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13 Community Colleges Win Awards for Innovative Caregiving Training from International Longevity Center and MetLife Foundation

The International Longevity Center, with support from MetLife Foundation, has selected 13 community colleges to receive $15,000 grants for caregiver training programs.

The 2010 Community College Training Initiative grants are part of the Caregiving Project for Older Americans, a partnership of the International Longevity Center and the Schmieding Center for Senior Health and Education. They are intended to address a growing caregiving crisis by encouraging the expansion of caregiver training programs for family caregivers and in-home care workers. Since 2007, the initiative has awarded over 50 grants.

“Now in its fourth year, this program has gained tremendous momentum. This year’s applications were of extremely high quality and represented community colleges throughout the U.S.,” said Dr. Robert N. Butler, president and CEO of the International Longevity Center. “More than ever, people who need quality homecare are having difficulty finding it, and families who often provide care are facing greater challenges balancing work and home responsibilities.”

The 2010 grantees are:

1. Danville Area Community College (Danville, IL) to provide individualized training plans for both professional and family caregivers, modularized instruction to maximize customization, and ongoing motivation and support.
2. Delta College (University Center, MI)   to offer displaced and unemployed community members job training for paid in-home or institutional caregiver jobs, also providing a career ladder to a CNA, LPN/RN or other health occupation programs offered at the college.
3. Eastfield College (Mesquite, TX) to provide classroom and laboratory training with additional hours of career preparation to be offered to students needing outside employment, particularly in the surrounding community, which has high unemployment and is largely Hispanic.
4. Florence-Darlington Technical College (Florence, SC) to offer a Home Care Aide certification program under the guidelines of the National Association for Homecare and Hospice to help CNAs pass a course to qualify for the national certification exam.
5. Great Bay Community College (Portsmouth, NH) to train family caregivers and in-home care workers supplemented with a hands-on approach using facilities and equipment at the college’s nursing facilities.
6. Joliet Junior College (Joliet, IL) to launch an Alzheimer’s at Home training program that targets in-home care workers and family caregivers. Included will be a collaborative partnership with the Alzheimer’s Association-Greater Illinois Chapter.
7. Montgomery College (Rockville, MD) to revise an existing course entitled “Home Care Companion” to include feeding certification and expand it to feature information and recruitment sessions for new students and networking opportunities for graduates of the program.
8. North Florida Community College (Madison, FL) to develop and implement a caregiver training program for in-home elder-caregivers to provide knowledge and skills required for the safe provision of personal physical care, rehabilitative activities and bio-psycho-social support.
9. Oakton Community College (Des Plaines, IL) to offer a series of courses leading to a Certificate in Person-Centered Elder Support, including weekly class sessions and media-based complementary instructional materials geared toward paid and family caregivers.
10. Palomar College (Escondido, CA) to provide unemployed individuals and recent high school graduates with the job skills necessary to successfully obtain positions as in-home caregivers. This will include a new Spanish for Caregivers curriculum.
11. Redlands Community College (El Reno, OK) to develop web-based training for family caregivers. Training will be accessible through web-based modules from students’ homes, local schools, career techs, colleges and universities and public libraries.
12. Schoolcraft College (Livonia, MI) to develop a training program aimed at family caregivers providing at-home care. The curriculum, which leads to a certificate, will consist of modules by experts (nurses, chefs, elder care attorneys) and will offer extensive hands-on experience.
13. St. Louis Community College (St. Louis, MO) to offer a ground-level skills training to prepare individuals for workforce entry and reentry in the home health care field care. The training will consist of 120 hours of combined classroom, lab and practicum instruction.

“Community colleges are perfectly positioned to help address a growing caregiving crisis,” said Dennis White, president and CEO of MetLife Foundation. “MetLife Foundation is pleased to support this initiative, which offers much-needed training resources to family caregivers and in-home care professionals.”

The International Longevity Center-USA is a not-for-profit, nonpartisan research, education, and policy organization whose mission is to help individuals and societies address longevity and population aging in positive and productive ways, and to highlight older peoples’ productivity and contributions to their families and society as a whole. The organization is part of a multinational research and education consortium, with centers in 13 countries, which study how greater life expectancy and increased proportions of older people impact nations around the world. For more information, visit www.ilcusa.org/prj/caregiving.htm.

MetLife Foundation was established in 1976 by MetLife to carry on its longstanding tradition of corporate contributions and community involvement. In the area of aging, the Foundation funds programs that promote healthy aging and address issues of care giving, intergenerational activities, mental fitness, and volunteerism. More information about MetLife Foundation is available at www.metlife.org.

Keywords: caregiving

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