Abstract
Congratulations to the Center and its Director, Dr. Laura Gitlin, on the inaugural issue of CARAH’s newsletter. In our discussions of the development of CARAH, one of the principal goals of the Center is its educational mission as is clear from the other information contained in this publication. Committed as the Center’s research professionals are to improving the health and quality of life of our seniors, it is not enough to conduct research that has the potential to provide significant help and support for patients and their caregivers. Those findings must also be disseminated, must be translated into action, must be available to those most in need of that information, and as widely as possible. The newsletter is one approach the Center is initiating in order to achieve its educational mission.
As important as the newsletter is to advancing the goals of CARAH, it is equally valuable in advancing the mission of Jefferson College of Health Professions (JCHP), within which CARAH resides. The future of health care depends very heavily on the contributions of several disciplines to meet the needs of patients, most especially the needs of our senior patients.
The College places the highest priority on the development of health professionals who are ready upon graduation to work as a member of a team in the provision of care. CARAH has adopted this interdisciplinary approach in all of its activities, and is collaborating with several departments not only in JCHP (Occupational and Physical Therapy and Nursing) but also with Jefferson Medical College (and its Farber Institute of the Neurosciences and the Depts. of Family Medicine, Psychiatry, and Neurology). The Center thus becomes an ideal site to nurture the growth and development of these interdisciplinary values and experiences.
The potential, then, for enhancing and expanding the effectiveness of team care through interdisciplinary educational experiences, for hastening the translation of the findings of the research being conducted in CARAH to the care of elderly patients especially, is a goal that coincides superbly with the mission of the College and University.
It is thus my pleasure to welcome the advent of this newsletter as a remarkable opportunity to support the development and expansion of the programs of CARAH that are so clearly connected to and supportive of the Jefferson mission.
Recommended Citation
Erdman, James B.
(2006)
"Message from Dean Erdman,"
CenterPieces: Vol. 1:
Iss.
1, Article 3.
Available at:
https://jdc.jefferson.edu/centerpieces/vol1/iss1/3