Who Will Take Care of Me when I Am Old? Addressing the Geriatric Workforce Crisis

Americans 65 years old and over currently represent 13% of the US population and will grow to 20% of the population by 2050. Currently, there is a clear shortage of specialists to care for the elderly – there are approximately 3.8 geriatricians per 10, 000 older Americans and roughly 1 geriatric trained psychiatrist for every 11,128 older Americans (American Geriatrics Society, 2011). These ratios will become even more inadequate over time because the number of older Americans is increasing and the number of physicians a entering fellowships in either geriatric medicine or geriatric psychiatry is decreasing. As a result, most elderly will never be treated by a geriatric trained physician. As geriatric trained professionals, we frequently have opportunities to educate our non -geriatric trained colleagues, be it through collaboration with primary care, academic programs at medical schools, our administrative roles in which we influence the training of staff, or in our interaction with family-caregivers. This symposium will present several unique programs that aim to provide geriatric mental health training to a diverse array of clinicians including physicians, nurses, occupational and physical therapists, social workers, and direct caregivers. Strategies to be discussed include formal academic programs utilizing case based learning targeing an inter-professional audience, direct to primary care teaching that includes consultation on practice change, and caregiver education (both formal and informal caregivers) focusing on delivering easy to understand concepts and skills. This symposium will provide attendees insights into various educational approaches that will inform their abilities to educate their colleagues, be it through the creation of formal educational program, ongoing staff education or consultation with other professionals.