UC San Diego Division of Geriatrics, Gerontology & Palliative Care: Giving Opportunities

GERIATRICS & GERONTOLOGY

Caring for the health of older adults to enhance their well-being requires a multi-faceted approach. The division is committed to optimizing the experience of aging through excellence in clinical care, inspired teaching, and transformative research. Below are some of the giving opportunities for our current and future projects focused on geriatrics and gerontology. By supporting our efforts, you can ensure that our research, education programs, and clinical care keep pace with the needs of our community and remain strong. We would be happy to discuss any of these areas in further detail or explore new ideas other than those mentioned below based on individual philanthropic interests.

Advancing Health Care

Building an Age-Friendly Health System

As we age, we all deserve safe, high-quality health care that is based on what matters most to each of us as individuals and is delivered reliably in every setting. Locally, UC San Diego Health is leading this effort by striving to become an Age-Friendly Health System based on a national initiative. As part of the initiative, UC San Diego Health is implementing a set of evidence-based interventions designed to improve care for older patients known as the "4Ms" - What Matters, Medication, Mentation, and Mobility. The ultimate goal? Age-friendly care provided every day to every older adult patient. Our involvement within this national initiative is providing us with valuable tools to meet this goal; however, additional resources are needed to help us initiate this process and prove we can transform our entire healthcare system.

Support Services for At-Risk Seniors

High quality healthcare goes beyond addressing medical issues. It requires addressing the comprehensive needs of individuals, whether it be transportation, social isolation, lack of safe living environments, or caregiver support. It can even be additional support in managing nutritional needs, polypharmacy and/or extra assistance with navigating transitions in care. Many of the patients in our clinic would greatly benefit from additional services for which we don't always have the staff support to optimally provide. Resources to expand our care team to include greater access to a social worker, pharmacist and/or dietitian, would help provide such optimal care.

Quality Improvement Projects

No matter how good the care one provides, there is always room for quality improvement - whether it be related to operations, communication, documentation, or standards of care. Our team does not always have the funds or time to assess areas for improvement, and more importantly, make real change. Funds to support these activities can lead to real improvements that have impact here at the local level and potentially beyond by sharing lessons learned and strategies to enact improvements. Trainees also benefit from completing quality improvement projects that are important to themselves and benefit many!

Enhancing Geriatrics Education

Fellowship Support

Our mission of educating top-notch geriatricians to practice in the community and become national leaders in the field of aging is, more than ever, critically important. With an existing shortage of geriatricians, gifts that support our fellowship program enhance our role in the advancement of Geriatric Medical Education. Our program would benefit from support in multiple capacities. Although we are accredited for four fellowship positions, we only have funding to train up to three fellows each year; naming a Fellowship after a loved one is a special way to honor their life and achievements. Philanthropic gifts to enhance the fellows' current training experiences, both within UC San Diego and in the community, also provide tremendous value! Additionally, support for the program leadership and administration is always needed to ensure a solid program that supports our trainees, continues to evolve and expand on opportunities, and remains attractive to applicants. Supporting recruitment efforts is also a way to help encourage the best and brightest to enter the field.

Funding for the Geriatrics Gerontology, & Palliative Care Grand Rounds Series

Our Division has had a grand rounds series for the past 5 years. Support for this growing series would afford us the opportunity to invite renowned guest speakers to UC San Diego Health to share their expertise with the Division. A named, endowed lectureship would set our Division apart from our peers at other academic medical institutions and ensure physicians, other health care providers, researchers and trainees, across UC San Diego Health may be educated on Geriatrics, Gerontology and Palliative Care from distinguished guest lectures in perpetuity.

Travel Awards for Trainees

Providing funds to allow medical students and other trainees the opportunity to attend an aging-related conference can provide invaluable exposure to the many facets of good quality senior care and the opportunity to meet potential mentors. Attendance at a conference by trainees unsure of their career goals can sometimes be the tipping point that persuades them to pursue geriatrics, and at the very minimum, provides them with greater knowledge and a foundation for improving their care of senior patients regardless of their career focus.

Resident Graduation Awards in Geriatrics

We would like to recognize the efforts of individual residents at graduation, who have shown a particular dedication to geriatrics here at UC San Diego. These awards not only benefit the selected resident, but also increase the exposure of geriatrics to our School of Medicine programs. Naming opportunities are available, particularly with long-term funding.

Expanding Discovery

The Gerontology Research Collaborative (GRC)

Our GRC, launched in 2019, brings together a diverse community of researchers from UC San Diego and affiliated institutions (e.g., Sanford Burnham Prebys, Salk, SDSU). Our goal is to advance gerontology by gathering scientists from a variety of backgrounds; including basic science, translational research, and clinical research, who have traditionally had limited opportunities for interaction. The GRC serves as a platform for exchanging ideas and creating new collaborations. Funding will help support the activities of the GRC, which include:

• The GRC seminar series, held every month to highlight local and national gerontology research. Formats vary from seminars by local faculty, short talks from trainees (postdocs, fellows and students), and invited presentations by leading Gerontologists;
• A GRC listserv used for sharing gerontology-related news and disseminating information about research opportunities, resources, and local events; and
• Training resources for early stage investigators and junior researchers, including "chalk talks", works-in-progress meetings, and mentoring activities.

Pilot Projects

Funding for small research projects (e.g., pilot projects) can play a pivotal role in supporting the ability for a junior faculty member to launch their research career and/or provide the opportunity to collect baseline data for a research idea needed to pursue additional funding and federal grants and/or determine implications for clinical practice suggestions.

PALLIATIVE CARE

The UC San Diego Health Palliative Care Program has been developing since 2005. We currently have four inpatient teams at Hillcrest and La Jolla Hospitals including the team that staffs our Step Family Foundation Inpatient Palliative Care Unit. We work as a team of experts who serve UCSD patients with serious, progressive, and life-threatening illnesses.

It is our mission to provide equitable, compassionate, team-based care to all of those affected by serious illness by addressing emotional, physical, social, and spiritual wellbeing using clinical excellence, advocacy, innovation, and education.”

At UCSD, palliative care is provided by a specially-trained team of chaplains, nurses, pharmacists, physicians, and social workers who work together with a patient’s other providers to maximize quality of life. Palliative care is based on the needs of the patient, not on prognosis and it can be provided along with curative treatment. When we can do our job well, patients are able to tolerate their treatments for longer and with a higher quality of life.

UC San Diego Health continues to invest in the growth and development of this program, which provides opportunities for you to join in investing in our advancement. Here are some ways you can support our work:

• Support our team-based model of care by supporting our nurses, pharmacists, social workers, and spiritual care experts
• Help us design and kick-off an annual giving campaign for UCSD Palliative Care
• Help fund a Center for Interprofessional Palliative Care Research
• Help build a stand-alone palliative care clinic to serve as a one-stop shop for patient and family needs
• Enrich patient and family experiences by helping us add acupuncture, massage, child life, music therapy, and interpreter services to our teams
• Support ways for us to train more healthcare workers in communication and symptom management
• Support the training of physicians in palliative medicine by funding fellowship positions
• Fund second year palliative medicine fellowships to help physicians get even more training in skills like teaching others, informatics and palliative care, quality improvement, or research
• Help us plan for comfort care suites in UCSD hospitals