National Grant to Baystate Program Will Improve Training in Geriatrics

SPRINGFIELD — Dr. Maura Brennan, program director of the Geriatric Medicine Fellowship at Baystate Health, has been awarded a three-year, $2.25 million grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) to improve medical care for older adults in the Baystate community.

One of the major aims of the project, titled “The Baystate Regional Geriatrics and Palliative Care Initiative — the Geri-pal TLC (Transformation through Learning and Collaboration) Project,” is to educate and train providers to care for the specific needs of older adults in the Springfield area, including those with Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.

The Geri-pal TLC project will provide multi-disciplinary training in collaboration with the Springfield College of Social Work, UMass School of Nursing, Elms College Nurse Practitioner programs, Bay Path University’s physician assistant program, and the Brightwood personal care assistant program.

“This is an exciting time for us in terms of educational and clinical programming,” Brennan said. “The expanded interprofessional care and educational programming initiatives in geriatrics and palliative care will offer many additional opportunities for our geriatrics fellowship program.”

Baystate is one of only 44 healthcare organizations in the U.S. to receive funding under this award, and the only one in Massachusetts.

Brennan, a recent winner of the Inspirational Physician Award given by the American Medical Assoc. Women Physicians Section, was also among the inaugural group of hospice physicians to pass the first examination to earn the credential of hospice medical director certified.