Integrating Interdisciplinary, Community-Based, Education for Diverse Elders Into Professional Curricula Rebecca A. States, PhD, William M. Susman, PhD, PT Luis F. Riquelme, MS, CCC-SLP, Ellen Greer, MA, OTR, Ellen Godwin, MS, PT, PCS

Introduction  Grant Title: Interdisciplinary Community- Based Health Education for Elders from Diverse Backgrounds.  A three-year Allied Health Project grant (#1D37 HP00838) awarded by the Health Resources & Services Administration to Long Island University – Brooklyn Campus (LIU-BC) for $292,438. Now in the final year.  Project Director: Rebecca States, PhD Project Co-Director: William Susman, PhD, PT  An Interdisciplinary Advisory Board directs the grant activities with participants from:  Speech and Language Pathology (SLP)  Nursing  Occupational Therapy (OT)  Pharmacy  Physical Therapy (PT)  Respiratory Care (RC)  Social Work (SW) Several Activities Address Each Health Topic  Community Education Modules (CEMs): For community-dwelling, well-elderly at Senior Centers in Brooklyn in English or Spanish.  Multimedia Educational Modules: Client followed over time for a given health topic with materials incorporated into an interdisciplinary, web-based, computer-conferencing module for student use in health care and related disciplines at LIU-BC.  Web Site: Provides resources for elders and health care education programs through the products from the CEMs and MCSMs. Three Health Topics Three health topics of importance to elders reflecting the agenda of Healthy People 2010 have been addressed:  Dementia and Depression (Fall 2002)  Stress Reduction (Spring 2003)  Physical Activity (Fall 2003, Spring 2004) Community Service Organizations Liaisons were established with local community service organizations. The Senior Centers host the community education programs and help identify clients for the case studies.  New York City Department for the Aging, Bureau of Community Services  Brooklyn Interagency Council of the Aging  Spanish Speaking Elderly Council - RAICES  Five Senior Centers in the community surrounding LIU-BC Community Education Modules  Researched the content and available resources and acquired health education pamphlets from established agencies.  Generated presentations, interactive activities and evaluation forms in English, and translated them into Spanish.  Created a mechanism for students from all participating disciplines to participate in the CEM’s as part of their professional curricula.  Conducted 19 sessions in English with 327 clients and 14 sessions in Spanish with 478 clients.  Another set of CEM’s is currently underway on the topic of Physical Activity, and will serve over 100 clients in English and 100 clients in Spanish.

Student Participation in CEM’s  74 students have participated to date from PT, OT, SLP, SW, Nursing, and Pharmacy.  Student involvement includes:  An on-campus orientation  Leading the small group activities and doing client evaluation interviews at the senior center  Completing a written evaluation or an essay about how the experience added to their professional education  Student evaluations were generally favorable and include comments such as:  “Very beneficial and educational.” “I … learned a lot about older people.”  “This gave me information on their daily lives – out of the clinical setting.”  A qualitative research project to analyze 50 student essays is currently underway. Its purpose is to determine whether student participation in the workshops provides benefits not available through more typical classroom learning experiences. Evaluation Questions: Learn? Did you learn anything about today’s topic? Use Info? Will you use any of the information covered today? Change? In the next week, will you change your behavior as a result of today's session? Discuss? In the next week, will you discuss the issues raised with friends or family? HCP? In the next month, will you discuss the issues raised with any of your health care providers? More Info? Would you like more information related to today's topic? Characteristics of Clients Completing Evaluations NO. of EVALS AVERAGE AGE GENDERETHNIC BACKGROUND MFBlackWhiteHispanicOther* TOTALS PERCENTAGE * This category includes people who did not want to provide the information.

GERIE Web Site: Geriatric Educational Resources for Instructors & Elders Developed structure for and have begun building the GERIE web site, including:  Community Education Resources: Power point presentations, outlines for client activities, evaluation forms, video clips showing the physical and social environment and techniques to help convey information to older adult clients.  Multimedia Education Resources: Student and faculty guides, as well as video clips used in the Multimedia Educational Modules.  Web Resources: Links to related sites.  Presentations and Publications derived from this grant project. Future Activities  During Fall 2004 we will complete the final CEM on Physical Activity and the Multimedia Educational Module on Care for Older Adults.  Publication of the web site is expected in late Spring  A Continuing Studies Course: Development of Community Health Education for Older Adults will be presented for healthcare professionals in March  Data analysis continues on student essays from the CEMs and on student evaluations from the Multimedia Educational Modules.  Various dissemination projects are under way including a workshop scheduled for the Association for Gerontology in Higher Education in February Multimedia Educational Modules Two six-week interdisciplinary, multimedia, educational modules were developed: Interdisciplinary Teamwork and Care for Older Adults.  Modules are delivered through the WebCT computer conferencing platform.  Students are put in 4-5 member teams for on-line discussion.  Teams include PT, OT, RC and Nursing students and a faculty mentor from one of the disciplines.  Students complete pre- and post-test surveys to help evaluate various aspects of the module.  Interdisciplinary Teamwork Module  Students participate in moderated discussions on interdisciplinary practice, overlapping roles, and conflict resolution. Communication, collaboration, and problem-solving skills are emphasized.  Streaming video clips of a mock interdisciplinary team conference (PT, OT, RC, SLP, SW and Nursing) with an older Afro-American male and his daughter are used to prompt group discussion.  Care for Older Adults Module  Topics include aging demographics, theories of aging, communication, cultural issues, end-of-life issues, polypharmacy and caregiver strain.  Assignments and moderated discussions are enriched by streaming video clips of interviews between a practitioner, an older client with dementia, and her caregiver.  Students learn about and practice scoring the Katz ADL scale, the Mini-Mental Status Exam, the Caregiver Strain Index, and the Geriatric Depression Scale from streaming video segments.