Adults over 65 and their families in eastern Pennsylvania will have greater access to geriatric care thanks to a $5 million Geriatrics Workforce Enhancement Program (GWEP) grant from the federal Health Resources & Services Administration. The program, led by Lisa M.Walke, MD, Chief of the division of Geriatric Medicine at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, will train primary care providers in aging-related medicine, and educate older adults and their caregivers on topics relevant to health and aging.
The program, called Advancing Geriatrics Education with Strategic, Multi-dimensional, Age-friendly Resources and Training (AGE SMART), aims to provide education that will improve care for the expanding population of older adults. By 2030, 20 percent of the United States population will be age 65 or older. The state of Pennsylvania is already pacing ahead of the national average, with over 19 percent of the population over 65 as of 2020.
Nationwide, there are currently 52.4 million older adults, but only about 7,100 geriatricians who focus on older adult care..
"We're planning for a massive population shift and proactively training primary care providers to incorporate geriatric medicine into their practice organically, to make sure the needs of that population are met," said Walke. "We also hope that by directly educating individuals and their caregivers, we can arm them with the information they need to prepare for how normal aging might impact th.