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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Robert Burke, PhD, Department of Health Services Management and Leadership, The George Washington University, School of Public Health and Health Services, 2175 K Street, NW, Suite 820, Washington, DC 20037, 202 416 0492, bobburke@gwu.edu

As Director of an interdisciplinary university institute whose mission is to train the next generation of health service, this panelist will address the impact of the Handbook on the aging practice . With the continued growth in the numbers of aging Americans, over the past thirty years the Handbook has served as a ready reference for those professionals in the practice of aging. In the multidisciplinary field of aging, “practice” is defined along three dimensions. These are 1. Clinical – physicians, nurses, therapists, social work, pharmacists and other allied health professionals, 2. Administrative – the managers and leadership of health service organizations of services for the aging, and 3. Organizational – the providers, operators, and owners of entities that serve the aging. The purpose of this section of the symposium is to address how the Handbook has met the needs of these different and seemingly unrelated professional groups by describing how the core concepts of the Handbook have remained constant but as knowledge and programs have dramatically changed over the thirty years, how the Handbook has also changed to reflect these changes. In practice, most professionals in all three dimensions of aging operate within the explicit or implicit paradigm of moving from theory that is based on research to applications or cases to evidence-based practice. From a practice perspective, how the Handbook has assisted those professionals in practice will be explained. In the symposium, both the “inpatient” and “community-and-home-based services” delivery of services will be discussed.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the session, the learner will

• Understand changes in the breadth and focus of gerontological research over the past 30 years.
• Recognize specific research, policy and practice developments in the area of gerontological health since the mid-1970s.
• Be alerted to the research, policy, and practice challenges that will be faced in the years immediately ahead.

Keywords: Aging, Education

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No