Seminar Looks at Multicultural Aging Nov. 20
Contact: Kevin M. Sanders, Writer/Editor, (740) 593-0896
ATHENS, Ohio (November 13, 2000) -- Lea Blackburn, a certified social worker, will present "Multicultural Aging" noon to 1 p.m. Nov. 20 in O'Bleness Memorial Hospital room B-9.
The seminar will cover issues that concern medical personnel when dealing with older patients from the Appalachian area.
Blackburn said there are at least two specific issues of note regarding older Appalachians when it comes to health care. First, they tend to be reluctant to seek medical attention when they sense a problem. Second, older Appalachians tend to have a very supportive family group.
"It's not uncommon for an emergency room patient to come in with 10 or 15 family members," said Blackburn.
Health-care professionals need to learn to deal with the families, which usually include children that may have left school to be at the side of their sick relatives, she said.
Blackburn has been a social worker in the medical field for 18 years. She grew up in the Appalachian region of Kentucky. She works with Grant Riverside Senior Health in the Columbus area.
Health-care professionals are invited to attend the seminar. Brown bags are welcome. For more information, call the Geriatric Education Center at (740) 593-2258.
This seminar is part of OU-COM's fall 2000 continuing education series on geriatric medicine and gerontology. Seminars are held from noon to 1:00 p.m. on the first and third Mondays of each month in O'Bleness Memorial Hospital Room B-9.
Winter seminars begin Dec. 4 with Caroline Gibson's presentation of "Occupational Therapy and the Older Adult."
Past seminars in the fall series were "Alzheimer's Pathophysiology and New Treatment Developments" presented Sept. 18; "Controversies and Considerations of Medical Nutrition Therapy in Management of Diabetes and Hypertension in the Elderly" presented Oct. 2; "Common Foot and Nail Disorders in Older Individuals" presented Oct. 16; and "An Overview of Hospice Programs" presented Nov. 6.
Winter seminars will include "Occupational Therapy and the Older Adult" on Dec. 4 and "Constraint Induced Therapy After Stroke" on Dec 18. "The seminars are designed for an interdisciplinary audience," said Ellen Peterson, R.N., geriatric education coordinator. "Health professionals from the community regularly attend, in addition to interns, residents and medical students. The diversity of disciplines represented by the participants makes for an interesting exchange of ideas.
The sponsors of the seminars include the Department of Geriatric Medicine/Gerontology, the Western Reserve Geriatric Education Center and Area Health Education Center and OU-COM.
Peterson said the seminar series was started by a federal grant that established OU-COM as a contributing site to the Western Reserve Geriatric Education Center in September 1994 and has supported many continuing education programs. Provided by the Department of Health and Human Services, the grant supports educational programs in geriatrics and gerontology for physicians, nurses, social workers, counselors and health-care providers to 22 Southeastern Ohio counties.
