AGS Launches GWEP Coordinating Center to Improve Health Care for Older Adults

“Coordination” is a key word for geriatrics, particularly for long-term care (LTC) experts who balance clinical foresight with the reality that care can be enhanced when it is supported by a range of health professionals—doctors, nurses, social workers, family care partners, direct care workers, and many others. But what about “coordination” at a higher level: coordination to ensure that more of those doctors, nurses, social workers, family care partners, and direct-care workers not only enter the workforce but also have the training, expertise, and support they need to provide quality care for older people? Under a $3 million grant from The John A. Hartford Foundation, and through the new Geriatrics Workforce Enhancement Program (GWEP) launched by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the US Department of Health and Human Services, the American Geriatrics Society (AGS) is now poised to meet that challenge with its newest initiative: the GWEP Coordinating Center.

As part of a 3-year initiative, the GWEP Coordinating Center will provide assistance to the 44 GWEP sites through national meetings, networking opportunities, mentoring, a centralized repository of resources for professional and public education, and site visit consultations with geriatrics experts. Led by an interdisciplinary trio of Principal Investigators, the GWEP Coordinating Center also will work with an Interprofessional Advisory Committee to promote the GWEP vision by:

• Supporting centers of geriatrics education that will function as epicenters for addressing unique and targeted facets of the workforce shortage;
• Leveraging these education centers to train a diverse and interprofessional array of health care providers who are able to assess and address older adult needs at the individual, community, and population levels;
• Maximizing older adult and caregiver engagement with the health care system and community-based programs;
• Improving health outcomes for older adults; and 
• Integrating geriatrics knowledge and skills into primary care to ensure current and future health professionals can practice in and lead a health system that has greater capacity to provide safe, high-quality care for older adults.

Beyond addressing the geriatrics workforce shortage, the GWEP Coordinating Center recognizes a larger truth about coordination that crosses both training and care: we need a platform for recognizing, respecting, and embracing the similarities and differences across all GWEP sites as a reflection of cutting-edge eldercare.

As contributors to and collaborators in the GWEP Coordinating Center, individual GWEP awardees and their partners are committed to addressing eldercare needs across an array of care contexts, including LTC. Among GWEP grant recipients are 25 schools of medicine and 10 schools of nursing, along with a school of social work, two schools of allied health, a certified nurse assistant program, and five healthcare facilities. Collaborations with community-based partners will ensure that the GWEP develops geriatrics-competent health care professionals, integrates geriatrics into primary care delivery systems, and educates and supports older adults to foster engagement in their own care, regardless of where they live. 

The University of Utah College of Nursing, for example, will leverage its proposed Utah Geriatric Education Center to develop a primary care workforce equipped to improve health outcomes in LTC specifically. Educational activities targeting the state’s interprofessional health care workforce will push to integrate geriatrics and primary care into the delivery systems at 21 nursing facilities; transform the learning environment for academic trainees and career development; develop health professionals and direct care workers with competencies in interprofessional collaboration; deliver programs for providers and direct care workers, patients, families, and caregivers focused on communication skills and transitions of care in LTC settings; and improve care for those with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias through education, career development, and community outreach. 

In the context of the work in Utah and elsewhere across the country, the GWEP Coordinating Center strategically positions the AGS to provide the type of support that can ensure more health care professionals understand, employ, and embrace foundational principles of clinical geriatrics now and in the future. It is an integral part of the GWEP itself, a major HRSA initiative that AGS CEO Nancy E. Lundebjerg, MPA, aptly describes as one with “local roots and national reach.”