Skip to main content

Grant Funding Supports Elder Abuse and Neglect Education

The Moyer/Stock Trust has awarded Pee Dee AHEC a $5,000 grant to provide education related to elder abuse and neglect to healthcare providers, first responders and caretakers. Phyllis Debrow, attorney at law and Moyer/Stock Trust trustee, was instrumental in the decision to award the grant following the submission of a proposal from Pee Dee AHEC and Positive Approach, a dementia care and training specialist company run by long time Pee Dee AHEC Instructor Teepa Snow, MS, OTR/L, FAOTA.

The AHEC system is well positioned to disseminate education about this topic in a state with a growing influx of retirees and an aging population. This capability, paired with the AHEC system’s ability to provide a variety of accreditation options, made Pee Dee AHEC the logical choice for executing the objectives of this grant.

“The interest and support from both potential participants and instructors has been phenomenal,” reports Pee Dee AHEC Nursing CE Coordinator Cheryl Neuner, “There is such a deep need for this education throughout the state. A special ‘thanks’ goes to Ms. Debrow and the Moyer/Stock Trust for supporting our dream to educate the state about elder abuse, neglect, and financial exploitation.”

The trend of a growing elderly population paired with socioeconomic disparities can often lead to financial exploitation, abuse, and neglect of this vulnerable group. Educational programs to address the needs and protection of elder individuals will include the following topic areas: 
  • Nursing assessment for signs of neglect/abuse
  • Financial exploitation
  • Medicare/Medicaid fraud indicators
  • Prosecution framework for legal arena
  • Communication techniques for first responders and healthcare providers working with dementia patients
  • Documentation techniques for providers caring for suspected victims of abuse/neglect
  • Post-mortem indicators of abuse and neglect for coroners and investigators

 The first program, “Elder Abuse: Indicators, Issues and Response Tactics,” will take place on June 26 and will be conducted by Michelle DuPre, MD, former police investigator and medical examiner.  Continuing education credits will be available for nursing, social work, long term care, counselors, law enforcement, and victim advocates.

All programs will be recorded, archived and available free to providers through the South Carolina AHEC SCHOOLS system at www.scahec.net/schools.  For additional information, please contact Pee Dee AHEC CE Coordinators Cheryl Neuner at 843-777-5347 or Kay Lambert at 843-777-5352.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Lowcountry AHEC Helps School Nurse Orientation Pivot Online during Pandemic

For many years, orientation for school nurses in South Carolina has been an in-person event; however, due to COVID-19, this orientation, like so many other in-person events, was cancelled this past year. Yet the need to orient South Carolina's school nurses remains critical. Recognizing this need, a team consisting of Lowcountry AHEC staff, South Carolina Association of School Nurse President Dawn MacAdams and South Carolina Department of Education State School Nurse Consultant Vicky Ladd developed a plan to deliver the orientation as an online, self-paced course. The instructors supported the format change, working to convert their in-person sessions to online content, and Lowcountry AHEC will provide nursing credit for the series over the next two years. The orientation went live in the fall of 2020 and is available at no cost to South Carolina school nurses on the new and improved South Carolina AHEC Learning Portal. To find out more and register, visit the Foundations of School

SC AHEC Excellence Awards: Gateway Award

The South Carolina AHEC Gateway Award recognizes individuals who are committed to furthering the development of future health professionals and are distinguished in their service to students in the health careers pipeline. This year’s Gateway Award recipient is Angelica Ellman Christie, Ed.D.  Dr. Christie is currently the vice president of academic affairs at Denmark Technical College. Previously, she served in the South Carolina AHEC system for numerous years: She started her career in 1998 as the Health Careers Program (HCP) coordinator for Greenville AHEC and advanced as the HCP director in the South Carolina AHEC program office in 2000. In the fall of 2018, Dr. Christie left South Carolina AHEC for her position at Denmark Tech. Throughout her career, Dr. Christie exhibited her passionate dedication to advancing the mission of South Carolina AHEC. She enthusiastically went above and beyond to research, develop, and successfully undertake new projects and programming to streng

Lowcountry AHEC’s Strong Partnerships Serve School Nurses Statewide

For over three decades, Lowcountry AHEC has been proud to support school nurses across South Carolina in their professional development through statewide conferences and meetings. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit and in-person events came to a halt, Lowcountry AHEC along with their partners, were able to pivot to alternate methods to continue providing training opportunities for school nurses. One such way Lowcountry AHEC was able to adapt was implementing online modules so that school nurses could continue to receive the same professional development and learning opportunities in a virtual setting. The first course, Foundations of School Nursing , included nine modules and was uploaded to the South Carolina AHEC Learning Portal (ALP) by August 2020 . With over 1,600 registrations to this day, Foundations of School Nursing is the most popular course currently on ALP. “We began to do some work with them on online modules,” said Lowcountry AHEC Center Director Diane Mathews. “All new schoo