September 21, 2007
The Institute of Gerontology at the College of Public Health, University of Georgia, announces the continuation of funding of its Georgia Geriatric Education Center (GGEC). The mission of this Center is to increase health literacy and to train health professionals in the care and safety of older adults, especially in Georgia's medically-underserved areas.
This $1.26 million dollar grant is funded by the Health Research Service Administration beginning September 1, 2007 to June 30, 2010. Leonard W. Poon and Anne Glass are the director and associate director of the Center. Collaborators are the departments of medicine, psychiatry, neurosurgery, and geriatrics from Mercer School of Medicine and the School of Health Professions from Armstrong Atlantic State University.
The Center, through its interdisciplinary training team, will provide CME and CEU conferences and workshops, supervised on-site clinical training, and training through the internet. Trainees can select from a variety of content areas including 1) geriatric pharmacy, 2) fall prevention, 3) dementia assessment and management, 4) management of problem behaviors, 5) oral health, 6) palliative care, 7) incontinence management, 8) normative and healthy aging, 9) chronic disease management, and 10) professional caregiving management. In addition, interdisciplinary training will be available on 1) movement disorders, 2) seizures, 3) pain, 4) spine problems, 5) delirium, 6) stroke, and 7) neuropsychology. Special emphasis will be placed in the training of minority faculty and health professionals in the State of Georgia.