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1992.12.03 :  Gerontology Center

Edwin Walker  (202) 619-0011
December 3, 1992

       HHS Commissioner on Aging Joyce T. Berry, Ph.D., has
announced the award of funds totaling approximately $900,000 to
Howard University to establish a multidisciplinary center of
gerontology over a three-year period.   
       The purpose of a multidisciplinary center on gerontology
at Howard University is to provide education, training, faculty
development, continuing education, and career preparation in
geriatrics and gerontology.  
       The center will be located in the School of Social Work at
Howard University in Washington, D.C.  It will express national
leadership as a collaborator, convener and catalyst of
gerontological education, training, and research activities both
within Howard University, other Historically Black Colleges and
Universities (HBCUs), members of the Washington Metropolitan Area
Consortium of Universities, and at other institutions of higher
education.  The basic structure for the center will be in place
within three years and career preparation and education and
training programs will reach maturity in five years.  
       The center will ultimately serve as a model for other
institutions of higher education, particularly HBCUs, that are
contemplating the development of a center on gerontology.  It
will have an aggressive research program in minority aging,
focusing particularly on issues related to the African-American
elderly.  A repository of information on minority older persons
and their special needs will be established.
     The center will serve as a knowledge base and program
resource to promote the effective transfer, dissemination and
utilization of information on the minority elderly and provide
information, consultation, and other forms of technical
assistance to the public, the aging network, voluntary
organizations and other public and private sector organizations. 
Technical assistance will be provided through consultation and
collaboration with other academic institutions, State and Area
Agencies on Aging, public, private and voluntary agencies
regarding at-risk minority older persons, especially the
eldercare needs of African-Americans and their families.  
       An innovative interdisciplinary certificate training
program in gerontology will be established for college students
and personnel employed in the field of aging.  Multidisciplinary
education and training programs and curricula on aging will be
organized for students, particularly minority students in
medicine, dentistry, nursing, allied health, pharmacy, social
work, religion, communications, law and psychology.  These
students will be prepared to meet the eldercare needs of minority
elderly, especially African-Americans.  

       In addition, the center will establish a university-wide
eldercare faculty development program in gerontology and
geriatrics and provide continuing education and training for
minority and non-minority professionals and paraprofessionals to
meet the eldercare needs of minority elderly.  A continuing
education and in-service training program will also be
established.  Information regarding education and training
opportunities will be disseminated through the Howard University
School of Continuing Education, the networks of professional
organizations and associations, and the Washington Metropolitan
Area Consortium of Universities.  
    A program will be established for awarding competitive
eldercare tuition scholarships to Howard University students
manifesting an interest and commitment to careers serving
minority older persons at risk of losing their independence.  A
program will also be established to recruit and select Eldercare
Fellows.  It is anticipated that the faculty Eldercare Fellows
will become a resource for the center.  These individuals will
take gerontological expertise back to their faculties, serve as
advocates for the center, and reinforce the center's credibility. 
Faculty will also secure resources for the center through
competitive research and training grants.

       "I applaud the establishment of a Multidisciplinary Center
of Gerontology at Howard University," said HHS Secretary Louis W.
Sullivan, M.D.  "Through a vigorous program of career
preparation, continuing education and training in gerontology,
more trained professionals and service providers will be made
available to meet the needs of the increasing numbers of older
persons throughout the nation, particularly the minority
elderly."

       The Administration on Aging, an agency of the Department
of Health and Human Services, serves as a focal point within the
federal government for the needs and concerns of older people.

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