April 2015 

Funding Available to Start Action Communities

Change AGEnts are encouraged to apply for seed funding to start an Action Community, whose members are actively engaged and connected on the Change AGEnts online platform to implement practice change related to a specific topic. Funding of up to $5,000 will be allocated to those communities who meet the criteria. View the RFA, application, and budget template. (Login to Change AGEnts online platform required).
 
Any Change AGEnts interested in submitting a proposal for the Action Communities funding opportunity are invited to attend a roundtable session on Friday, May 15, from 2:30-4 p.m. held in conjunction with the AGS Annual Scientific Meeting in National Harbor, MD. Read more.

Attend a Special Health Policy Forum at AGS

Community Catalyst’s Voices for Better Health initiative and the Hartford Change AGEnts are hosting a special health policy forum titled “Engaging Geriatric Providers in Advocacy for Low-Income Vulnerable Adults” on Friday, May 15, from 5:15-6:45 p.m. in conjunction with the AGS Annual Scientific Meeting in National Harbor, MD. All are welcome. See details and registration.

Participants Chosen for Policy and Communications Institutes

View the list of 2015 participants and their project abstracts chosen for this year’s Hartford Change AGEnts Policy Institute, scheduled for June 7-9 in Washington.
 
And see the list of 2015 participants and their project descriptions for this year’s Change AGEnts Communications Institute, scheduled for July 13-15 in Chicago.

IOM Study Offers Hope for Solutions to Challenges Facing Family Caregivers of Older Adults

Hartford Change AGEnt Gary Epstein-Lubow, MD, shares his perspectives on the Institute of Medicine's study of Family Caregiving for Older Adults and the role being played by members of the Change AGEnts' Dementia Caregiving Network.
 

Hartford grantee Dr. Bruce Leff of Johns Hopkins University and the Hospital at Home program was recently featured in The New York Times in an article on options for patients to receive care at home rather than in a hospital setting. The American Geriatrics Society (AGS), Geriatrics-for-Specialists Initiative funded by the Hartford Foundation, and Beeson and MSTAR scholar Dr. Heather Whitson were highlighted in a U.S. News and World Report article on the shortage of geriatrically trained doctors to meet the demands for the care of older adults.

And in a recent New York Times op-ed piece, Mary Ersek, who has been involved in the Hartford Center of Gerontological Nursing Excellence at the University of Pennsylvania for many years and was a major contributor to the End-of-Life Nursing Education Consortium (ELNEC) network, wrote about “Transforming Nursing Home Care.”

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Health AGEnda Highlights

Among recent posts on our Health AGEnda blog: While the federal government has set the "meaningful use" of electronic health records as a national priority, Chris Langston writes that a truly meaningful use would be to build in features that make those records responsive to the needs of older adults.

And Marcus Escobedo highlights some of the finalists in our “Better Caregiving, Better Lives” story contest, and shares tips on how you can use the stories to help drive change to improve the lives of family caregivers and those they love.
 
These are just two of the compelling posts featured on Health AGEnda. Don’t want to miss a post? Subscribe through RSS or email. You can also follow the Hartford Foundation and the blog via Facebook.
 
For more on what's happening in aging and health, visit our News and Events sections on jhartfound.org.