette van der Willik
Grant amount: $2,900,000 over five years

Geriatrics for Specialists Initiative: Increasing Geriatrics Expertise for Surgical and Related Medical Specialties—Phase V
American Geriatrics Society, Inc., New York, NY
John R. Burton, MD, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Jeff Silverstein, MD, Mount Sinai School of Medicine
Grant amount: $2,850,000 over four years

Professional Partners Supporting Family Caregiving—Phase II
AARP Foundation, Washington, DC
Susan Reinhard, PhD, RN
Grant amount: $698,364 over 33 months

Community College of Philadelphia
National League for Nursing
Elaine Tagliareni
Grant amount: $684,000 over three years

Center to Advance Palliative Care (CAPC): Advancing the Palliative Care Field
Mount Sinai Medical Center, New York, NY
Diane E. Meier, MD
Grant amount: $500,940 over three years

Eldercare Workforce Alliance
The Tides Center, San Francisco, CA
Nancy Lundebjerg, American Geriatrics Society
Steve Dawson, Paraprofessional Healthcare Institute
Grant amount: $400,000 over three years

2. In Case You Missed…from the Health AGEnda Blog

In case you missed them, here are a few recent posts on Health AGEnda: Several Hartford grantees were the recipients of awards in November. Read about Mathy Mezey, Stephanie Studenski, Barbara Berkman, and Eric Coleman, who were recognized at the Gerontological Society of America’s (GSA) annual conference; Nancy Whitelaw, who was recognized at the annual Society for Public Health Education meeting; and Mary Naylor, who received the Episteme Award at the Sigma Theta Tau International annual meeting.

Also, six of the nine 2009-2010 Health and Aging Policy Fellows are from the Hartford “family.” Read about them in “Reforming Health and Aging Policy” by Cory Rieder.

The importance of recruiting geriatricians, a major issue facing the field, is highlighted in “Geriatrics = Happiness?” and “Match Point” by Gavin Hougham. Check it out and add your thoughts about this challenge.

Don’t miss out! Join the conversation by receiving new posts via email subscription or RSS feed. You can also follow the Hartford Foundation and the blog via Facebook. See you there!

3. Nursing Highlights from GSA

The Building Academic Geriatric Nursing Capacity (BAGNC) program held its 2009 Annual Leadership Conference in Atlanta and launched the program’s 10th Anniversary Celebration. One notable event was the Mary Starke Harper Distinguished Lectureship, moderated by Dr. Rick Martinez and sponsored by Johnson & Johnson, which focused on Mary Starke Harper’s role in promoting interdisciplinary collaboration. The video of the Mary Starke Harper event will soon be available at: www.geriatricnursing.org/leadership/msh-lectureship.asp. Among other highlights was a presentation by Mary Wakefield, PhD, RN, administrator of the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), on “The Leadership Needed to Address the Healthcare Challenges of 2009.” Many presentations from the Leadership Conference will soon be available at: www.geriatricnursing.org/leadership/leadership-conference.asp

4. Foundation Conducts Communications “Audit”

As part of the Foundation’s effort to seek out and consider the viewpoints of grantees and others outside the Foundation, we engaged our long-time communications partner, Strategic Communications & Planning (SCP), to conduct an external “audit” of grantee and non-grantee experts about their views on how the Foundation might use communications and related strategies to further expand its influence and improve the health care of older people. SCP interviewed 24 stakeholders in four major areas of expertise: public opinion and mass communication, public policy and advocacy, health professions education and training, and health care systems and practice change.

We were pleased that a majority of respondents saw the Foundation’s current work as worthwhile and suggested only minor to moderate course corrections rather than radical change. However, while interviewees see us as a leader within the field of aging, they generally agree that we have little recognition outside the field. Perhaps because of this, few respondents expressed support for adding an emphasis on influencing policy or public opinion to our portfolio.

While not a communications issue per se, many respondents felt we can do a better job connecting our academic training work and the realities of practice. They recommended using communications efforts and other means to increase the linkage between academic/training efforts and practitioners/practice change.

