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December 2008 Individualized Care The older adult population in the U.S. is exploding. Starting in 2010, we will see 10,000 people turn 65, each and every day, for the next 20 years. With the growing incidence of mental and physical disorders in this age group, coupled with the shortage of professional and paraprofessional geriatric workers, and a shrinking labor pool, we soon could be facing a serious caregiving crisis. According to the Centers for Disease Control, 133 million people have one or more chronic medical conditions in the US, such as diabetes or hypertension. Furthermore, 80% of the $1.4 trillion price tag for treating these chronic conditions (direct and indirect costs) are for those individuals who are not institutionalized in hospitals and nursing homes. Compounding these startlingly high incidence rates of chronic disease is that depression is co-morbid in, or co-exists in, 30% to 50% of these conditions. And, when depression is present, it complicates the patient's management of the chronic disease. Shortage of Geriatric Workforce There is a severe shortage of trained health care professionals to meet the current demands of the older adult population, let alone the expected demands that come with the leading edge of the baby boom generation. The American Hospital Association reports that over 100,000 vacancies currently exist for nurses in the US. A study from the University of Pennsylvania reported that an additional 30,000 nurses will be needed annually to meet the expected needs, 30% more than are now graduating. The geriatric physician numbers are also troubling: the Alliance for Aging Research reports that the number of geriatricians will need to increase fivefold, from 7,100 to 36,000 by 2030. But, only half of the open geriatric medicine slots in medical schools were filled in 2007. The supply of direct care workers will also need to expand by 1 million from the current availability of 3 million, within five years. However, the labor pool where these workers are drawn from (i.e., women aged 25 to 54) is expected to not increase proportionately, but increase by less than 1%. This will put increasing burdens on the pool of over 44 million unpaid caregivers, namely, family members. The Family Caregiver Alliance reports that caregivers are present in 1 in every 5 households in the US, and over 80% of these caregivers are family members. These are staggering figures. If these estimates prove to be even close to accurate, the demand for caregivers will clearly outpace the supply of trained personnel in the very near future. Although there are many training and education initiatives underway to offset these workforce shortages, a different tack is proposed here, namely, to individualize the care that older adults receive and foster a patient-driven model of care. In other words, decrease the demands on the health care system by individualizing care and mobilizing new resources, including the patient himself.
What Does Individualized Care Look Like? Individualizing care means a number of adjustments from the usual approaches in our health care system:
To meet the growing demands on our health care system created by the exploding population of older adults, individualized care may be one answer. (This is a condensed version of an article on this topic by J. Casciani. The complete article can be found at http://www.content4reprint. Upcoming Web Conferences There is an exciting series of live web conferences scheduled for the New Year:
Archived Recordings of Past Conferences CONFERENCE RECORDING of the Physician's Quality Reporting Initiative (PQRI) by Dr. Paula Hartmann-Stein. Paula was the chair of the expert work group to develop the first quality measures for psychologists and social workers. During this conference, Paula covered the technical details of conducting these measures, and how to bill for them in order to earn your bonus. The PQRI quality measures are tools that are easily incorporated in your clinical practice, such as screening for depression, verifying medications, screening for abuse, and others. All mental health providers who see Medicare patients are strongly encouraged to participate, and adopt the measures. Purchase playback. PLAYBACK OF THIS RECORDING IS AVAILABLE FOR 90 DAYS AND EXPIRES 3/12/09. PLEASE NOTE: CE CREDIT IS NOT AVAILABLE FOR AUDIO RECORDINGS. CoHEALTH INFORMATION
