GeriPal

We thought it would be an excellent time to talk about substance use in older adults as many of us gather around the Thanksgiving dinner table with our extended families.  We invited Ben Han, a geriatrician and Assistant Professor of Medicine in Geriatrics at NYU, to talk about the research that he has done in this area. 

In particular, we talked with Ben about the recent increase in substance use in older adults with the rising baby boomer generation, including use of alcohol, marijuana, heroin and prescription opiate misuse, and other drugs.    To learn more about the studies he has done in this area, look at these great publications:

Prevention and Screening of Unhealthy Substance Use by Older AdultsMarijuana Use By Middle-Aged and Older Adults in the USDemographic Trends of Adults in NYC Opioid Treatment ProgramsAging, Multimorbidity, and Substance Use Disorders: The Growing Case for Integrating the Principles of Geriatric Care and Harm ReductionDemographic Trends of Binge Alcoh…

In this week's GeriPal podcast we interview Randy Curtis, Professor of Medicine and Pulmonary Critical Care and Director of the Palliative Care Center of Excellence at the University of Washington.  

The issue is - how do we get more patients with chronic and serious illness to engage in goals of care conversations with their doctors?  One way is to train doctors in better communication techniques.  We've talked with folks - most recently Wendy Anderson - about Vital Talk and other such methods that approach the issue from that angle.

While acknowledging the critical importance of improving the quality of clinician communication, Randy's focus in the present study is priming patients and clinicians to engage in these conversations.  So how do you prime them?  Listen to the podcast to find out!  (bonus attempt to play Ed Sheeran)

Brief hint - patients are surveyed in advance to ascertain readiness and barriers to goals of care conversations.  Then, and this is brilliant, the c…

Palliative care research is a relatively new field.  The number of researchers and the quality of the science is still inadequate to meet the need.  Many residents, fellows, and graduate students do not realize there are postdoc/fellowship opportunities that offer a pathway to becoming a palliative care researcher. 

I'm part of a group of faculty at palliative care research training programs around the country motivated to recruit and train the next generation of palliative care researchers.  Please follow this link to see a list of palliative care post-doctoral fellowship programs, information about each, and ways to contact program leadership to learn more.   Please also see this page of recorded webinar videos. We have 2 videos uploaded so far:Yael Shenker on Applying for Research Jobs in Palliative Care and Bob Arnold and 12 Books You Should Read to Have an Academic Career.

We'd like to enlist your help in spreading the message that palliative care research is a terrific …

On this weeks podcast, we invited Rebecca Sudore to talk about the results of her PREPARE randomized trial that was published in JAMA Internal Medicine this week.   The trial enrolled nearly 1,000 English and Spanish speaking older adults being cared for in a public hospital.

The headline results showed that after reviewing the PREPARE For Your Care online program and the easy-to-read advance directive, 98% of older adults reported increased engagement in advance care planning (ACP) and 43% had new ACP documentation in their medical record.   Even more good news, PREPARE worked equally well among English and Spanish-speakers and across health literacy levels.

So check out the podcast to learn more about Rebecca's work and these great links:

Rebecca's recent JAMA IM article on PREPAREOur podcast with Rebecca from a year ago on the initial trial also in JAMA IMThe PREPARE for Your Care website



Want even more of the GeriPal podcast? Watch the video of today's podcast below!
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