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The Future of Healthcare for Older Adults
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There are seemingly countless moments during which the Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine (LECOM) has stood proudly to advance its glistening mission to broaden and to better, to shape and to sustain, to teach, to train and to care for the communities that it serves.
Many will recall LECOM being awarded the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) Geriatric Workforce Enhancement Program Grant.
The receipt, in 2015, of the venerable award and of its ensuing estimable stipend was a seminal event establishing LECOM as one of only 44 universities in the nation that had been named to receive the HRSA Grant funded by the United States Department of Health and Human Services.
The HRSA Grant provided nearly $3.1 million funded over four years to LECOM in tangible resources to support quality care for older Americans. The Geriatrics Workforce Enhancement Program improves the quality of healthcare by transforming clinical training environments into integrated geriatrics and primary care delivery systems. These systems focus upon seniors who are uninsured, isolated, and medically vulnerable.
To meet the goals of the grant, LECOM introduced LIGHT: Lake Erie Integrated Geriatric Health Team that prepared 7000 healthcare workers with the skills and comprehensive understanding necessary to care for an aging population.
LECOM Health has consistently ensured that expertise in geriatric care has been made accessible to a greater segment of seniors across Pennsylvania. The expansion of services underscores the second phase of the LECOM Health geriatrics workforce, now commonly known as LIGHT.
In July of 2019, to complement the work already underway and to further advance the successful mission, LECOM Health received an additional five-year HRSA Grant from the United States Department of Health and Human Services to launch LIGHT-2. Bolstered by the further $4.4 million, the second phase of the project envisions an age-friendly health system and dementia-friendly communities.
The objectives of the LIGHT-2 mission will focus upon enhancing geriatric education and training implementing a three-pronged approach.
Geriatrics-focused quality and process improvements will enhance and augment a network of approximately 3,000 healthcare providers in western Pennsylvania.
Making comprehensive use of LECOM technology platforms, educational training and telehealth strategies will optimize geriatric care for practicing professionals, patients, and caregivers.
Behavioral health services will be integrated into the platform of primary care for seniors, with particular attention being given to Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias (ADRD) as well as to substance and opioid use disorders.
As the unabashed leader in geriatric services throughout northwestern Pennsylvania, LECOM and LECOM Health expanded its services to encompass an ever-burgeoning territory. Indeed, just as the initial LIGHT Program extended its beneficial care beyond Erie, Crawford, and Warren counties, LIGHT-2 will broaden further that benefit to encompass a 14-county region in western Pennsylvania. The vast, largely rural area is home to more than 540,000 adults over the age of 65.
LECOM, as the only osteopathic academic health center in the nation, is ideally suited to address the challenges of the growing elderly communities through a strategic and sustainable approach that covers a continuum of care across diverse settings from acute care to senior housing.
Integrating geriatrics with primary care, home and community-based services, caregiver support, and geriatrics training for students in the health professions as well as for practicing clinicians, LECOM Health boasts a luminous achievement in the betterment of healthcare for older adults.
In addition to training medical, dental, and pharmacy students, LECOM is supported by an amalgam of allied health professionals with proficiency in nursing, physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, and social work. Gannon University, Penn State Behrend, Mercyhurst University, Edinboro University, and community partners such as the LECOM Center for Health and Aging will continue to create a regional network that fully integrates its partners in an interprofessional collaborative plan to provide better care to the growing older population of the region.
LIGHT Project Director and President of the LECOM Institute for Successful Aging, James
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We are the physicians of Medical Associates of Erie - the Clinical Practices of LECOM. Our goal is to provide to our patients the very best osteopathic, whole person care – mind, body and spirit – for a lifetime of optimal health. You can become part of the only Osteopathic Academic Health Center in the nation led by the Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine. Currently, we are seeking physicians in Pediatrics, ENT, Neurology, and Rheumatology for our expanding practices. Please contact Dennis Styn at (814) 868-2504 or dstyn@lecom.edu to learn more about available opportunities.
