Rural Health Ramps Up Care for Elderly Patients
By Dodds, David
UND’s rural health center has secured a large grant to provide statewide training on geriatric health care.
The $2 million grant will fund the Dakota Geriatric Education Center within the School of Medicine and Health Sciences’ Center for Rural Health for five years. Staff members will promote geriatric health care in the state by providing opportunities for current and future health care professionals to learn more about physical and mental health issues specific to older adults – especially those in rural communities and reservations.
The geriatric education center at UND will be one of more than 40 nationwide and is funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
“This is an important effort to strengthen the knowledge and skills of our health care workforce,” said rural health director Mary Wakefield. “It should go a long way toward helping to ensure that health care providers are well prepared to meet the health needs of our state’s growing elderly population.”
Center for Rural Health will work with several UND departments, United Tribes Technical College in Bismarck and the School of Pharmacy at North Dakota State University in Fargo.
“North Dakota’s aging population will present challenges to our health care providers,” said program director Dr. Guy Tangedahl.
To better prepare future health care professionals, the center will increase the coverage of geriatric issues in coursework in the medical, nursing, social work, counseling and psychology programs at UND and the pharmacy program at NDSU. The training provided by the center also will include giving UND medical students and family practice residents more experience in geriatric carp during their training sessions in clinics and hospitals across the state.
The geriatric population of North Dakota is the fastest growing age group, and the health-care needs for geriatric patients will be increasing throughout the state, UND rural health officials say.
North Dakota has the highest percentage of people over the age of 85 in the United States.
Copyright Grand Forks Herald Inc. Aug 30, 2005