Dementia Outreach Expansion and Supportive Care Worker Training through Statewide Partnerships 2024 – 2029
This project incorporates formal collaborative partnerships between the NCF-GWEP and multiple state agencies’ initiatives towards expanding dementia training and outreach. Activities include dementia sensitivity training for transportation providers, rural-focused dementia-friendly community planning, family care partner education and outreach, and healthcare professional training opportunities.
Career Advancement for Supportive Care Workers and Nurses: CNA Career Ladder for Hospice Care Employees, Geriatricized Medical Assistant Training, and College of Nursing Advanced Certificate in Geriatrics 2024 – 2029
This project will train certified nursing assistants (CNAs), medical assistants, and undergraduate nursing students. Activities include developing a hospice geriatrics certificate pathway for CNAs, emphasizing age-friendly care in the medical assistant curriculum, creating 4Ms geriatrics care curriculum for undergraduate nursing students, and developing a post-baccalaureate geriatrics nursing certificate.
Transforming Federally Qualified Health Centers into Age-Friendly Health Systems 2024 – 2029
This project aims to enhance age-friendly health care within the federally qualified health centers of PanCare’s clinical locations. Through trainings and system change efforts, this activity is transforming clinical environments into integrated geriatrics and primary care systems, incorporating the 4Ms of age-friendly health systems: what matters to older adults, medication, mentation, and mobility. This project aims to connect multiple sectors and professions to identify gaps and increase access to services and supports for older adults. Collaboratively, our partners will collect data to identify inequities, aging population needs, clinical quality measures, and site-specific quality improvement needs.
4Ms Enhanced Longitudinal Geriatrics Training for Physician Assistant (PA) Students, Family Medicine (FM) Residents, and Psychology Postdoctoral (Psych) Fellows 2024 – 2029
This project focuses on the inculcation of geriatrics principles of care for healthcare professionals, including physician assistant students, family medicine residents, and psychology postdoctoral fellows, during their formative training. Recognizing the importance of interprofessional training, a variety of geriatrics-focused experiences are provided across the continuum of care. This project will also share geriatrics educational resources and strategies.
Transforming Federally Qualified Health Centers into Age-Friendly Health Systems 2019 – 2024
This project aims to enhance age-friendly health care within the federally qualified health centers of North Florida Medical Centers’ clinical locations. Through trainings and system change efforts, this activity is transforming clinical environments into integrated geriatrics and primary care systems, incorporating the 4Ms of age-friendly health systems: what matters to the older adults, medication, mentation, and mobility. We are also connecting providers and older patients with community-based, self-management wellness programs through a partnership with Advantage Aging Solutions.
African-American Alzheimer’s Caregiver Training and Support (ACTS 2) 2019- 2024
The African-American Alzheimer’s Caregiver Training and Support, or ACTS 2, program brings skills training and support to African-American dementia caregivers with depression. ACTS 2 aids in the delivery of mental health interventions for African-American caregivers by offering a spiritually-modified cognitive-behavioral intervention using easy-to-operate telehealth technology. This partnership is expanding the reach of ACTS 2 to central Florida.
Improving the Lives of Residents with Alzheimer’s through Montessori-Inspired Lifestyle® Training 2019 – 2024
The Montessori-Inspired Lifestyle®, developed by the Center for Applied Research in Dementia, is a highly innovative approach to dementia care that focuses on identifying individuals’ strengths and creating opportunities for interaction, engagement, and purpose. By training assisted living staff in this approach, this project is transforming partner facilities into person-centered environments. In addition, this project is supporting dementia-friendly communities in partnership with the Dementia Care and Cure Initiative through multi-sector community dementia education, resource sharing, and training in Montessori/person-centered approaches.
Partnering for Quality Care: Building Effective Collaborations between Home Care Workers and the Family Members of their Clients 2019 – 2024
This project is strengthening relationships between home care clients and the two groups that are equally important to their care – home care workers and family caregivers. In partnership with the Paraprofessional Healthcare Institute and Florida Pioneer Network, educational trainings provided to partnering Home Instead locations are improving communication between these groups. Training activities aim to reduce interpersonal conflict and create opportunities for the client, home care worker, and family caregiver to work together successfully to optimize client care and health outcomes.
Novel, Longitudinal Geriatrics Curriculum for Physician Assistants 2019 – 2024
The new Physician Assistant School at the FSU College of Medicine presents a unique opportunity to teach the integration of geriatric care principles into primary care. This project is training and educating PA students to assess and address the primary care needs of older adults. Their clinical training environments are also being modified to incorporate the essential elements of age-friendly health systems and screenings for geriatric syndromes.