|
|
GEC
PIPELINE - January 2001 Vol.13
No.1
Published
as a service to the GEC network by the Wisconsin Geriatric Education
Center, Marquette University, Academic Support Facility 160,
P.O. Box 1881, Milwaukee, WI 53201-1881, (414) 288-3712, (414) 288-1973,
wgecnet@marquette.edu Copy Edit & Page Layout: Karen Krueger
Bureau
News - Diane Hanner, MPH, M.S.W, Project Officer
- Welcome to
the New Deputy Director - The division of Interdisciplinary Community-Based
Programs is pleased to welcome Theresa Derville as the new deputy
Director. Theresa comes from the Health Care and Finance Administration.
- Peer Reviewers
- We are accepting resumes/curriculum vitae for potential Peer
Reviewers. The Peer Review is scheduled to convene on April 2,
2001. If you are not competing this year and want to be considered
as a potential peer reviewer, please forward your information
to: Sherlene Bailey, Program Manager, 5600 Fishers Lane, Room
8C-23, Rockville, Maryland 20857.
- A special
note of thanks to all who helped staff the BHPr Geriatric booths
at the Gerontological Society of America annual meeting.
- Friendly
Reminder - It is the policy of Public Health Service (PHS) to
make available to the public the results and accomplishments of
the activities that it funds. Therefore, it is incumbent upon
project directors, program directors, and principal investigators
to make results and accomplishments of their activities available
to the public. PHS prior approval is not required for publishing
the results of an activity under a grant. Recipients shall place
an acknowledgment of PHS grant support and a disclaimer, as appropriate,
on any publication written or published with such support and,
if feasible, on any publication reporting the results of or describing
a grant-supported activity. An acknowledgment shall be to the
effect that "This publication was made possible by grant number
____ from ..." or "The project described was supported by grant
number____ from..." and "It's contents are solely the responsibility
of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views
of the (name of the awarding agency)."
Virginia
GEC - Wendy Boggs, Research Specialist
As
part of the 2000-2005 grant awarded by the Department of Health
and Human Services, the Virginia Geriatric Education Center (VGEC),
in cooperation with Learning for Life, is developing an Explorer
Post Career Awareness program called Exploring Health Careers. Ultimately,
this program will serve to introduce Richmond-area kindergarten
through high school students to health careers and social services.
On
December 14, 2000 the VGEC held an orientation meeting for high
school students interested in becoming involved in the Exploring
Health Careers program. Over the next six months meetings will be
held once a month with these students, with the majority of these
meetings consisting of field trips in the community to provide them
with a broader view of potential careers. Throughout this program
we will be involving health care retirees from local Continuing
Care Retirement Communities and Assisted Livings, as well as students
and faculty from the Allied Health programs at Virginia Commonwealth
University (VCU). The VCU Career Center will also serve as a partner
in this project. For more information regarding VGEC activities,
please contact us at (804) 828-9060.
Rhode
Island GEC - JoAnn Evans, M.A., Information and Multimedia Coordinator
On Friday February 2, 2001, the Rhode Island Geriatric Education
Center is sponsoring a one-day workshop, Ethics & Diversity in
Geriatrics. Frederic Reamer, Ph.D. and Deoshore Haig, M.S.W.,
are the guest speakers, along with an ethnogeriatrics panel following
Ms. Haig's afternoon session.
Dr.
Reamer, Professor of Social Work at Rhode Island College, has numerous
publications and has lectured extensively nationally and internationally
on the subjects of professional ethics and professional malpractice
and liability. He also chaired the national task force that developed
the Code of Ethics adopted by the National Association of Social
Workers in 1996. Deoshore F. Haig, Director of Haig & Associates
Consulting Firm, is a consultant and trainer throughout New England
and nationally to human service and (RIGEC continued) health care
organizations on cultural competency, minority issues, HIV/AIDS,
organizational development, and other health care issues.
The
instructional format will include lectures, group discussions, case
presentations, and panel discussion. Continuing education credits
have been approved for social work in diversity and ethics, medicine,
pharmacy, and nursing home administration. CE credits for nursing
are pending. The workshop will be held from 8:15 a.m. to 4:3- p.m.
at Canonicus Camp & Conference Center in Exeter, RI.
RIGEC
is co-sponsoring two sessions at the First National Conference of
the American Society on Aging and the National Council on the Aging
(ASA/NCOA), which convenes from March 8-11, 2001 in New Orleans,
Louisiana. The first is a one-day, pre-conference session, Intensive
on Interdisciplinary Team Training in Geriatrics, which will be
held on March 7, 2001.. The second is a workshop, Interdisciplinary
Team Training in Tough Times, to be held during the conference.
