4.9 MILLION GRANT FROM NATIONAL INSTITUTE ON AGING ESTABLISHES ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE CENTER AT
UAMS DONALD W. REYNOLDS CENTER ON AGING 

For Immediate Release Release: 10-30-01 (Little Rock, AR)

The Department of Geriatrics in the UAMS College of Medicine today announced the receipt of a $4.9 million grant from the National Institute on Aging. The funding will be used to establish the UAMS Alzheimer's Disease Center, under the leadership of Cornelia Beck, Ph.D., R.N., Professor of Geriatrics and Psychiatry, UAMS College of Medicine, and Professor, UAMS College of Nursing. Dr. Beck is the first nurse specialist chosen to receive this NIA funding; generally the funding has been awarded to medical doctors. The UAMS Alzheimer's Disease Center is one of only 29 Alzheimer's disease centers in the United States.

The UAMS Alzheimer's Disease Center leadership also includes W. Sue T. Griffin, Ph.D., Co-Director and Neuropathology Core Associate Leader; Victor W. Henderson, M.D., M.S., Co-Director and Clinical Core Leader; Robert E. Mrak, M.D., Ph.D., Neuropathology Core Leader; and Elaine Souder, Ph.D., R.N., Education/Information Transfer Core Leader.

"I am particularly pleased that our Department of Geriatrics, which is one of only three departments of Geriatrics in the nation, has been selected for this grant," Dr. Beck said. "In concert with the Reynolds Center on Aging, the Department has established a reputation of providing excellent patient care, and of conducting solid basic and clinical research. The Alzheimer's Disease Center will become a shared resource to facilitate and enhance Alzheimer's disease research at UAMS and, through collaborations, nationally and internationally."
Dr. Beck said that each year the UAMS Senior Health Center at the Donald W. Reynolds Center on Aging serves approximately 3600 older adults of whom almost 25% have dementia, 26% reside in rural areas, and 13% are African-Americans. "Funding from this grant will have far-reaching benefits," she explained. "It will help older adults with Alzheimer's disease and their caregivers by supporting the development of better diagnostic and intervention strategies and by helping to connect them with practicing healthcare professionals. 

"The general public, especially those who live in rural areas and African-Americans, will be provided with information about dementia and about the importance of approving an autopsy at the time of death." She continued by adding that healthcare students will learn about Alzheimer's disease through programs delivered by the Area Health Education Centers' telecommunication system and other well-established networks.

Compared to the rest of the country, Arkansas residents are older, more impoverished, and have poorer educational and health status. "Because Arkansans tend to 'age in place,' we can follow Alzheimer's disease patients and their caregivers over an extended period of time," Dr. Beck concluded. "Deaths due to Alzheimer's disease are more prevalent in Arkansas than nationally, and deaths in Arkansas due to cerebro-vascular disease were the second highest in the United States. I believe this Center provides a natural laboratory to study how to provide Alzheimer's disease services cost-effectively in medically underserved areas."

The Center plans to evaluate a pool of up to 400 people, composed of those with Alzheimer's disease, healthy older people, and people with certain other kinds of memory loss that is not due to Alzheimer's disease. The clinical team of neurologists, geriatricians and healthcare professionals from neuro-psychology, social work and nursing will evaluate patients twice a year, and the Center will develop a process for evaluating and improving each group's activities through a set of measurable outcomes.

The UAMS Alzheimer's Disease Center is recruiting persons with Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia, and healthy older persons to participate in the research study mentioned above. If you would like more information call Kathy Tyler-King, RN, the Alzheimer's Disease Center Clinical Coordinator, at 501-526-6500.

PR Contact:  
Mike H. Mottler, Director 
University Relations 
Phone: 501-686-6270 
Fax: 501-686-5067 
E-Mail: mottlermikeh@uams.edu 

Content Contact: Marsha M. Hines, PR Director 
Donald W. Reynolds Center on Aging
Phone: 501-526-6553 
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UAMS College of Nursing will receive a $90,000 award from AACN/John A Hartford Foundation in January 2002 to revise and expand its geropsychiatric course offerings in the Geriatric Nurse Practitioner Program.  Dr. Elaine Souder, the project director, notes that the award will support the addition of a 180 hour geropsychiatric nursing practicum, as well as expanding the current 2 credit geropsychiatric nursing course to 3 credits.

