JEFFERSON’S CENTER FOR APPLIED RESEARCH ON AGING AND HEALTH AND GERMANTOWN’S CENTER IN THE PARK AWARDED $3.3 MILLION GRANT

Community-Academic Partnership Aims to Treat Depression in Older African American Adults

 PHILADELPHIA, Pa. — June 27, 2007 —  Thomas Jefferson University’s Center for Applied Research on Aging and Health (CARAH) and Germantown’s Center in the Park have expanded their collaboration with Healthy Ideas, a newly funded study designed to test a unique depression intervention with an African American physically frail population.  The National Institute of Mental Health awarded the partnership a $3.3 million grant to identify and implement a culturally-relevant depression treatment for African American elders and enhance the ability of senior centers to treat depression in the community.
 
Healthy Ideas is one of several community-academic partnerships between CARAH and Center in the Park, a nationally accredited community center that promotes positive aging and fosters community connections for older adults in Northwest Philadelphia.  The two organizations have collaborated on several projects including Harvest Health, a chronic disease self-management program funded by the U.S. Administration on Aging, through the Philadelphia Corporation for Aging; In Touch: Mind, Body & Spirit, a program funded by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), which evaluated ways of supporting positive mental health in African American elders; and, Healthy Steps, a regional falls prevention demonstration program for adults 50+, funded by the PA Department of Aging.

Lynn Fields Harris, Executive Director of Center in the Park says, “The work that we have accomplished through our collaboration with CARAH has already produced positive outcomes for African American elders and contributed to strengthening the Center’s service delivery infrastructure.  We look forward to expanding our partnership through this grant funded program and continuing to contribute to the establishment of a more culturally relevant body of knowledge on the important subject of depression and African American elders which can be used for creating programs and services, as well as for informing healthcare professionals..”

Laura N. Gitlin, Ph.D. Director of CARAH, says, “We are very excited to continue our strong collaboration with Center in the Park through this innovative research grant funded by NIMH.  The Healthy Ideas study will enable us to systematically test a home-based approach to reducing depressive symptoms in older African Americans who remain underserved and under-treated. Our approach in this study involves training key individuals at Center in the Park to identify individuals with depressive symptoms and then to provide education, care management and a treatment approach referred to as behavioral activation.  If we can show that this multi-faceted approach effectively reduces distress, then CIP key staff will have the knowledge and ability to continue to offer the program to its constituency who may be in need and benefit.

The Center for Applied Research on Aging and Health (CARAH), in the College of Health Professions of Thomas Jefferson University, seeks to improve the lives of older adults through research, training of health professionals and implementation of evidence-based clinical services.   CARAH is committed to enhancing the quality of life for older adults and family caregivers by developing, testing and disseminating innovative community and home-based health and human services. CARAH explores opportunities for academic-community partnerships and facilitates interdisciplinary approaches to problems of public health importance covering the topics of physical frailty, health disparities, dementia care, end of life comfort care, healthy aging, aging at home in place and quality of life issues. Learn more about CARAH’s research at http://www.jefferson.edu/jchp/carah/

Contact:
Jacqueline Paquet
215-503-1918
Jacqueline.Paquet@jefferson.edu

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