Time and date are to be announced.
Stanford
GEC - Gwen Yeo, PhD, Director Emerita
For those colleagues
who were not at the NAGEC meeting at GSA, I wanted to let you know
that the Inter-GEC Collaborative on Ethnogeriatrics has completed
the five-module Core Curriculum on Ethnogeriatrics. It is available
for downloading as an Adobe Acrobat file at a special Collaborative
website: www.stanford.edu/group/ethnoger . We would be delighted
if all the GEC's would put a link from their own websites into this
one so that the dissemination could be more wide spread. It truly
belongs to all the GECs. There were 21 authors for this edition
representing 14 GECs. Please let us know if you have any problems
or suggestions on using the curriculum. We will be including an
evaluation component on the website within the next few weeks.
The
ethnic specific modules to complement this Core Curriculum are in
the process of development by committees within the Collaborative
on Ethnogeriatric Education. We hope to have them available in the
spring of 2001.
Stanford
GEC - Marita Grudzen, Assistant Director
"Enhancing Clinical Understanding and Communication with Chinese
American Elders," a one day conference for physicians and advanced
practitioners co-sponsored by the Stanford Geriatric Education Center,
the American College of Chinese Medicine, and Laguna Honda Hospital
will be held Saturday, April 7th, 2001 from 8:30-4:30 at Laguna
Honda Hospital, San Francisco. CME, CEU and BBS continuing education
units will be available. The fee for physicians is $95, and the
fee for advanced practitioners is $65. Space is limited to allow
for in-depth participation and consultation by attendees. Part One
will familiarize participants with Essential Traditional Chinese
Medical concepts and practices and their relevance to food, health
and illness. Part Two will include real case vignettes covering
Hypertension, Pain, Cancer, and End of Life issues. A panel of both
Western health practitioners and Chinese medicine practitioners
will address each of these conditions from within their framework.
For more information contact mgrudzen@leland.stanford.edu .
Finger
Lakes GEC - Phyllis M. Ladrigan, PhD
The Finger Lakes
GEC is sponsoring the upcoming conference "Growing Older with Independence,
Opportunity & Dignity; Healthy Aging in a Multicultural Society"
on March 30, 2001. The free conference will be held at Nazareth
College of Rochester at the Otto Shults Center from 8:00am -3:00pm.
Lunch will be provided. The keynote speaker will be Dr. Deforia
Lane, a music therapist. The conference will also feature presentations
related to healthy aging in a multicultural society from a variety
of the health and social services professions, including speech
pathology, art therapy, physical therapy, medicine, nursing, fitness,
dietary, and social work. The target audience is the community at
large, as well as the full spectrum of the health and social services
professions. Continuing education units for attendance will be issued.
Thirty to forty vendors with services, programs, and products related
to these areas will also be on hand during the conference. For more
information contact Phyllis Ladrigan at (716) 389-2738 or Marge
Andrews at (716) 389-2710.
Miami
GEC
MAGEC, the Miami
Area Geriatric Education Center is offering nurses and psychologists
an opportunity to earn 20 continuing education credits. The courses
being offered are the part B of the Intensive Geriatric Training
2000. The nursing course will be held on January 11, 18, and February
2, 2001. The course aimed at psychologists will be held on March
1,2,and 3, 2001. There will also be an Optometry Module offered
May 18-20, 2001. To register or get more information, please cal
MAGEC at (305) 243-6270. The costs of the modules are $125 per participant.
University of Miami employees and KMH employees get reduced rates.
Group rates are available for parties of three or more.
California
GEC - Janet C. Frank, Director
On November 16,
the CGEC, in collaboration with the Center for Health Care Innovation
(CHCI) at California State University Long Beach, co-sponsored a
pre-GSA conference in Washington, DC, "The National Invitational
Leadership Conference: Management Training in Long-Term Care." The
CHCI has a five-year grant from the Archstone Foundation to develop
and validate a national model program for management training for
long-term care. To develop a competency-based curriculum for long-term
care management, the conference brought together over fifty national
leaders and stakeholders including experts in long-term care, academic
training and policy, trade and professional associations, state
and federal government agencies, and consumer advocacy. This meeting
marked the beginning of collaborations and partnerships with these
groups to evaluate the future of long-term care educational priorities,
and define the key content for professional management competencies
in long-term care across the service continuum. Co-sponsors for
the conference were the Gerontological Society of America (GSA)
Public Policy Committee, Associated Universities Public Health Administration
(AUPHA) Long-Term Care Forum, the American Public Health Association
(APHA) Gerontological Health Section, and the Association for Gerontology
in Higher Education (AGHE).
