|
2007 Physician
Quality Reporting Initiative (PQRI)FINAL
MEASURES
Click Here to see the article on
U.S. Department of State Convenes Summit on Global
Aging in Washington,DC
|
Colleagues,
The following is an update on the Aging and
Behavioral Health Alliance of East Central Ohio:
Membership: We are growing in numbers. Last week at
an Area Agency on Aging conference we added 12 new
members bringing our total to approximately 105,
starting two years ago with less than 30.
Current jointly sponsored and funded initiatives: In
the fall of 2007 Susan Sigmon from the Area Agency
on Aging with writing assistance from my associate,
Jeanette Biermann, submitted an application for a
mini grant that was funded for $8,000 from the state
of OHio to increase the detection of depression and
cognitive decline in older adults who are receiving
in home care services.
ABHA-ECO used part of the this state grant ($1,000)
along with funding ($500) from the Office of
Geriatric Medicine at NEOUCOM through Barbara
Palmisano's efforts as well as funding ($500) from
Dr. Harvey Sterns' dept at the University of Akron
(the Institute for Life Span Development and
Gerontology), in addition to "in-kind" contributions
from the Dept of Psychiatry, Summa Health Systems,
such as meeting space and my professional time --to
bring Dr. Peter Lichtenberg from Wayne State
University to introduce his evidence-based screening
instrument, The MacNeill-Lichtenberg Decision Tree.
That program was held on November 9th at the Summa
auditorium.
On March 6th and 31st a "train the trainer" series
begins at the AAA office in Uniontown funded also
through the mini-grant written from the Older
Ohioans' Behavioral Health Initiative. I will be
conducting the training series that is primarily for
home health staff educators and supervisors. In
addition, Susan Sigmon and I are scheduling a follow
up teleconference call to answer questions after the
screening tool has been implemented by front line
staff. For questions about the logistics of the
training, please contact the AAA office.
Future initiatives: On February 22nd and 26th, Jerry
Craig, manager at the Summit County ADM board,
conducted brainstorming sessions from reps from
several geriatric care and mental health agencies to
examine the feasibility of applying for a federal
grant to expand services to underserved older
adults. He has requested that ABHA-ECO continue the
effort of bringing together community stakeholders
for purposes of designing and seeking out funding
for geriatric mental health initiatives. That will
be the direction of ABHA-ECO throughout the rest of
2008.
Meeting Schedule: Please keep the attached schedule
for meetings of ABHA-ECO. The Steering Committee
will meet next on Wed March 5th at 11:00 am at St.
Thomas Hospital, to finalize the programming for the
Summa and NEOUCOM- jointly sponsored Geriatric
Behavioral Health annual conference on Friday,
October 24th.
Thank you for your attention and support of ABHA-ECO
Paula Hartman-Stein, Ph.D.
Chair, ABHA-ECO
Director of Geriatric Psychology, Summa Health
System
email: cha@en.com
www.abha-eco.org
**Click here for Top 20
Activities to Jumpstart Your Brain:
Tips from Dr. Paula
Activities of the Alliance CLICK HERE
Joseph
Ruby, President and CEO of the Area Agency on Aging
10B writes about a unique training opportunity that
will soon be offered to network partners by the Area
Agency on Aging.
MLDT
Follow-up Letter
Thursday, April 10th, 4:30 to 6:00 pm. Peter
Whitehouse, MD, Ph.D. and
Daniel George, M.Sc. The Myth of Alzheimer's
disease: What you aren't being
told about today's most dreaded diagnosis. Laurel
Lake Retirement Community,
Hudson, Ohio. This program is free to the public;
there are no continuing
education contact hours. Registration is required.
Seating is limited, call 330-678-9210
| |
The mission of the Aging and
Behavioral Health Alliance of East Central Ohio (ABHA-ECO)
is to unify, educate, and collaborate among
professionals who work with older adults and their
caregivers in all areas of mental, physical, and
behavioral healthcare. We also strive to involve and
include older adults who are consumers of healthcare
services. To that end, the members of the ABHA-ECO
prioritized several short-term and long-term goals.
Short-term goals:
1. Build the Alliance’s constituency (i.e.,
administrators of community agencies, academicians,
direct care providers, administrators of long term
care facilities, caregivers, and consumers).
2. Network among professionals in our region to
build and promote links among service providers and
available resources.
3. Disseminate information on correct billing and
issues of coding within the Medicare system.
4. Provide education and promotion of best practices
and evidence-based models of care.
5. Develop a system to transfer information and
documents to promote a uniform plan of care and
transfer of documents.
Long-Term goals:
1. Obtain funding to continue the work of the
alliance
2. Obtain funding to implement models of
evidence-based practices
3. Advocate for systems change
4. Become the premier clearinghouse for pertinent
information in the field of behavioral health
issues.
These efforts have coalesced due to the vision,
planning, and funding from the Department of
Psychiatry, Summa Health System as well as from
grant monies received from the Ohio Association of
County Behavioral Health Authorities (OACBHA). The
two organizations have joined together to create an
organized coalition of professionals and consumers
interested in improving geriatric behavioral health
care in our region. Recently, the ABHA-ECO used the
“second round” of OACBHA grant monies to create a
website to encompass our identified goals and
strategies. We see the creation of the ABHA-ECO
website as an efficient way to communicate with our
growing membership. ABHA-ECO’s current membership of
almost 100 professionals, community leaders and
consumers continue to grow. Our website will enable
us to:
1. Educate professionals, the public and consumers
of “Network of Care” and other appropriate links
2. Advocate effectively for legislation
3. Update professionals on upcoming trainings,
pertinent information and current research
opportunities
4. Develop and disseminate information about
existing community resources
Developed by the Steering Committee, ABHA-ECO
Please Visit
Network of Care
|
|