A Note of Thanks An upcoming promotional brochure for Concept Healthcare uses some pictures of older adults taken by a Toronto photographer, Anne de Haas. Anne's work does stand out for its accurate, and sensitive portrayal of her subjects. This is very different from the usual, pollyana-like pictures that most of the industry uses to depict the elderly. For more information on Anne's work and to see more of her portfolio, visit www.annedehaas.com. Tailored Training Looking for staff inservice training? We offer custom inservices on behavioral health topics, individually-tailored to the needs of the employees in your organization. Select from subjects on aging and mental health, dementia, behavior management, and others. You select the time and date, and format. The hourly fee includes the live presentation, handouts, educational objectives, a post-test evaluation, and a certificate of completion. An audio recording of the training is optional, as is a written transcript of the presentation to keep in your library. Staff training, on demand. Job Postings CoHealth provides direct mental and behavioral health services to residents in LTC settings. We are hiring psychologists, LCSW's, psychiatrists, and advanced practice nurses who are interested in working with us in our direct services division of Concept Healthcare in California and Texas. Our focus is on older adult residents whose medical conditions are complicated or exacerbated by co-morbid psychological issues, and cannot manage or recover from their conditions because of these barriers. More details The Podium is Yours! If you or your organization would like to schedule a live event, such as educational program, virtual meeting, or conference, and want to avoid arranging the meeting location, the registration process, and CE accreditation, and other details, consider using CoHealth's "Podium." You decide on the topic, speaker, date and time, participant list, and rely on our conference service, toll free phone line, online registration, and promotion. We can offer CE credit for qualified topics, and handle recording of the event, if desired. Select Podium for more details. OTHER RESOURCES OF INTEREST The Family Caregiver Alliance (FCA) and The Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Foundation are pleased to announce the winners of the first annual Rosalinde Gilbert Innovations in Alzheimer's Disease Caregiving Legacy Awards. Awards of $20,000 each will be presented to three nonprofit organizations to recognize extraordinary programs that address the needs of Alzheimer's caregivers. The winning programs qualified in one of three categories: creative expression; diverse/multicultural communities; and policy and advocacy. For descriptions of the winning programs go to http://caregiver.org/ Fact Sheet: A very good and useful fact sheet on age-related vision loss is available from the Family Caregiver Alliance: vision loss. Concept Healthcare is approved by the following agencies to provide continuing education credits: Concept Healthcare is approved by the American Psychological Association (APA) to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. Concept Healthcare maintains responsibility for this program and its content. Concept Healthcare is a provider approved by the California Board of Registered Nursing, Provider No. 15052. (States that accept nursing CE credits from CA BRN-approved providers include AL, AK, IA, KS, KY, MA, MI, NE, NV, OH, OR, TX-Type 1, UT, WY). The National Association of Boards of Examiners of Long Term Care Administrators has approved this program. See Participant Guide for the NCERS Course Approval number. This course has been reviewed and approved by the NAB, NCERS, Course # 2412008-26746-1. NCERS strives to approve only quality programs whose content can reasonably contribute to the professional development of long term care administrators. If you have any confidential comments concerning this program which you would like to make to NCERS administration, please direct them by phone or email to NAB, 202-712-9040, nab@bostrum.com. Concept Healthcare is an approved provider of the California Board of Behavior Sciences (Approval # PCE 4238). Courses meet the qualifications for CE credit for MFTs and/or LCSWs as required by the CA BBS. · Concept Healthcare is approved by the Texas State Board of Social Work Examiners (Provider # 5179). Consumer Complaint Hotline 800-942-5540.
Concept Healthcare is approved by the Florida Board of Clinical Social Work, Marriage and Family Therapists and Mental Health Counseling (CE Provider # 50-9732 Exp. 03/31/2009). Concept Healthcare is a Certified Nurse Assistant (CNA) Continuing Education (CE) Provider, Nurse Aide Certification (NAC) #6728, approved by the California Department of Public Health, Aide and Technician Certification Section. This approved NAC number applies only to CNA/CHHA’s in the State of California. See something you liked in this newsletter? Have a comment or suggestion about our newsletters? Tell us what you think. Email us at info@cohealth.org. | Upcoming Web Conferences MARK YOUR CALENDAR!
Join us for our series of live web conferences in January, 2009
January 14 -- 7:00am PST, 8:00 MST, 9:00 CST, 10:00 EST Psychotherapy with Older Adults: How to Use Outcome Measures and PQRI Quality Measures to Document Progress - Brenda K. Billimoria, LCSW (* APA, BRN, BBSE, TXBSW, FLBSW) January 28 -- 7:00am PST, 8:00 MST, 9:00 CST, 10:00 EST Detecting Dementia in Older Adults - Peter A. Lichtenberg, PhD (* APA, BRN, BBSE, TXBSW, FLBSW) | |||
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