Oklahoma
GEC - Karen S. Neal, Education Specialist
New Red Earth
Gerontology Scholars teams from our community partners, the Mental
Health Department and Primary Care Association, have begun the 2001
program. New Primary care teams are located at the Oklahoma Farmworker
Health Initiative in Southwest Oklahoma, the Cherokee Nation Redbird
Smith Clinic in Sallisaw, OK, and the Indian Health Care resource
Center in Tulsa, OK. Mental health teams are the Oklahoma City Community
Counseling Center in Oklahoma City, OK, and the Mental Health Services
of Southern Oklahoma with the Adult Day services of Ardmore.
The
individual REGS class will go through orientation in January. There
are nine new participants in this program: Cindy A, Brown, Colleen
Black, both from the Summit Division of the State Insurance Commission,
Lupe Zarafe from Cross Timbers Health Clinic, Comanche, TX, Jenni
Massengill, Edmond Medical Center, Edmond, OK, Dana Dempsey, graduate
student in gerontology at the University of Central Oklahoma, Jerry
Herron, Oklahoma Department of Human Services, Altus, OK, Nora Deere,
Community Health Representative, Wewoka, OK, and Davis Sullivan
from the University of Oklahoma American Indian Institute, Norman,
OK.
Arkansas
GEC - Soledad Jasin, PhD, Senior Education Specialist
The VTC on "Hypertension
and Stroke" marked our first collaboration with a group outside
the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) and the Central
Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System (CAVHS). The Arkansas chapter
of the American Heart Association, a leader in the fight against
heart disease and stroke, helped sponsor the event. It provided
copies of three pamphlets for distribution to each attendee and
other materials for display at each site.
Hypertension
and stroke are extremely important topics for the lay public and
health professionals in Arkansas, because our state lies within
the so-called "stroke belt"; this means that Arkansans are at greater
risk of suffering a stroke than residents of other states. Since
untreated hypertension is a strong predictor of stroke, Yousri M.H.
Barri, MD, Assistant Professor in the Division of Nephrology at
UAMS, provided guidelines for the treatment and management of hypertensive
emergencies. He reminded all that to minimize complications in neurologically
unstable patients with hypertension requires special care. Dr. Barri
noted that the incidence of hypertension is higher among African
Americans and also that hypertensive patients are at greater risk
for stroke. Follow-up care is crucial for both groups.
Sarkis
M. Nazarian, MD, Associate Professor of Neurology, Department of
Neurology, UAMS, and Chief, Neurology Service at CAVHS, addressed
the issue of stroke prevention and treatment. He reviewed the risk
factors for stroke: high cholesterol levels, excess weight, sedentary
lifestyle and increased homocysteine blood levels. He suggested
preventive strategies (AGEC continued) such as losing weight; exercising
regularly; taking ACE or HMGCoA inhibitors, cardio-embolic drugs
or antiplatelet agents and employing surgical procedures. Dr. Nazarian
emphasized that the time lapse between the cardiovascular event
and the initiation of treatment is critical in preventing neurological
damage. He cautioned, however, about the need to rule out hemorrhage
by CT scan before initiating thrombolytic therapy.
Dr.
Nazarian presented a taped interview with a 62 year old stroke survivor.
Suffering excruciating pain from a headache, the female patient
rushed to a local hospital. Rapid access to treatment made all the
difference; she recovered well and returned to work nine months
after stroke. Sadly, Dr. Nazarian remarked that the chances the
patient would have a second stroke are quite high, because she has
made no significant lifestyle changes to modify her risk factors.
For
a stroke survivor, the key to a better quality of life is rehabilitation.
While emphasizing this point, Florian S. Keplinger, MD, Assistant
Professor, in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
at UAMS and CAVHS, added that a prognosis of walking function is
possible at 6 weeks for patients suffering from stroke related motor
deficits. Their recovery usually reaches its maximum at 3 months.
The physician cited some of the common complications experienced
by stroke patients such as incontinence, depression, contractures,
upper and lower extremities problems, hemiplegia, post-stroke pain,
dysphagia, seizures, aphasia, and spasticity. For each of them,
Dr. Keplinger suggested either methods to treat or to minimize their
occurrence.
|
|
