UGA’s Institute of Gerontology in the College of Public Health has received a $1.26 million grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration for the continuation of its Georgia Geriatric Education Center. In the next three years, UGA—in conjunction with Mercer University Medical School and the Armstrong Atlantic State University School of Health Professions—will train and re-train health professionals throughout the state in the assessment and treatment of Georgia’s elders.
Georgia Geriatric Education Center’s mission 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. The center, through its interdisciplinary training team, will provide conferences and workshops,
supervised on-site clinical training and online training. Trainees can select from a variety of content areas including geriatric pharmacy, fall prevention, dementia assessment and management, oral health, management of problem behaviors, palliative care, incontinence management, normative and healthy aging, chronic disease management and professional caregiving management. In addition, interdisciplinary clinical training will be available on movement disorders, seizures, pain, spine problems, delirium, stroke and neuropsychology.
Leonard W. Poon and Anne Glass are the director and associate director of the Georgia Geriatric Education Center.