The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) College of Nursing (CON) has the only Geriatric Nurse Practitioner (GNP) program in this predominantly rural state.  The 40-credit GNP full-time curriculum currently consists of a 3-semester program (fall, spring, fall), with no courses scheduled in the summer. One aspect of the current GNP curriculum that needs strengthening is the area of geropsychiatric nursing. Currently, Arkansas ranks 8th in the country in numbers of residents over the age of 65. The elderly are particularly vulnerable to depression, dementia and delirium. Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) is by far the most frequent cause of dementia with deaths of Arkansas’ elderly more prevalent than the average nationally. Although the GNP curriculum has a two-credit hour course in management of mental health, it does not have a corresponding practicum.

In the initial fall semester, GNP students take required support courses. In the spring semester, students begin the GNP specialty courses. The objectives for Managing the Older Adult Theory and Practicum I are focused on the primary causes of morbidity and mortality in elderly clients. Students learn to manage chronic and acute physical problems of the older population. Currently a 2-credit didactic course on Management of Mental Health is taught during this semester.  While the course is well received by students, the two hours limits the scope and depth of relevant course topics. Additionally, there is no concurrent clinical course that focuses on mental health issues; thus the application to clinical practice is not systematically addressed. Because students’ required clinical practicum focuses on management of medical problems, faculty report students tend to overlook the mental health needs of their clients. Additionally, since many of the preceptors are graduates of this same program, their backgrounds in geropsychiatric nursing is limited.

In the third and last semester of study, students take Managing the Health of Older Adults II, the second theory and practicum courses designed to prepare students for beginning practice as advanced practice nurses. In these courses, students synthesize and apply theories of health behavior, health promotion, prevention, and restoration in their therapeutic nursing interventions for older adults with acute and chronic health problems.  Students analyze research-based protocols for their impact on health behaviors and implications for health policy that affect access to and utilization of care for older adults.  In this semester, students' clinical experiences are comprised mainly of transitional care, long-term care, and primary care clinical experiences.

Three years after implementation of the proposed geropsychiatric initiative, GNP students will have a 4-semester program that includes a summer session consisting of geropsychiatric theory and nursing clinical courses. The addition of these courses to the GNP program of study will prepare practitioners to address a comprehensive array of geropsychiatric, mental health and physical needs of older clients. The courses will be offered to currently enrolled GNP students, former graduates from the GNP and FNP specialties, students in the Geriatric Nurse Educator specialty, and nursing faculty from other schools in the state who teach gerontology courses.

John A. Hartford Center of Geriatric Nursing Excellence Celebration

The College of Nursing at UAMS announced today how it will apply funds from a grant of $1,331,250 it recently received from the John A. Hartford Foundation, Inc. During an afternoon reception in the Donald W. Reynolds Center on Aging on campus, the college described its vision for a new Hartford Center for Geriatric Nursing Excellence (HCGNE). The center will design innovative interdisciplinary programs in nursing education, practice, and research that promote functional independence in the elderly.

Senator Brenda Gullet, Pine Bluff, delivered the keynote address. She highlighted the current and future healthcare needs of Arkansans.

The HCGNE will refine and test an innovative interdisciplinary health-care model designed to promote functional independence across a continuum of settings and to prepare a cadre of highly educated gerontological nurses at all levels to provide elder care.
With support from the Hartford Foundation grant, the college is now planning futuristic initiatives for senior Arkansans. Web-based education modules will be produced to promote functional independence in healthy elders and to prevent or delay institutionalization of elders with dementia. For example, healthy elders will be able to access the HCGNE web site and learn how to maintain a healthy lifestyle, perform recommended exercises, and prevent falls. Caregivers of elders with dementia will find valuable information on how to prevent and manage agitated behaviors, such as wandering, hitting, or screaming that frequently leads to institutionalization and caregiver burnout. The modules will be released in 2003.

"This highly competitive honor was awarded to only four other institutions in the country, so we are in a select group," said Claudia Beverly, Ph.D., R.N., HCGNE Director for the college. To prepare nurse leaders to develop supportive care for elderly patients, the college will offer a B.S.N. Honors Program in gerontology and a B.S.N. to Ph.D. track with a focus on gerontology through HCGNE. "As a result," said Linda C. Hodges, Ed.D., R.N., dean of the college, "geriatric nurses will be able to respond to the influx of aging baby boomers into America's health-care system, expand our interdisciplinary research in gerontology, and disseminate broadly this training model and its findings." 

A web-based curriculum consultation service will help other schools of nursing develop gerontological content. In addition, the HCGNE will provide education to nurses throughout the country on topics such as: promoting functional independence in elders, interdisciplinary practice, and grant writing.
For more information about the HCGNE within the College of Nursing call 501-686-7987.