Click here for the full press release.
Washington, DC—The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) announced 26 Geriatrics Academic Career Awards (GACA), that will support the career development of individual junior faculty at accredited schools. The GACA Program focuses on developing clinician educators in training the next generations of geriatrics healthcare professionals. Established in 1998, the federally funded GACA program has provided vital support for career development for more than 200 junior level clinician-educators in geriatrics. The GACA Program was recently reestablished by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) after it was eliminated in 2015 as part of a consolidation of several geriatrics training programs.
“Our nation faces a severe and growing shortage of eldercare professionals with the skills and training to meet the unique healthcare needs of older adults,” said Amy York, Executive Director of the Eldercare Workforce Alliance. “EWA is pleased to see the reinstatement of the GACA awards at such a critical time. This is an important investment in our eldercare workforce to help support well-coordinated, high-quality care for all older Americans.”
Results of a survey of GACA recipients published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society points not only to a growing need for geriatrics skills but also to the importance of dedicated time and financial support to develop emerging geriatrics faculty for training the healthcare workforce to optimally care for older adults.
GACA awards complement the Geriatrics Workforce Enhancement Program (GWEP), the only other federal investment that improves health care for older adults and maximizes patient and family engagement to health professions schools, health care facilities, and programs leading to certification as a certified nursing assistant. Together, these two programs are included in the Title VII reauthorization bill, the EMPOWER for Health Act of 2019 (H.R. 2781) in the U.S. House of Representatives and the geriatrics Title VII reauthorization bill, the Geriatrics Workforce Improvement Act (S.299) in the U.S. Senate. Click here for a full list of the awardees.
**
About EWA: The Eldercare Workforce Alliance is a group of 35 national organizations – representing consumers, family caregivers, and health care professionals, including direct care workers – joined together to address the immediate and future workforce crisis in caring for an aging America.
###
The positions of the Eldercare Workforce Alliance reflect a consensus of 75 percent or more of its members. These statements reflect the consensus of the Alliance and do not necessarily represent the position of individual Alliance member organizations.
The Eldercare Workforce Alliance is a project of The Tides Center.