What is the Geriatrics Workforce Enhancement Program?
The GWEP’s purpose is to improve health outcomes for older adults by addressing care gaps and developing a healthcare workforce that maximizes patient and family engagement and by integrating geriatrics and primary care in collaboration with community partners. The goal of this program is to educate and train the primary care and geriatrics workforces to care for older adults in integrated geriatrics and primary care models to provide age-friendly and dementia-friendly care for older adults.
GWEP awardees have the flexibility to identify education and training needs unique to their own communities. GWEPs and their partners include schools of medicine, nursing, allied health, and public health, clinical graduate programs for social work and psychology, and primary care clinics including a federally qualified health center (FQHC).
The 42 GWEP awardees are working towards:
- Developing partnerships between academia, primary care delivery sites/systems (including nursing homes), and community organizations.
- Providing interprofessional geriatrics training and education to students, residents, fellows, faculty, and preceptors in Tribal, Tribal Organizations, Underserved and/or Rural (TTOUR) primary care sites/delivery systems.
- Establishing and/or maintaining education and training programs with the knowledge and skills to improve the care of older adults, including those living with dementia, by using innovative technology and methods.
- Delivering community-based programming that provides patients, families, caregivers, and direct care workers with the knowledge and skills to improve health outcomes for older adults with an emphasis on Alzheimer’s Disease and related dementias.
What Does the GWEP Coordinating Center Do?
The GWEP-CC supports GWEP awardees by bringing them together for national meetings, providing resources to be used towards clinical content products, memberships, and meeting travel, as well as offering other educational and networking opportunities including webinars and advocacy training.
Now in its third phase, the overarching objectives of the GWEP Coordinating Center are to:
- Support and celebrate the GWEPs in obtaining, maintaining, and moving up to Level-1 and Level-2 recognition as Age-Friendly Health Systems (AFHS).
- Support the GWEPs to meet HRSA’s goals as specified in their grants, including accounting for input from HRSA during the collaborative planning process that occurs on our monthly team planning calls.
- Meet the needs of the GWEPs as identified on our annual evaluation and needs assessment and specific program evaluations.
- Advocate for Title VII Geriatrics Health Professions Programs (the GWEPs and the GACAs), with the goal of maintaining at least level funding for federal fiscal years 2024 – 2027.
The GWEP Coordinating Center will support GWEPs through the following:
- Hosting continuous AFHS Action Communities and supporting the process in achieving Age-Friendly recognition– Learn more about past GWEP-CC AFHS Action Communities by clicking here.
- National opportunities for collaborative learning through bi-annual meetings, bi-monthly topical webinars and peer coaching calls, the exclusive GWEPOnline community, and with the Geriatrics Academic Career Awards (GACAs).
- Publication of written case studies authored by GWEPs and their partners to the GWEP-CC AFHS Case Study Collection with an accompanied audio-podcast.
- Matching GWEPs in the GWEP Director Mentoring Program between experienced and new GWEPs.
- Connecting with state-based dementia public health efforts, including collaborative webinars with BOLD –
- Providing access to AGS Licensed Content and Health in Aging Foundation (HiAF) public education resources, as well as additional AGS resources at no cost, including…
- AGS Guidance on Age, Race, and Ethnicity
- AGS Older Adults Vaccine Initiative’s Online Educational Curriculum
- AGS/AGING LEARNING Collaborative’s Multiple Chronic Conditions (MCC) Research’s Core Curriculum
- Lecanemab: What Clinicians Should Know
- AGS Response to the World Falls Guidelines
- HiAF Age-Friendly Resources
- Providing access to GWEPOnline’s library of resources and products, such as the:
- Distributing bi-weekly e-Newsletters.
- Providing annual educational resource stipend of $1K to each GWEP.
- Providing education and engagement in advocacy for Title VII funding in partnership with the National Association for Geriatric Education (NAGE) and Eldercare Workforce Alliance (EWA).
The GWEP-CC is led by a team of three co-Principal Investigators, Jan Busby-Whitehead, MD, FACP, AGSF, Ellen Flaherty, PhD, APRN, AGSF, and Jane F. Potter, MD, FACP, AGSF, and an Interprofessional Advisory Committee. The GWEP-CC is administered by the AGS.