None of this feedback is particularly surprising. However, it is very helpful to have data to support our suppositions and inform our work going forward. To read more about the communications audit and add your own feedback, visit Health AGEnda, the Foundation blog. You can also view the findings summary here and the full report here.

5. Cory Rieder Gives Keynote Address at AAN Annual Meeting

Hartford Foundation executive director Cory Rieder gave the opening keynote address for the 36th annual meeting of the American Academy of Nursing (AAN) in Atlanta. Her topic was: “Our Aging Society: Nursing’s Unique Contribution.”

Rieder acknowledged the AAN’s role in the Building Academic Geriatric Nursing Capacity (BAGNC) initiative and cited the $33 million the Foundation has awarded to AAN to date—45 percent of the foundation’s total grant making in nursing. She also spoke rousingly about the crucial role America’s 2.3 million nurses will have in implementing health reform, stating that “…there has never been a time in history for nursing to make a more important difference to the health care of older people than now.”

6. Nora O’Brien-Suric Speaks at HPPAE Annual Meeting

Foundation program officer, Nora O’Brien-Suric, addressed three unique groups of people affiliated with the Hartford Partnership Program for Aging Education (HPPAE) at the Council of Social Work Education’s Annual Program Meeting in San Antonio, TX, in November. The HPPAE program is administered through the Social Work Leadership Institute of the New York Academy of Medicine.

In the first address to the second cohort of the Leadership Academy for Deans and Directors of Schools of Social Work, O’Brien-Suric stressed the importance of “Improving the Health Care of America’s Older Adults Through Social Work,” and she encouraged the development of curriculum and programs that provide social work students with the tools they need to provide services to the increasing number of older people. The following day, she spoke to field supervisors who oversee social work students participating in the HPPAE programs. She emphasized the importance of developing partnerships with community-based service agencies that would not only provide the students with the experience they need in order to work with an older population, but also the agencies with trained and experienced social workers upon graduation. Last, O’Brien-Suric spoke with students who are currently in the HPPAE program about her own career experiences. She encouraged the students to seek mentors throughout their careers and ultimately become mentors themselves.

For more information about the HPPAE program, visit: www.socialworkleadership.org/nsw/ppp/about.php

7. Upcoming Hartford Program Funding Deadlines

January 13, 2010
BAGNC Predoctoral Scholarship
www.geriatricnursing.org/applications/predoc-scholarship.asp

Claire M. Fagin Fellowship
www.geriatricnursing.org/applications/cmf-fellowship.asp

January 14, 2010
Paul Beeson Career Development Awards in Aging Research
afar.org/beeson.html

January 18, 2010
Geriatric Nursing Leadership Academy
www.nursingsociety.org

February 1, 2010
Hartford Faculty Scholars in Geriatric Social Work
www.gswi.org/programs/hfs.html

February 2, 2010
Hartford Doctoral Fellows in Geriatric Social Work
www.gswi.org/programs/hdf.html

February 5, 2010
Medical Student Training in Aging Research
afar.org/medstu.html

8. Communications Tip: Writing Op-Ed Pieces and Letters to the Editor

Op-ed pieces and letters to the editor are great ways to get your message into the public mind and help advance your work and the field of health and aging more broadly. Recently, several Hartford grantees—Drs. Lewis A. Lipsitz, Rosanne Leipzig, Jane Potter, and Mary Tinetti—have seen their op-ed pieces published. And the New York Times published a letter by Stephanie Lederman, executive director of the American Federation for Aging Research, mentioning the MSTAR program. Keela A. Herr, professor and chair, Adult and Gerontology Area of Study at the University of Iowa College of Nursing was a guest columnist in the DesMoines Register. All of these serve to bring the issues that the Foundation and our grantees are so passionate about to the forefront of public discussion. Read more here.

We encourage all of our grantees to follow suit and write about what’s important to you in relation to the current health care reform debate or other timely events. If you’re not sure how to start, check out this piece on www.BandwidthOnline.org, the Foundation’s online communications resource: “How Do I…write a successful op-ed or letter to the editor?” Good luck and keep trying!