SAS NEWS

Nursing Homes Struggled with Hurricane Evacuations

Yahoo! News, Associated Press, Japan Times, New Zealand Herald

...officer and president of the association. Kathryn Hyer, the director of the University of South Florida s Center on Aging, said a study she co-authored...

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Dr. Kathryn Hyer Serves as Congressional Panelist on Improving Nursing Homes' Emergency Preparedness and Response

Dr. Hyer, Professor and Director at the Florida Policy Exchange Center on Aging, served as a panelist at the congressional field hearing on improving nursing homes' emergency preparedness and response. This took place at the Miami-Dade College North Conference Center. Hyer provided a witness statement and has also been covered across multiple media platforms since Hurricane Irma. 

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After Irma Deaths, Rep. Frederica Wilson Pushes Stronger Nursing Home Oversight

Miami Herald

...Kathryn Hyer, director of the Florida Policy Exchange Center on Aging at the University of South Florida, told representatives that elders who are evacuated are...

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A Call For Improved Emergency Preparation & Response

Warwick Beacon

... Witness Kathryn Hyer, a professor in the School of Aging Studies at the University of South Florida in Tampa, provided eight tips for the Senate Aging panel to protect seniors during disasters....

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Kathryn Hyer, PhD, director of the Florida Policy Exchange Center on Aging and professor in the School of Aging studies at the University of South Florida, testified Oct. 19 at a congressional field hearing on disaster preparedness.

U.S. Rep. Frederica Wilson organized the hearing at Miami-Dade College’s North Campus to get expert opinion on how to protect frail and disabled older adults, who are especially vulnerable in  natural disasters. Fourteen residents of the Rehabilitation Center of Hollywood Hills died when the power running the air conditioning system failed after Hurricane Irma struck Florida.

While generators to power health care facilities are important, Hyer and others who testified emphasized other priorities, according to a news report by the Miami Herald. They said having a disaster plan, training staff to respond, and conducting disaster drills also were critical.

Hyer told Wilson and others, including U.S. Rep. Lois Frankel, that nursing homes need the ability to shelter their residents during hurricanes. Her observations were based on research she and others have conducted showing that those who are evacuated are more likely to die or need hospitalization after a disaster than those at facilities that shelter in place.

Wilson said at the hearing that she wants to create a grant or small loan program to help nursing homes buy power generators. Florida Gov. Rick Scott has ordered that by Nov. 15 nursing homes and assisted living communities have generators and fuel to maintain inside temperatures of 80 degree or lower for 96 hours. Industry representatives have challenged the order, saying the timeframe is too tight.

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/weather/hurricane/article179846776.html

Dana Mukamel, PhD, who helped create the federal Nursing Home Compare website, spoke at the University of South Florida on Tuesday, Sept. 19, about the creation of health care “grade cards” and her latest efforts to tailor these tools to people’s needs.

Her talk was part of the Florida Policy Exchange Center on Aging and USF School of Aging Studies Distinguished Lectureship in Aging.

Dr. Mukamel is a professor in the Department of Medicine and Director of the iTEQC Research Program at the University of California, Irvine. Her long research career has focused largely on development of health care quality measures and report cards, in addition to how market incentives and government regulations influence health care quality. In 2015 she received the Life Time Achievement award from the American Public Health Association.

In her talk, “Quality Report Cards: The Why, the What, and the So What,” she described the development of the Nursing Home Compare report card, which contains information for more than 15,000 nursing homes in the U.S. She also discussed her latest project, in which she and her research team have created a mobile application called Nursing Home Compare Plus (NHCPlus). The app, designed for use in hospitals, allows patients and family members who are shopping for a nursing home to personalize their search to find facilities that more specifically meet their needs. 

Kathryn Hyer, a professor in the School of Aging Studies, testified before the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging on Wednesday, Sept. 20, concerning how to protect vulnerable elders in disasters.

