Register Now

Includes one complimentary Continuing Education (CE) credit.
To request speech-to-text captioning during this event, please contact us.

Building managers are the first line of contact for early identification of problems with older adult residents. Through a collaborative community-academic partnership between the City of Chicago Age-Friendly Commission/DFSS and University of Illinois Chicago, we created a Dementia Training Program for building management staff to address the problem of the changing health status of older adults living independently in high-rise buildings throughout Chicago. The data demonstrate the participants consider the dementia training webinar to be beneficial, with 94.5% of participants (n = 85) rating the program Excellent-Good, 98% of participants found it useful and 92% were confident in their ability to refer residents to needed city services. Thus, educating building managers through a dementia training program creates a workforce that will recognize and address the changing healthcare needs of older adult residents, particularly those experiencing changes in cognition.

Participants in this webinar will be able to:

• Recognize key elements and strengths of a dementia training program for building management staff developed by a collaborative academic-community partnership.
• Analyze key challenges encountered in designing and delivering a dementia training program, particularly in challenging learning environments such as those created by the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Discuss the impact of a dementia training program on building management staff’s knowledge of dementia, preparedness to communicate effectively with dementia residents, confidence and ability to link residents to appropriate services.
• Understand the development of the Chicago model for providing dementia training to building managers.
• Discuss the multilayered outreach techniques used to support apartment managers.

Presenters:

Valerie Gruss, PhD, APRN, GNP-BC, FAAN, is a researcher, practicing geriatrician and educator whose innovative research solutions have created new models of care, workforce training programs and copyrighted mTechnology to address the needs of older adults. She is co-director of ENGAGE-IL, a cluster of programs intended to enhance geriatric care, build Age-Friendly health systems, and establish dementia-friendly communities, powered by millions of dollars in grants from the U.S. Human Resources & Services Administration.

Victoria Russo, PhD, MGS, is the project director for the ADPI grant in Chicago and supervisor for outreach to isolated older adults with the City of Chicago Department of Family and Support Services Senior Division. She received her doctorate in Sociology with an emphasis in Life-course and Aging from Loyola University Chicago and a Master’s degree in Gerontological Studies from Miami University, OH.