Experience Corps: a dual trial to promote the health of older adults and children's academic success.

BACKGROUND: As the population ages, older adults are seeking meaningful, and impactful, post-retirement roles. As a society, improving the health of people throughout longer lives is a major public health goal. This paper presents the design and rationale for an effectiveness trial of Experience Corps™, an intervention created to address both these needs. This trial evaluates (1) whether senior volunteer roles within Experience Corps™ beneficially impact children's academic achievement and classroom behavior in public elementary schools and (2) impact on the health of volunteers. METHODS: Dual evaluations of (1) an intention-to-treat trial randomizing eligible adults 60 and older to volunteer service in Experience Corps™, or to a control arm of usual volunteering opportunities, and (2) a comparison of eligible public elementary schools receiving Experience Corps™ to matched, eligible control schools in a 1:1 control:intervention school ratio. OUTCOMES: For older adults, the primary outcome is decreased disability in mobility and Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADL). Secondary outcomes are decreased frailty, falls, and memory loss; slowed loss of strength, balance, walking speed, cortical plasticity, and executive function; objective performance of IADLs; and increased social and psychological engagement. For children, primary outcomes are improved reading achievement and classroom behavior in Kindergarten through the 3rd grade; secondary outcomes are improvements in school climate, teacher morale and retention, and teacher perceptions of older adults. SUMMARY: This trial incorporates principles and practices of community-based participatory research and evaluates the dual benefit of a single intervention, versus usual opportunities, for two generations: older adults and children.

The "continuum of care" for older adults: design and evaluation of an educational series.

Geriatricians work within a continuum of health services designed to meet the diverse care needs of older adults. They must develop expertise in these care models and be able to guide safe and efficient transitions. This article describes a 9-week educational series designed to review the evidence base and practical aspects of implementing key services that span the continuum of care for older adults. The sessions in the series covered geriatric assessment, ambulatory care, acute hospital, house call, hospital-at-home, Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly, assisted living, inpatient consultation, rehabilitation, nursing home, chronic hospital, and palliative care and hospice. To assess the educational effect of these sessions, evaluations were collected at the end of each session, including one "summative evaluation" after the completion of the entire 9-week series. The vast majority (97%) of survey responses evaluating individual sessions were positive (scores of 4 or 5 on a 5-point Likert scale), and 89% of responses on the summative evaluation were in that range. This educational series efficiently provides a sequential "tour" of health services for older adults, allowing learners to appreciate the continuum of geriatric care models and relationships between services. Feedback from attendees suggests that this format increases knowledge of health services along the continuum of care for older adults and does so in an efficient manner for learners at different levels of training.