With $5 Million HRSA Geriatrics Grant, SLU Prepares Workforce to Care for Older Adults
01/07/2025
Thanks to a $5 million grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) that extends 30 years of geriatrics-related funding to Saint Louis University, clinicians and researchers will continue to provide high-quality geriatrics education and outreach to the St. Louis region and across the state of Missouri.
Max Zubatsky, Ph.D., LMFT, left, associate professor in family and community medicine, and Marla Berg-Weger, Ph.D., MSW, right, professor emerita in social work. Photo by Joe Barker.
Marla Berg-Weger, Ph.D., MSW, professor emerita in social work and Max Zubatsky, Ph.D., LMFT, associate professor in family and community medicine, received the five-year Geriatric Workforce Enhancement Program (GWEP) grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), which is in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Through multiple strong community and university partnerships, the GWEP program aims to educate and train health care and supportive care workforces to care for a range of issues impacting the health and well-being of older adults.
With this project, SLU and community partners across the state of Missouri and southern Illinois will help train healthcare workers and provide patient support in dementia, loneliness and social isolation, caregiver well-being, and other older adult issues. The project reaches all eight Missouri U.S. Congressional districts and a region of Southern Illinois targeting medically underserved and rural areas. Additionally, the grant will allow these regions to increase accessible education and care, improve population health areas, and integrate age- and dementia-friendly health care approaches for underserved older adults and families.
“Over the last decade, we have educated not only professionals who specialize in geriatrics, but all professionals who work with older adults,” said Berg-Weger, who serves as GWEP program director. “That includes physicians, occupational therapists, physical therapists, nurses, social workers, therapists, nutritionists, and the work force in long-term care settings. Whether it is taking more time during an exam or ensuring patients have reliable transportation once they no longer drive, there are many ways we can support older adults.”
Zubatsky, who is a co-investigator on the grant, notes that longer lifespans bring a need for more health care providers who are well trained in caring for an aging population.
“As adults live longer, there will be more opportunities to thrive, but also more chronic illnesses and caregiver demands,” Zubatsky said. “With a significant geriatric workforce shortage in our country, comes the need for new professionals, students, and specialists to recognize the importance of older adult care in our communities. This grant will support not only educating our current health care professionals around aging topics but will also help to expand the future workforce across several disciplines.”
Among its many objectives, the grant will support organizations across Missouri in rural areas and urban centers that may not have access to needed services, with a particular focus on poverty, social inequities, and specific health disparities. SLU faculty and providers will help partnering sites and underserved communities become “age-friendly” in their clinical and training services. Project initiatives include comprehensive clinical rotations for students, innovative behavioral health services for dementia and loneliness, a continuing interprofessional geriatric collaborative case competition, and launching a new apprenticeship program for certified nursing assistants working in long-term care settings.
Berg-Weger and Zubatsky lead 17 Saint Louis University faculty and staff in the initiative, including team members from SLU’s School of Medicine, Trudy Valentine Busch School of Nursing, School of Social Work, and Doisy College of Allied Health Sciences.
The grant also provides support for nine community partners, including:
- Northside Youth and Senior Services Center, St. Louis, Missouri
- Mercy Hospital Perry, Perryville, Missouri
- Missouri Delta Medical Center, Sikeston, Missouri
- Southern Illinois Health Foundation, Fairview Heights, Illinois
- Northeast Missouri Area Agency on Aging, Kirksville, Missouri
- Memory Care Home Services, St. Louis, Missouri
- University of Missouri Sinclair School of Nursing, Columbia, Missouri
- VOYCE Long-term Care Ombudsman Program, St. Louis
Latest Newslink
- SLU Community Invited to Participate in St. Louis Literary Award EventsPulitzer Prize-winning author Colson Whitehead will receive the 2025 St. Louis Literary Award on Wednesday, April 9 at the Sheldon Concert Hall.
- New Mural by Acclaimed Artist Dominic Chambers Graces Searls HallThe Kranzberg Arts Foundation (KAF), in collaboration with Saint Louis University and the St. Louis Literary Award program, is proud to announce a new mural by acclaimed artist Dominic Chambers. Set to be completed in early April 2025 on the Walls Off Washington at Saint Louis University’s Searls Hall, this mural explores the legacy of the Underground Railroad and highlights its significance in Missouri and the St. Louis region.
- A New Location, A Renovation: SLU Community Joins CPHSJ to Cheer a Move That Was Years in the MakingAt the start of the spring 2025 semester, Saint Louis University's College for Public Health and Social Justice made a big move. Faculty, staff, and students left their homes in Salus Center, packed up, and headed north. The College now calls the second floor of the Marvin and Harlene Wool Center home. Members of the SLU community gathered in the space Monday afternoon to officially celebrate the move with an open house and ribbon-cutting ceremony.
- Saint Louis University Receives Grant to Improve Maternal, Infant Health in Missouri Through Diaper AccessSaint Louis University has been awarded a $538,431 grant from Missouri Foundation for Health to research ways to improve maternal and infant health in the state of Missouri with improved access to clean diapers. The three-year grant will study ways to improve access to diaper supplies for families in need across the state.
- Journal Issue Edited by SLU Professor Named Best Special Issue of the YearThe Council of Editors of Learned Journals awarded Leviathan Volume 25, Number 3, “Melville in Public” as the best special issue at the 2025 Modern Language Association (MLA) convention earlier this year. The issue was edited by Brian Yothers, Ph.D., professor and chair of the Department of English at Saint Louis University.
- Religious Communication Association Names SLU Professor’s Book of the Year for 2024Persuasions of God: Inventing the Rhetoric of René Girard by Saint Louis University’s Paul Lynch, Ph.D. has been named the 2024 Book of the Year by the Religious Communication Association (RCA). Lynch, an associate professor of English at SLU, received the award at the RCA’s annual conference. The book was published in February 2024 by Penn State University Press.
