John G. Cagle, PhD, Associate Professor at the University of Maryland at Baltimore School of Social Work will present “Improving Care at the End of Life during Concurrent Public Health Crises” at the April 4th Scientific Seminar Series. In person attendance is encouraged. To attend via Zoom, registration is required at bit.ly/36oi82G.
Imagine this: Chris, a 57-year-old with severe chest pain is taken by car to Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center’s Emergency Department; Pat, aged about 46 years, drives and waits in the Emergency Department. Chris is in severe pain, and Pat is palpably terrified. And Chris is thinking:
Sadly, the fears in this hypothetical scenario are all too real for most LGBTQ+ older adults. According to the AARP’s report, Maintaining Dignity, a sizeable sum of LGBTQ+ people do not trust medical professionals out of fear of prejudice, leaving them increasingly vulnerable for adverse health outcomes. They can’t tell at a glance if a doctor or nurse has prejudice against them.
By the same token, even culturally competent clinicians can’t tell if a person is LGBTQ+ just by looking at them. Frankly, clinicians don’t know if this particular patient had lost their job or housing due to their sexual orientation, or was forced to go through conversion therapy by another physician many years before, or experienced other appalling insults and harmful practices by past doctors. Many LGBTQ+ elders have experienced such trauma, producing minority stress that erodes their health quality over time, and that has led to a large number of them avoiding healthcare when they need it.
You may be interested to know that LGBTQ+ people in the greater Baltimore metropolitan area on average live to be around 59 years old according to Chase Brexton Health Services. Per Trust Choice, the average life expectancy in Baltimore is 84 years, and the national average is 78.5 years. That is a 20 to 25 year difference.
To address this glaring disparity, Geriatricians Engaged and Ready (GEARed) for LGBTQ+ Aging, Health & Wellness is a new initiative resulting from a Johns Hopkins Diversity Innovation Grant aimed at improving the quality of compassionate, culturally aware care to Baltimore’s LGBTQIA+ community. GEARed’s leadership includes: Dr. Matthew McNabney, Chair, Mosaic Initiative Workgroup to Promote Diversity and Inclusion, Division of Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology; Dr. Panagis Galiatsatos, Co-Director, Medicine for the Greater Good, Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine; and me, Tony Teano—I work with several different teams as a Communications Specialist, and I serve on the Johns Hopkins University Diversity Leadership Council. Additionally, we are fortunate that Dr. Cynthia Boyd, Director of the Division of Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology, fully supported the idea to create GEARed and helped shape the winning grant proposal.
At this time, the Division of Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology invites Johns Hopkins Medicine clinicians—including MDs, RNs, PAs—who serve older people to participate in GEARed’s training program. GEARed’s curriculum is currently being finalized; it will be a carefully curated selection from the National LGBTQIA+ Health Education Center, a program of Fenway Institute that offers free online training modules. A limited number of those who acquire the most CMEs in LGBTQ+ older adult care by the end of April will be eligible to receive a subsidized “Health Professional” membership with GLMA, an association of Health Professionals Advancing LGBTQ+ Equality. To express an interest in GEARed, please email me at tony.teano@jhu.edu by the end of the day on Friday, March 18th for next steps.
I believe that GEARed for LGBTQ+ Aging, Health & Wellness will make a valuable contribution to meeting the healthcare needs of older adults in our communities. I hope that GEARed may serve as a pilot program, in a way—inspiring other areas of medicine to do something similar. Ultimately, my dream is that GEARed will build trust between LGBTQ+ elders and their care team, and bring parity in outcomes for healthy aging. I am grateful to work with such an amazing team of visionary people who make GEARed possible:
“I have been interested in the care of LGBTQ+ older adults for several years. This has been inspired by an opening dialogue on the national scene as well as participation in the Mosaic Initiative in the Division of Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology since 2010. The Mosaic Initiative explores all issues of diversity and inclusion including LGBTQ persons. There are many things that our Division can learn and grow as people and professionals. We are grateful for this grant and the opportunities that will follow!”
—Dr. Matthew McNabney, Chair, Mosaic Initiative for Diversity & Inclusion
“We aim to assure the promise of medicine reaches all and every person. This initiative, this collaboration, reaffirms that promise. I’m thrilled to see this executed, and the great projects and engagements this will bring on in the future!”
—Dr. Panagis Galiatsatos, Co-Director, Medicine for the Greater Good
“Congratulations to the team that has kicked off this exciting initiative!”
