Penn Medicine receives $5 million grant to expand geriatric care program in eastern Pa.

Penn Medicine announced that it will expand its geriatric care program in eastern Pennsylvania by utilizing a $5 million Geriatrics Workforce Enhancement Program grant from the federal Health Resources and Services Administration.

The program, which is called Advancing Geriatrics Education with Strategic, Multi-dimensional, Age-friendly Resources and Training, was created to educate and improve care for the elderly, according to a news release on Sept. 30. It aims to train existing providers on more specific geriatric care, as well as improve education about geriatric care at all levels of medical education. 

“By directly educating individuals and their caregivers, we can arm them with the information they need to prepare for how normal aging might impact their health, as well as warning signs for disease to discuss with their providers,” Lisa Walke, chief of the Geriatric Medicine division at Penn Medicine, said in the announcement. 

According to the news release, Pennsylvania’s elderly population is larger than that of the national average, and that there are only around 7000 geriatricians who are dedicated to care for the elderly. AGE SMART aims to be able to provide assistance for what Walke referred to as an approaching “massive population shift” as the proportion of elderly people in the country increases.

AGE SMART also has a community education arm that seeks to utilize Penn Medicine’s existing relationships with organizations in eastern Pennsylvania, partnering with the Free Library of Philadelphia and advanced care facilities to provide programming and education to better equip the community to assist the elderly population.

“Penn Medicine has excellent providers and resources for older adults,” Walke said. “By leveraging our strong relationships throughout Pennsylvania, we can share this expertise with more people and build a more knowledgeable population that can age better."