Aging

College of Health and Human Services and ServiceSource Establish a Center on Aging with a Focus on Healthy Aging and Workforce Development

Mary Cunningham — Wed, 18 May 2022 20:55:33 +0000

College of Health and Human Services and ServiceSource Establish a Center on Aging with a Focus on Healthy Aging and Workforce Development Mary Cunningham Wed, 05/18/2022 - 16:55

In This Story

Dr. Cathy Tompkins

Healthy aging is more important than ever in the U.S. as everyone in the Baby Boomer generation nears retirement age.

Post-doctoral student Hyun Kang, Associate Dean of Faculty and Staff Affairs and Professor Cathy Tompkins, Assistant Professor Michelle Hand, and Chair of the Department of Social Work Emily Ihara at the opening of the Wellness Center for Older Adults.

College of Health and Human Services and ServiceSource, Inc. (SSI) have established a Northern Virginia Center on Aging, which will be recognized as a satellite center with the Virginia Center on Aging (VCoA). The center will provide services, programs, and activities for older adults and workforce development and continuing education for health care professionals who support older adults. Faculty and students will be actively involved and are excited for this new opportunity.

The Center on Aging will expand the VCoA’s mission of being an interdisciplinary study, research, information, and resource facility for the Commonwealth of Virginia utilizing the full capabilities of faculty, staff, libraries, laboratories, and clinics for the benefit of older Virginians and the expansion of knowledge pertaining to older adults and aging in general. VCoA is a statewide agency created by the Virginia General Assembly.

“Healthy aging is now more important than ever as our over-65 and over-85 populations continue to grow in the coming decades,” said Associate Dean of Faculty and Staff Affairs and Professor Cathy Tompkins. “This collaborative program will help prepare the current and future geriatric workforce to optimize opportunities to maintain and improve physical and mental health, independence, and quality of life throughout a person’s life.”

By 2030, every person in the Baby Boomer generation will be 65 or older. With this generation being larger than generations before it, more resources are necessary to support the population.

The new center will provide workforce training to students across the College’s departments through practicums, internships, and other experiential learning opportunities on how to effectively work with older adults. Additionally, the Center will partner with other community organizations to provide continuing education and training for frontline workers and licensed professionals. College faculty will have opportunities to evaluate current interventions implemented by SSI staff and community partners.

The Northern Virginia Center on Aging will be housed at the new Wellness Center for Older Adults (WCOA), which is less than four miles from Mason’s campus.

The College is home to the Department of Social Work and leads research and workforce development initiatives focused on healthy aging. Other departments actively involved in the new Northern Virginia Center on Aging include the School of Nursing and the Department of Nutrition and Food Studies.

SSI’s mission is to facilitate services, resources, and partnerships to support people with disabilities and it offers a wide range of services to serve the community, including operating the WCOA.

Other WCOA community partners supporting the Center include AARP Virginia, The Alzheimer’s Association American Health Care Professionals, the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, INOVA Community Health, Insight Memory Care Center, Northern Virginia Community College, Shenandoah University, the Shepherd’s Center, and the Parkinson Social Network.

About Mason

George Mason University, Virginia’s largest public research university, enrolls 39,000 students from 130 countries and all 50 states. Located near Washington, D.C., Mason has grown rapidly over the last half-century and is recognized for its innovation and entrepreneurship, remarkable diversity, and commitment to accessibility. In 2022, Mason celebrates 50 years as an independent institution. Learn more at http://www.gmu.edu.

About the College of Health and Human Services

The College of Health and Human Services prepares students to become leaders and to shape the public's health through academic excellence, research of consequence, community outreach, and interprofessional clinical practice. The College enrolls more than 1,900 undergraduate and 1,300 graduate students in its nationally-recognized offerings, including 6 undergraduate degrees, 13 graduate degrees, and 6 certificate programs. The college is transitioning to a college of public health in the near future. For more information, visit https://chhs.gmu.edu/.

Topics

Department of Nutrition and Food Studies

Nutrition News

Gilbert Gimm, PhD

admin_alpha — Tue, 20 Oct 2015 23:24:01 +0000

Gilbert Gimm, PhD admin_alpha Tue, 10/20/2015 - 19:24

Associate Professor, HAP
Director, Health Services Research PhD

Contact Information

Email: ggimm@gmu.edu

Phone: 703-993-9165
Building: Peterson Hall
Room 4415

CV

Download Gilbert Gimm curriculum vitae (CV) here.

