The Stanford Center for Longevity reported several months ago that over the next 30 years, the number of people age 65 and older will double, and diversity will significantly increase among the elderly.
In anticipation of these demographic shifts, School of Medicine researchers recently launched eCampus Geriatrics. The educational website offers a range of tools and resources to help health-care professionals provide culturally-competent geriatric care. VJ Periyakoil, MD, director of palliative care education and training at Stanford, explains the driving factors in developing the website and instructional materials:
According to the national standards on Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services, health-care organizations should ensure that patients and consumers receive from all staff members effective, understandable, and respectful care that is provided in a manner compatible with their cultural health beliefs and practices and preferred language. The population of diverse older Americans is growing in leaps and bounds. The need to deliver culturally effective patient centered care is a sentinel premise for geriatric and palliative care. The eCampus geriatrics portal was created to educate clinicians about providing culturally effective care for multi-cultural older adults.
Teaching modules, patient interview strategies, a guide on important cultural terminology, student evaluations and free full-text, peer-reviewed resources on the care of older adults from thirteen major ethnicities are among the instructional materials available through eCampus Geriatrics.
A CD/DVD edition of eCampus Geriatrics has been distributed to more than 1,000 nursing, medical and social-work schools in the U.S.
If you are interested in receiving a DVD copy of the materials, Periyakoil has graciously offered to provide free copies to the first 50 people who leave comments on this post. Please leave your name and e-mail address in the appropriate fields with your comment and we will contact you for your mailing address. Your e-mail address will not be publicly displayed and we will not share your address for any reason.
Previously: Researchers aim to extend how long - and how well - we live
Photo by Ivan Mlinaric
