Intergenerational Programs and Aging

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Adult Residential Living Training Project

News Release

May 25, 2006

PENN STATE RESEARCHERS RECEIVE ADULT RESIDENTIAL LIVING GRANT UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- A broad-based collaboration between Penn State and community organizations will result in more effective training and assessment for the workers who provide personal-care services for the elderly and people with mental and physical disabilities. Matthew Kaplan, associate professor of intergenerational programs and aging in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences, and Richard Fiene, associate professor of human development and director of Penn State's Capital Area Health and Human Development Institute, have received a $250,000 grant to assist the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare's Adult Residential Living Program in developing an innovative online training and testing system for front-line personal-care workers.

"Pennsylvania has more than 1,600 licensed personal-care homes, also called assisted-living facilities," Kaplan says. "These homes care for more than 52,000 residents who are elderly or have disabilities and require assistance beyond the basic necessities of food and shelter but do not need hospitalization or nursing-home care."One of the most crucial factors that determines the quality of the personal-care home is the education and training of the staff," he says."The direct-care staff assists residents with personal hygiene, bathing and dressing, medications, making phone calls, and accessing ongoing health-care services. This new online training program represents a major investment in improving the quality of life for many thousands of personal-care home residents in the state." Kaplan and Fiene will work closely with Better Jobs Better Care (BJBC-PA) and Penn State Public Broadcasting in the development of the curriculum and a competency-based test. BJBC-PA is a statewide multi-stakeholder collaboration aimed at improving direct-care jobs in the long-term-care continuum. Its parent organization, the Center for Advocacy for the Rights and Interests of the Elderly, launched BJBC-PA in 2003 with funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Atlantic Philanthropies.

Pennsylvania is one of five states that received Better Jobs Better Care grants. The Institute for the Future of Aging Services is the national program office, and the Paraprofessional Healthcare Institute provides technical assistance. New Pennsylvania regulations for personal-care homes require improved training and orientation of direct-care staff. The regulations also created a need for a system to assess competency levels of staff members following initial training. In response, the Adult Residential Living Training Project is designed to produce online training resources and a competency-based testing system to meet these training needs. These resources will be incorporated into the Department of Public Welfare Adult Residential Licensing Training Program. For additional information, contact Kaplan at (814) 863-7871 or Fiene at (717) 233-5276.

Writer-Editor:
Gary Abdullah
Office: 814-863-2708
E-mail: gxa2@psu.edu

Penn State | College of Agricultural Sciences | Agriculture & Extension Education

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