Biography

Dr. Gimm, associate professor of health administration and policy, has research experience in disability and aging, program evaluations, and health care financing. Currently, Dr. Gimm serves as a co-investigator on a 5-year Rehabilitation Research and Training Center (RRTC) grant from the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR) to examine rural-urban disparities in service use among adults with disabilities. He is also a co-investigator on a CDC grant to evaluate sustainable financing models that seek to support community health workers and build community resilience in Virginia.

Previously, Dr. Gimm was a senior researcher at Mathematica Policy Research in Washington, DC, where he conducted evaluations for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) of the Medicaid Buy-In program and impacts of early interventions on the receipt of federal disability benefits for adults with mental health conditions. He also examined the financial performance of rural hospitals in response to Medicare payment reforms. His research has been published in several journals, including the American Journal of Public Health, Disability and Health Journal, Health Services Research, and the Journal of General Internal Medicine. Dr. Gimm's other research interests include social isolation, family caregiving of older adults, and substance use prevalence among youth and adults with disabilities.

Research

Research Interests

Program evaluations and health care financing
Aging/Disability research
Health equity and community health workers
Substance use and social isolation

Select Publications

Gimm G, Schulz JA, Rubinstein D, Casseus M. (2024 in press). Examining the Prevalence of Nicotine Vaping and Association of Major Depressive Episodes among Adolescents and Young Adults by Disability Type in 2021. Addictive Behaviors. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.addbeh.2024.107975
Schulz JA, Gimm G, West JC, Kock L, Villanti AC. (2024 in press). Patterns of alcohol, marijuana, and tobacco use among U.S. youth and young adults by disability status: 2015-2019. Journal of Adolescent Health. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2023.09.018
Orji A, Gimm G, Desai A, Parekh T. (2024). The Association of Cervical Cancer Screening with Disability Type among U.S. Women (25-64 years). American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 66(1): 83-93. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2023.08.010
Gimm G, Pomeroy ML, Galiatsatos P, Cudjoe TKM. (2023). Examining the Association of Social Isolation and Smoking in Older Adults. Journal of Applied Gerontology. 42(11): 2261-2267. https://doi.org/10.1177/07334648231180786
Pomeroy ML, Cudjoe TKM, Cuellar AE, Ihara E, Ornstein KA, Bollens-Lund E, Gimm GW. (2023). Association of Social Isolation with Hospitalization and Nursing Home Entry among Older Adults. JAMA Internal Medicine. 183(9): 955-962. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamainternmed.2023.3064
Lee J, Gimm G, Mohindroo M, Lever L. (2023). Assessing Homelessness and Incarceration among Youth Aging out of Foster Care, by Type of Disability. Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal. 40(6):743-759. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10560-022-00817-9
Mohammadifirouzeh M, Oh KM, Basnyat I, Gimm G. (2023). Factors Associated with Professional Mental Help-Seeking Among U.S. Immigrants: A Systematic Review. Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health, 25(5): 1118–1136. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10903-023-01475-4
Gimm G, Pomeroy ML, Galiatsatos P, Cudjoe TKM. (2023). Examining the Association of Social Isolation and Smoking in Older Adults. Journal of Applied Gerontology. 7334648231180786. Advance Online Publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/07334648231180786
Pomeroy ML, Cudjoe TKM, Cuellar AE, Ihara E, Ornstein KA, Bollens-Lund E, Gimm GW. (2023). Association of Social Isolation with Hospitalization and Nursing Home Entry among Community-Dwelling Older Adults. JAMA Internal Medicine. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamainternmed.2023.3064
Orji A, Gimm G, Desai A, Parekh T. (2023). The Association of Cervical Cancer Screening with Disability Type among U.S. Women (25-64 years). American Journal of Preventive Medicine. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2023.08.010

Affiliations

Member

AcademyHealth

Member

American Public Health Association

Member

American Society of Health Economists

Degrees

PhD, Health Economics and Policy, University of Pennsylvania
MBA, Health Care Management, University of Pennsylvania
BA, Economics, Harvard University