Transforming Senior Care Education ft. Dr. Tom Felke
On the latest CareCraft episode, host Ariadne sits down with Dr. Tom Felke, Director of the Shady Rest Institute on Positive Aging at Florida Gulf Coast University. They discuss the development and impact of the Senior Care Partner Program, now in its fifth cohort.
The Senior Care Partner Program
The program originated to address a lack of training for professionals in senior care, offering a fully online curriculum to address the lack of education for individuals providing care management services.
The Shady Rest Institute
Dr. Felke also talks about the Shady Rest Institute, generously funded by the Shady Rest Foundation, which serves as an interdisciplinary hub to improve the lives of older adults in Southwest Florida. The Institute is currently recruiting faculty from diverse fields, like music therapy and construction management, and developing holistic solutions for aging.
Listen to the full interview to learn more about these groundbreaking initiatives.
Transcript
[00:00:04] Ariadne: Welcome to the CareCraft podcast. I'm your host Ariadne. And today we're super excited to be joined by Dr. Tom Felke. He serves as the Director of the Shady Rest Institute on Positive Aging at the Florida Gulf Coast University. And we are super excited to hear more about the program and the history. You are on your fifth cohort now for the senior care partner program, but would love to know more about what that entails and how it got started.
[00:00:33] Tom: Thanks for having me. A few years ago, we were actually approached by an individual who was a retired healthcare executive, and he wanted to get more involved with the university. And so we started talking about some of the issues we were seeing around our older adult population here in Southwest Florida, specifically the issue of trying to navigate the myriad of health care and social service systems while desiring to age in place.
We went out and met with a number of different organizations that were set up as care management organizations and we started talking to them about how do their staff get trained to take on the roles that they play in those organizations? And what we found was there was a, a pretty alarming lack of education specifically for those individuals.
And so we created this program called the Senior Care Partner Program. It is a digital badge program offered here at Florida Gulf Coast University. And that makes it more accessible for practicing individuals because our idea with this program was to upskill and reskill working professionals.
[00:01:44] Ariadne: That's awesome. So what does the program entail? Like how long is it and what type of coursework are individuals doing?
[00:01:51] Tom: Yeah, so the program is fully online. It's asynchronous, meaning not live, and it's a 16 week program that's broken down into four specific modules, and those modules are community services, clinical services, technology, and management.
And then I think what's, what we really kind of pride ourselves on is when we created this program we wanted it to be something that was developed from the experts in the field. So we actually contracted with 19 different individuals who were experts in their respective fields, brought them here to campus. So individuals are really hearing and learning. From the experts in the field.
[00:02:36] Ariadne: That's awesome. And you said you guys are on your fifth cohort now. You had mentioned maybe close to 100 people having gone through this program to date. What is kind of the persona of the person that has been participating? Do they have other full time jobs? Like where are they in their career? Where have they gone afterwards?
[00:02:55] Tom: So the majority of the individuals that have participated in the program so far are working professionals. They come from a variety of fields, although the majority of them that we've seen so far are coming from some type of healthcare or social service field. They may not have an academic degree in one of those fields.
Like I'm a social worker by my academic training. But they may currently hold employment with a social service organization or some type of a healthcare organization. We've also had individuals from those local care management agencies also come in because we found that a lot of the individuals that were being hired were being hired into these organizations without backgrounds in health care or social services.
So, one organization that we talked to their last three hires were journalism, criminal justice and communications. They were not fields that were really designed toward what you might consider a care manager would have.
And so when we talked about that, we found out that a lot of it is just job shadowing that's done in order to meet the requirements for the national credential in care management. So much so that when we pitched the idea of the program to the CEO of that organization, he said that he would take the program because he owned a dive shop in Key West six months prior and bought the care management agency as an investment opportunity as an entrepreneur.
So we really saw right, right away that there was a need for this type of program. So far everybody that's taken it has come from the five county area and has been able to get a full scholarship to do so.
[00:04:42] Ariadne: That's awesome. I'm sure that's incredible for them as well to further their careers and not have to take on additional costs.
You said there are like four segments, right? Community, clinical, technical and management. What are some of the newer trends that you guys make sure to cover and that so that individuals are prepared for their careers.
[00:05:03] Tom: So, you know, the the clinical and the community based are really kind of the foundational pieces because those are the elements that these participants really need to understand in terms of that care management.
And again, because while we did that roadshow with the care management organizations, we were also talking to older adults themselves. And they were telling us that the biggest problem was navigating those services. So it was really imperative that we made sure that the care managers understood that part of the that process. But what's also interesting was when we talk to our health care organizations, because we also, you know, talk to our local hospitals and our major health care carriers. They had a little bit of a different perspective. They said, Well, our staff tend to know the clinical and the community side, but the technology and management side is where they could use some help.
Population projections show that going out through 2040, even 2050 now the fastest growing population group in southwest florida is going to be older adults, 65 and over with the highest population population growth in the 75 and over population. And that's critical for us to kind of realize and understand because we're not seeing the same type of population growth in our younger age ranges.
