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 SC Vulnerable Adult Guardian ad Litem (SCVAGAL) Volunteer Training will be held Friday, June 8, 2012 at the 730 Devine Street Conference Room from 10:00am to 4:00pm with lunch provided. If you are interested in becoming a volunteer and would like to attend this SCVAGAL Volunteer Training, please complete the Volunteer Application and SCVAGAL Registration Form and mail or fax the completed forms no later than May 25th to:
Maria Patton, Director of SCVAGAL
Office for the Study of Aging
Arnold School of Public Health
University of South Carolina
Columbia, SC 29208
(803) 777-0256 (FAX)
Registration will be confirmed by May 30th.
This training is intended for social workers and other professionals who have worked with older adults or other vulnerable populations or children GALs.
Learn more about SCVAGAL.
The SC Alzheimer's Disease Registry 2011 Annual Report (PDF Format) is now available.
. . . In Long Term Care
OSA Takes on "The Gray Avalanche" (April 17, 2010)
Carol Cornman, OSA Director, opened the The Gray Avalanche: How Direct Care Organizations Can Effectively Help People Age in Place, a conference sponsored by the USC School of Mediciane. Cornman provided a preparedness perspective to long term care administrators and staff to address the oncoming challenges presented by the growing aging population. Conference attendees included owners and administrators of home health and home care agencies, skilled nursing facility administrators, state-level program coordinators, and personal care attendants. Additional conference sessions described recruitment, retention and training practices that have proven successful with SC long term care agencies. Courtney Davis, OSA Research Associate, provided an overview of the recruitment and retention training OSA has developed and offers to long term care administrators. Cornman concluded the conference with motivation to sustain interest in addressing direct care work issues as baby boomers enter long term care.
OSA co-sponsors Bringing the Pieces Together . . . Sharpening Our Focus
The 7th Annual Nurse Aide Training Coordinators/Instructors Workshop was held April 21, 2010 with over 170 attendees. This year's workshop focused on L
earner/Teacher Excellence with presentations on innovative teaching styles, elder mistreatment prevention, and skills development.
Carol Cornman, OSA Director, is the chair of the planning committe for Nurse Aide Training Workshop and Marcia Lane, OSA Associate Director, is on the plannning committee and provides evaluation and technical expertise. Additional sponsors of the workshop include key state and national entities involved in nurse aide training and testing in South Carolina. Improving the long-term care delivery systems is a key component of OSA's mission. South Carolina is one of the few states in the nation that brings together those who certify nursing assistants, the backbone of long term care, to learn, share ideas and network.
 OSA Presents and is Rewarded at USC's Graduate Student Day
Holly Pope, OSA Research Associate,
stands with Dr. Robert McKeown by the poster presentation, "Effects of a church based promotion program among ethnically diverse older adults" at the 7th Annual Graduate Student Day at the University of South Carolina held on April 17, 2010. This research was funded by Duke University's Center for Sprituality, Theology, and Health and supported by the Arnold School of Public Health at USC. Pope, a PhD candidate in Health Promotion, Education, and Behavior at the Arnold School of Public Health, states that this research is "signficant because it provides evidence that church based health promotion programs can be utilized to facilitate spiritual and social aspects of health and bridge racial divisions in communities."
 Maggi Chandlee, an OSA Graduate Assistant, Pope and Robert McKeown, Principal Investigator, were also recognized at the the 6th Annual Graduate Student Day. They receivied the 2nd place award for their poster presentation, "Understanding the impact of faith communities on social capital: A qualitative analysis". According to Chandlee, this resesearch is signficant because it shows "that faith communities can be a source of capital by providing a variety of needs and possibly impacting the health and well-being of older adults." Chandlee, Pope, and McKeown have also presented their research at state and national conferences, which included the 9th Annual SC Geriatrics Symposium; the 6th Annual South Carolina Aging Research Day; the 2nd Annual Meeting of Society for Spirituality, Theology, and Health; and the 62nd Annual Meeting of the Gerontological Society of America. The research team is continuing to develop and validate social capital measures for individuals that belong to community and faith groups. Analysis will examine social determinates of health related to group participation and its associations with physical and mental health outcomes.
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