Mission and Goals

The mission of the SGEC is to improve the quality of health care and the quality of life of diverse older adults in the United States by educating health care professionals about the health and social service needs of older people, particularly the ethnic minority older adults and their families, with a special emphasis on the cultural context of these needs.

First funded in 1987, the SGEC addresses:

  • The needs of local and regional health care training programs to infuse ethnogeriatrics into faculty development, curriculum resources, and the training of local health care providers; and
  • Local and national needs for a resource center to disseminate professional health care training materials on issues related to ethnicity and aging

SGEC goals approved by the Bureau of Health Professions for funding for years 2010-2015 emphasize:

  1. Evidence-Based Intervention for Diabetes: To increase knowledge and skills of community health clinic practitioners in the evidence based treatment of older ethnic patients with diabetes through an interdisciplinary education program.
  2. Evidence-Based Intervention for Late Life Depression: To increase knowledge and skills of county mental health clinicians through a training program in evidence based assessment and treatment of older adults with late life depression, especially older adults from diverse populations.
  3. Faculty Development Program: To increase the knowledge and skills of geriatric faculty from multiple disciplines in a 160-hour faculty development program in ethnogeriatrics.
  4. Training of Students in Health Professions: To train students in a variety of health professions, through both didactic and experiential methods, to work more effectively with older adults - particularly ethnic minority elders and their families.
  5. Ethnogeriatric Educational Programs for Health Care Professionals: To provide educational programs in geriatrics and ethnogeriatrics for health care professionals in underserved areas through the use of webinars in collaboration with California Area Health Education Centers and other partners. To provide individualized training and mentoring through Minifellowships. To collaborate with the Alzheimer's Association Northern CA/NV Chapter and other community partners to provide workshops and conferences on dementia care.
  6. End of Life Care and Spiritual Diversity: To increase the knowledge and skills in palliative care and end of life health care, as well as spiritual healing practices, for practitioners of culturally diverse elders who are near the end of life and their families. Specifically, SGEC will work with community based hospices and other partners to develop a Latino End of Life Network.
  7. Emergency Preparedness: To increase the knowledge and skills of interdisciplinary health providers in responding to the needs of diverse elders for preparedness in times of emergency.
  8. GEC Collaborative: To collaborate with other Geriatric Education Centers in California through the California Council on Gerontology and Geriatrics (CCGG) to provide a mechanism for mutual support for marketing, faculty development, and curricula distribution.