The hearing was called in the aftermath of Hurricanes Harvey in Texas and Irma in Florida, particularly Irma, which knocked out electricity through much of Florida. Nine people died in a Hollywood, Fla., nursing home that lost power in the storm.

Dr. Hyer, who is also director of the Florida Policy Exchange Center on Aging, was one of four experts at the hearing, “Disaster Preparedness and Response: The Special Needs of Older Americans.” She began her research into the effect of disasters on vulnerable adults after four hurricanes blew through Florida in the summer 2004.

One notable finding, she told the committee, led by Sen. Susan Collins, of Maine, was that nursing home evacuations were not always the best response to an approaching hurricane, because of the extreme stress of an evacuation on frail residents.

“Evacuations should not be all or nothing. We need a much more nuanced and better-researched understanding of who should evacuate before, and how people can be sustained appropriately.”

Overall, several steps could be taken to protect elders during and after hurricanes, Dr. Hyer testified, including making emergency plans more accessible to family members, increasing assisted living facility oversight, and making nursing homes a priority for power restoration after a storm. 

https://app.box.com/s/0f2nfdo4va9flp3pja0c98ohb6vo1dh8

Conclusion of Gerontological Society of America Conference

Thanks to Bill Kearns for helping to bring IAGG Tech Day to a successful conclusion at the Gerontological Society of America Conference. Attended by over 600 individuals, the panel discussion organized by Bill underscores the extent to which technology is making great inroads into aging and rehabilitation.

Congratulations Dr. Smyth for successful completion and defense of her dissertation

Dr. Kristin Smyth did a wonderful job presenting her dissertation study. Under the guidance of Dr. Salloum, Kristin conducted her dissertation on "Understanding the Experience of Early Onset Bipolar Disorder: The Unheard Voices of Adolescents and Their Families." Drs. Armstrong, Rahill, and Park served on the committee. The dissertation defense was run smoothly by Dr. Storch.

Dr. Molinari Receives John Santos Distinguished Program Development in Clinical Gerontology Award.

For his contributions to professional geropsychology, Victor Molinari is the recipient of the American Psychological Association's Division 20 (Adult Development & Aging) 2017 John Santos Distinguished Program Development in Clinical Gerontology Award.

Call for Abstracts
2017 Aging & Speech Communication Conference - Tampa, FL - November 5-8, 2017 - Call for Abstracts

Murder-suicide among elderly a continuing problem in Central Florida, expert says
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
...this type of situation is an ongoing problem among the elderly in Central Florida, said Dr. Donna Cohen, with the University of South Florida's College of Behavior Health and Community Sciences.

Congratulations to Dr. Victor Molinari on his receipt of the 2017 John Santos Distinguished Program Development in Clinical Gerontology Award that was recently announced by Division 20 of the American Psychological Association. Dr. Molinari’s research, teaching and service have long emphasized the importance of clinical gerontology and we are very fortunate to have him as a faculty member in the School of Aging Studies.

All SAS Nominees for GSA Governance Positions Elected
 Gerontological Society of America
All of the SAS nominees for GSA governance positions were elected to their positions including Chivon Mingo, Yuri Jang and myself. See the following GSA press release. Thank you to those who supported my nomination. Between representation on GSA journals and the GSA governance positions, USF is making its mark on GSA.

The Missing Kids of Washington DC and Social Media 
The Gerontological Society of America
Dr. Kathryn Hyer, PhD, MPP; was mentioned in the March 2017 issue of Gerontology News from The Gerontological Society of America. 

She was cited as the National Association of Geriatric Education Centers President and Principal Investigator of the GWEP for USF (of which there are only 44 federally funded programs in the country - funded by Health Resources Services Administration) talking about the work they are doing with health professions students and medical residents in patient centered medical homes. These students are learning to provide integrated primary care to older adults.

Pressed Into Caregiving Sooner Than Expected
New York Times
"People aren't really prepared to take on the responsibility then," said Donna Cohen, a psychologist and gerontologist at the University of South Florida. "It comes when you're still climbing to the summit in your own life."