You know, particularly those individuals that we may traditionally think of who would take on some of these roles. So that's why we wanted to target that current group of professionals to help re skill and up skill them into being able to take on these roles.
[00:06:49] Ariadne: That makes perfect sense. So I'm curious, you know, what are kind of the technological skills that someone walks away from from the module?
[00:06:58] Tom: So for us, it's understanding what in technology is out there. So a lot of our focus at the time that we developed the program, and this is one of the challenges with the program like this. When you have a technology component, is that the technology moves so quickly that we are constantly going back and revamping the program.
But some of the things that we've really focused on so far have been around the ideas of monitoring and wearables. That's been a big part of it. Also different smart home technologies and talking about how those potentially could be implemented.
We also have things about cyber security and how to you know, ensure that we are avoiding scams. We talk about things that are probably more basic technology. In terms of phone usage and the different types of phones that are out there in terms of smartphones where to identify local training opportunities for that.
So we really are trying to take a holistic approach to getting the information out there. And what's great about it is again, a lot of the individuals that are taking this program are already working in agencies. So not only are they getting the information, but we know that they are taking that information back to their organizations.
For example, one participant from cohort three went back to her organization, kind of raved about the program. Thankfully for us, that organization then sent eight more people. So we know that it's having an impact.
And that means the world to us because our role is to support the organizations who are assisting older adults to, you know, positively age and age in place.
[00:08:50] Ariadne: That's awesome. So has that been the case for most of the individuals that have gone through the program where they've continued with their employers, maybe that they were with when they started or where do people normally exit?
[00:09:03] Tom: So a lot of people so far have been staying with the organization that they're at. However, that's not the case across the board. One of the things again that was really beneficial when we did the roadshow at the beginning for the development of the program was that we connected with all of the different care management organizations that existed.
And so one of the things that we do is when participants finish the program, we provide them with a list of those organizations that they can reach out to. And we also contact the organizations to let them know, Hey, we just had another cohort of individuals who went through. So if you have job opportunities, let us know.
And we will put that in front of the participants who successfully completed the course. And so there's, you know, we're really trying to set up that workforce pipeline as well to, to really make this an impactful program for the community.
I think one of the coolest ones that we got out of this was an individual who was trained as an RN who kind of, and is self identified as having burnt out on being an RN, and she ended up going into real estate for a while heard about the program, completed the program, and the feedback that she provided in the course completion survey, because we have that said I didn't realize there was this much of a need out there for a program like this. So I really think I'm going to go look to start my own care management organization. And three months after she completed the course, she reached back out to say that she had established her own LLC, and she was in the process of establishing her own care management company. So I don't think there's a greater kind of you know, bit of feedback that you can get than an individual saying this content was so powerful that I decided that I wanted to make a direct impact into this field.
[00:11:03] Ariadne: That's incredible. One of the other things I think is really interesting about the Florida Gulf Coast University is the Shady Rest Institute on Positive Aging that you are leading. So I wanted you to tell us a little bit more about that and the work that's going on there.
[00:11:18] Tom: Yeah. So the Shady Rest Institute on Positive Aging is a relatively new initiative here at FGCU.
We were extraordinarily fortunate to receive two gifts from the Shady Rest foundation for context. Shady Rest Care Pavilion was an assisted living facility that operated locally here in Fort Myers, Florida for a number of decades. And the purpose of that entity was to provide an assisted living facility for older adults who were at the lower end of the socioeconomic spectrum.
So that operated for a number of years. They developed a foundation. Off of that organization and the business was sold a number of years ago, but the foundation had kind of continued a few years ago. They came to FGCU and they provided us with a 4. 1 million dollar gift to support scholarships for students who were seeking to have careers working with older adults.
And those careers were in five areas. Social work, nursing, physician's assistant studies, occupational therapy and physical therapy. At a gratitude luncheon for that with the foundation board, they kind of asked, you know, what are we still missing? And I kind of lamented the fact that we're one of the few state universities in Florida that didn't have a center or institute on aging.
And very thankfully, they heard that. And came back to us nine months later and provided a 5 million gift to found the Shady Rest Institute on Positive Aging. And then I was honored to be asked to lead that entity as the executive director, not long after. And so now we're moving forward with that.
The purpose of the institute is to be an interdisciplinary hub to help connect our faculty and students with our local community, meaning both the organizations that assist older adults, as well as the older adults themselves.
[00:13:22] Ariadne: Are there particular research areas that you guys are going to be focusing on?
[00:13:28] Tom: So, it's interesting. We, we're trying to take a little bit of a different approach. So, it's not that the answer is no. The answer is yes, but I think more broadly. Most organizations, most centers or institutes that we see around aging have kind of a delineated purpose. So, they may be looking at Alzheimer's and dementia. They may be looking at aging in place. They may be looking at social policy. Our goal is to be more broad. So that interdisciplinary nature of the institute means that we are drawing from across the university. So for example, we're hiring four faculty members this year who will start in, in two months in August.