—Dr. Cynthia Boyd, Director, Division of Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology
By Anthony L. Teano, MLA
Communication Specialist
Are you interested in research about memory loss, dementia, and Alzheimer’s disease?
I am. I believe research is where the future is—treatments, interventions, discoveries—and, speaking as someone who was a caregiver to my mom who died from a type of frontotemporal dementia known as Pick’s Disease, I find hope and comfort in the promise of interventions for Alzheimer’s disease, dementia, and memory loss. The #BrainMatters Twitter chats described below, facilitated by the Johns Hopkins Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (JHADRC), are pivotal to sharing critical information among the masses.
Researchers and members of the broader community who want to learn more about research are invited to follow the JHADRC’s “Memory & Aging” Twitter handle on Thursday, February 24 starting at noon ET to catch their #BrainMatters Twitter chat on the “State of Research on Memory Loss, Dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease.” It is very easy to do—simply be on Twitter during the event, and follow @JH_Memory_Aging. The chat will unfold in real time, and anyone may contribute to the conversation.
According to the Alzheimer’s Association’s website: “Recruiting and retaining research participants is now the greatest obstacle, other than funding, to developing the next generation of Alzheimer’s treatments. Individuals with dementia, caregivers and healthy volunteers are all needed to participate in clinical studies focused on Alzheimer’s and other dementias. Without clinical trials, there can be no better treatments, no prevention and no cure for Alzheimer’s disease.”
For the upcoming Twitter Chat, we look forward to hearing from Johns Hopkins researchers at the Agrawal Lab and the HEADS Center, and Drs. Rosenberg, Smith and Pettigrew, and from researchers with the George Washington University’s Institute for Brain Health and Dementia. They will explore the following topics:
The live #BrainMatters Twitter Chats have been an excellent opportunity to engage with leading researchers and advocates on brain health at Johns Hopkins University, throughout the Mid-Atlantic, and across the nation. Here’s what collaborators and past participants are saying about it:
“Volunteering gives voice to groups that can affect service, research and voting.”
-Jo Ann Scipio, RN, Delta Sigma Theta Annapolis Alumnae Chapter
“Alzheimer’s disease is a growing global health crisis. Research is critical to address this crisis, in order to achieve breakthroughs in treatment and prevention. These Twitter chats provide a platform for information sharing and discussion of some of the more pressing issues in brain health, early detection, health disparities, and research.”
-Ilene Rosenthal, Alzheimer’s Association Greater Maryland Chapter
“The Brain Matters collaboration is helping to elevate discussions on the importance of brain health, raising awareness of critical issues including equity, and engaging new audiences through interactive and insightful conversations – all free and open to the public!”
-David Parkes, AARP Global Council on Brain Health
“As geriatricians, we believe it is important to meet older adults and their families where they are, and for many, that is on Twitter! Our bodies have an incredible capacity to regenerate and heal. Supporting brain health helps us all thrive. Research helps us find a way forward.”
-Dr. Alicia Arbaje, Johns Hopkins JHAD-RCMAR
“The #BrainMatters chats have been a fun and innovative way to share emerging scientific findings on topics related to brain health, memory loss, and aging with members of the community.”
-Dr. Corinne Pettigrew, Johns Hopkins ADRC
#BrainMatters is a regional collaboration that is dedicated to sharing science-based information about brain health, health disparities, memory loss & Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. In addition to the JHADRC, collaborators include the Greater Maryland Chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association, the AARP’s Global Council on Brain Health, the Johns Hopkins Alzheimer’s Disease Resource Center for Minority Aging Research (JHAD-RCMAR), and Delta Sigma Theta Alumnae Chapters from Annapolis and from Columbia, Maryland.
If you cannot make the live chat, you can catch up with the content later simply by searching #BrainMatters on Twitter. Doing so will also show content from prior chats on “Brain Health” and “Achieving Brain Health Equity.” You may also be interested in following #JHMemoryResearch over the coming months as the JHADRC will be sharing additional information about ongoing research studies, Research Team Spotlights, and Research Participant Testimonials. The entire @JH_Memory_Aging Twitter feed is chocked-full of golden nuggets!
Any questions? Email tony.teano@jhu.edu
By Anthony Teano, Communications Specialist
Alden L. Gross, PhD, an Associate Professor in the Division of Epidemiology of Aging at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and a Core Faculty member at the Center on Aging and Health in the Division of Gerontology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine will present “Measurement and Structure of Cognition across the world: Statistical harmonization of the HCAP studies” at the March 7th Scientific Seminar Series. In person attendance is encouraged. To attend via zoom, registration is required at https://bit.ly/3gGC2rb