Pressed into caregiving
The Hindu
"People aren't really prepared to take on the responsibility then," says Donna Cohen, a psychologist and gerontologist at the University of South Florida. "It comes when you're still climbing to the summit in your own life."

Aging Studies Director Named to Editorial Board
Brent Small, PhD, was recently appointed to the editorial board of the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. Published by the American Psychological Association, this journal publishes articles describing empirical work that bridges the traditional interests of two or more communities of psychology. Dr. Small is also on the editorial boards of four other journals in the fields of aging and neuro-oncology.

Glenn E. Smith to Speak as Part of the Distinguished Lectureship in Aging
Dr. Glenn E. Smith, will present "Making the case for multi-component behavioral interventions for MCI" on Friday, February 17, 2017 at 10:30am in USF College of Public Health Auditorium 1023B. Smith is the Chair and Elizabeth Faulk Professor of the Department of Clinical and Health Psychology at the University of Florida. A board-certified neuropsychologist, Dr. Smith has authored or co-authored over 200 original articles, 14 book chapters, and 2 books. He received his Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of Nebraska, and then completed an internship at UCLA and a fellowship in clinical neuropsychology at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota (where he subsequently spent 25 years). He is the creator of the HABIT program (Healthy Action to Benefit Independence and Thinking™), which is designed to benefit people diagnosed with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI). He is past Chair of the American Psychological Association's Committee on Aging, and is the principal investigator of a study titled 'Comparative Effectiveness of Behavioral Interventions to Prevent or Delay Dementia.'

USF Sarasota-Manatee professors recognized
WWSB-TV
...two USF sarasota manatee professors are being recognized for their research. Dr. Kathy Black and Kathryn Hyer's research, "From Aging Community to Age Friendly Community: Translating Research into Practice" is the winner of the International Award for Excellence for theInternational Journal of Aging and Society.

Gail Smith, Undergraduate Advisor for the School of Aging Studies was awarded her 25 Years of Service at the University at the Ceremony on February 9th, 2017.

Robert Weech-Maldonado to Speak as Part of the Distinguished Lectureship in Aging
Robert Weech-Maldonado, MBA, PhD, will present "Under-resourced Nursing Homes: Differentiating between High and Low Performers" at 10:30am on Friday, January 27, 2017 in the USF College of Public Health Auditorium 1023B. Dr. Robert Weech-Maldonado is Professor and L.R. Jordan Endowed Chair in the Department of Health Services Administration at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Currently, he is Co-Director of the Center for Health Organization and Transformation (CHOT) funded by NSF, Analysis Core Director of the UAB Resource Center on Minority Aging Research (RCMAR), and Co-Director of the Research Program for the Minority Health Research Center (MHRC). He is also Senior Scientist of the UAB's Center for Outcomes and Effectiveness Research and Education and the Center for Comprehensive Healthy Aging. Dr. Weech-Maldonado's research interests include examining the organizational, management, and community factors associated with higher quality and financial performance among nursing homes.

Robert Weech-Maldonado to Speak as Part of the Distinguished Lectureship in Aging
Robert Weech-Maldonado, MBA, PhD, will present "Under-resourced Nursing Homes: Differentiating between High and Low Performers" at 10:30am on Friday, January 27, 2017 in the USF College of Public Health Auditorium 1023B. Dr. Robert Weech-Maldonado is Professor and L.R. Jordan Endowed Chair in the Department of Health Services Administration at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Currently, he is Co-Director of the Center for Health Organization and Transformation (CHOT) funded by NSF, Analysis Core Director of the UAB Resource Center on Minority Aging Research (RCMAR), and Co-Director of the Research Program for the Minority Health Research Center (MHRC). He is also Senior Scientist of the UAB's Center for Outcomes and Effectiveness Research and Education and the Center for Comprehensive Healthy Aging. Dr. Weech-Maldonado's research interests include examining the organizational, management, and community factors associated with higher quality and financial performance among nursing homes.