That come from a wide range of backgrounds. So we hired a faculty member in music therapy. We hired a faculty member in community arts engagement in collaboration with our Bower School of Music and the Arts. We are in the process of hiring an exercise scientist that would be housed in our college, the Merritt College of Health and Human Services.
We also hired a faculty member in construction management. With our Whitaker College of Engineering. And so, you know, those individuals are going to work together. We are going to be launching four more faculty searches, and I have to kind of figure out what those faculty lines are going to look like and where are the areas that we still need, because we're also bringing on affiliate faculty members, and those are individuals that are already here at FGCU who we know are doing work with older adults and we want to bring that in. So we know we have some colleagues in our College of Business in our Department of Psychology and Arts and Sciences. We also have a resort hospitality management program here at FGCU, and we see the connection even with RHM.
Because we know that a lot of our assisted living facilities and so forth, they thrive off of that resort hospitality management model. We just haven't really considered that in terms of a career path for those individuals. So that's something else that we're going to be venturing into and looking to bring together.
[00:15:38] Ariadne: That's awesome. That seems really interdisciplinary. What's the vision for how they'll all work together and what they'll work on?
[00:15:47] Tom: So, you know, the vision, the vision for me is that they just do it. So, and I, and I say that, you know, not, not really facetiously or anything, but you know I'm a social worker by background, so I know what the issues are for older adults here in the community.
I was a child welfare social worker when I got here 13 years ago. The first study I was asked to do was a needs assessment of older adults in Collier County, Florida. And I did that study and it really kind of opened my eyes to the lack of services and programs for older adults here.
And it apparently opened a lot of other eyes because we picked up a lot of local media coverage. And then the next thing we knew the PBS NewsHour sent a team out of Washington, D. C. and was embedded here for a week, and I had the opportunity to take them through the community and show them all of the wonderful, you know, areas of Collier County in Southwest Florida where a lot of older adults get to enjoy.
But I also got to show them the other side of it and that we have a lot of older adults that struggle with, you know, very common social issues like food insecurity, social isolation was the major issue that we saw among our older adults. There were a lot of older adults here. But they didn't have places to go.
They didn't have places to kind of coordinate, collaborate. And so again, you know, one of the really cool things out of that study was that three senior centers ended up being founded off of the work that we were able to do. And so I serve as either a board member or a consultant to all of those now.
And so my goal is to be the connector and convener for the faculty. And to put them in front of these organizations and the older adults so that they can work on a whatever is needed and be whatever is you know, of interest to the faculty members in the students. I think there's a lot of kind of cutting edge.
technology. There's a lot of evidence based practice that works really well across the country. That's been a little slow to arrive here to Southwest Florida. So we want to be able to bring those things here, you know, with the overall purpose of, of, you know, helping our older adults again age positively so they can live their best lives and, you know, extend their lifespan but in a positive manner.
[00:18:14] Ariadne: I think that's an incredible mission. And I look forward to kind of seeing how the Institute continues to grow with all your new faculty. I guess just as a last question what would be your advice to like a potential student as they're considering different options and a career and aging and where they should go?
[00:18:32] Tom: I think the biggest piece of advice that I have is to actually consider older adults as a viable target population to work with in terms of a career path. We see so often that students have a tendency, especially in some of the fields, you know, that we work in health care, social services, even education, obviously, where the focus tends to be on children and youth.
And, and that's important, don't get me wrong, but the problem is it shouldn't be an either or, it should be an and. And we're not seeing a lot of that right now. And so we need more of that focus. We need more of our students that are looking to pursue careers, working with older adults, and who can understand that those are not only viable career paths, especially in an area like Southwest Florida.
But there are also career paths that can be incredibly rewarding. And so that's a big focus that we're taking here. When the, our new, our next academic year starts up in August. We're going to be engaging in a lot of different activities with our current students. To try and give them some early exposure to that idea around career paths with older adults will be offering the virtual dementia tour on campus.
For example, we'll be offering we started offering a course last semester called storytelling for positive aging, where we actually are putting our college students together. With older adults so that they can learn the stories of these older adults because we know that there is so much richness in their experiences and you know, the history that they have over the decades.
And we want to be able to capture that and, you know, tell it and archive it. And so, you know, we have some unique things we're looking at here. We're one of the few universities. We're only the second university in the state of Florida. That has hologram technology, for example. And so one of the ideas we have is to bring older adults in and have them tell their stories in a hologram format so that we can capture those and archive those.
I know when I, when I say it out loud, it just, it's still, it's still hard to wrap my head around. And if I'd haven't seen the technology and use the technology myself, I probably wouldn't believe it. But it's there and we know that it's there. And and so we want to be able to utilize that to the best of our ability.
And again to, you know, the, the best purpose for older adults.
[00:21:06] Ariadne: That sounds really fun. I feel like I would like to take that class and, and learn storytelling. Well, thank you so much for joining us today, Tom. It was fantastic having you on and really appreciate all of your insights.
[00:21:20] Tom: Well, thank you so much for having me.
I really appreciate it.