ATHENS, Ohio - The spring series of the Ohio University College of OsteopathicMedicine's Geriatric Education Brown Bag seminars continues Monday, April 7, withLea Blackburn, director for the Riverside Gerlach Center for Senior Health,presenting "Stand Up For Senior Independence." The seminar will be held from noonto 1 p.m. in conference room B-9 at O'Bleness Memorial Hospital.
The presentation will detail the Stand Up For Senior IndependenceProject, which was recently awarded $120,000 from the Ohio Department of PublicSafety and the Columbus Foundation, a program to identify older individuals atrisk of frailty decline. The project consists of research on promoting geriatrictrauma prevention. Trauma to the elderly is a primary cause of frailty decline.In the project a patient's primary care physician is contacted and a clinicalplan of action, in conjunction with emergency medical services, is developed foreach particular patient.
The SUSI Project also helps seniors within the community who prefernot to participate in the research part of the program by making referralarrangements with other community senior health providers. The SUSI Project hasthe main objective of improving the health of the senior population throughcollaboration within the community.
"We want to implement environment modifications and individualbehavior changes to prevent ongoing frequent falls and thus assist seniors inmaintaining an independent level of function," said Blackburn.
Blackburn received a master's degree in social work from Ohio StateUniversity and has worked in geriatrics for the past 16 years. She has been thedirector of Riverside Hospital's John J. Gerlach Center for Senior Health for thepast six years.
This is the third seminar in the spring series. The first seminar wasMarch 3, with Joan Stroh, presenting "Suicide in the Elderly." The second seminarwas March 17, with R. Craig Mathews, D.D.S., presenting "Dental Implants andProsthetics for the Elderly." The fourth seminar will be held April 21, withJames D. Bové III, D.O., presenting "Diverticular Disease." The fifth seminarwill be held May 5, with Ann Rathbun, Ph.D., presenting "Health Literacy." Thelast seminar will be held May 19, with Jen-Tzer Gau, M.D., Ph.D., presenting"Diabetes in the Older Adult."
"The seminars are designed for an interdisciplinary audience," saidEllen Peterson, R.N., OU-COM geriatric education coordinator. "Healthprofessionals from the community regularly attend, in addition to interns,residents and medical students. The diversity of disciplines represented by theparticipants makes for an interesting exchange of ideas."
The sponsors of the seminars include the Department of GeriatricMedicine/Gerontology, the Western Reserve Geriatric Education Center and AreaHealth Education Center and OU-COM. Peterson said the seminar series was startedby a federal grant that established OU-COM as a contributing site to the WesternReserve Geriatric Education Center in September 1994 and has supported manycontinuing education programs. Provided by the Department of
Health and Human Services, the grant supports educational programs in geriatricand gerontology for physicians, nurses, social workers, counselors andhealth-care providers to 22 Southeastern Ohio counties.
