Funding Opportunities

Total funding of up to $10 million will be available in Round 1 for 2 and 3 year research proposals. Further information and Expressions of Interest forms are available here from the NHMRC website. Deadline is May 11, 2006. For further assistance, contact Sonya.O'Shea@health.gov.au.

Postdoctoral Fellowships in "Racial, Ethnic, and Cultural Disparities in Mental Health"

The Program for Research on Black Americans at the Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, MI. is pleased to announce positions in their NIMH Postdoctoral Training Program commencing in the fall of 2006. Postdoctoral fellows should have earned a Ph.D., M.D., or doctoral degree equivalent in the social, health, and/or behavioral sciences. Funded by a training grant from the National Institute of Mental Health, these positions are for research focusing on the mental health of racial/ethnic minorities in the United States, with a particular emphasis on African Americans, Latinos, and Asian Americans. The salary stipend for post-doctoral positions ranges from $35,568 - $51,036 depending on experience level. Postdoctoral positions come with full health care benefits. Fellows will collaborate with one or more of the program faculty located in Ann Arbor, MI.; Seattle, WA; or Cambridge, MA who currently have over 200 publications in ongoing research related to the topic.

Applicants should send a letter stating research interests, relevant prior training, and a curriculum vita by February 15th to:

James S. Jackson, Ph.D.
Program for Research on Black Americans
Institute for Social Research
University of Michigan
426 Thompson Street
Ann Arbor, MI 48106-1248
Phone: (734) 763-0045
Fax: (734) 763-0044

Research & News

The New Look at the Old Series, from American Journal of Nursing (April 2006), continues to challenge how we care for older adults. The authors of this article provide a range of evidence-based options for easing the fear, anxiety, humiliation, and pain that can accompany bathing, and provide strategies and techniques to making bathing a pleasant and comforting experience. Follow the link to access this article: www.NursingCenter.com/AJNolderadults. Reprints of previous articles are available at no cost! This project is funded in part by Atlantic Philanthropies.

"Cash and Counseling" is a way of allowing individuals receiving personal assistance services through Medicaid to have more control over the services they get and who provides them. This issue brief describes how the program works and cites results of a three-state demonstration project. Click here to download the issue brief.

The Center for Retirement Research at Boston College has released our latest brief, "How Secure Are Retirement Nest Eggs?" by Richard W. Johnson, Gordon B.T. Mermin, and Cori E. Uccello. This study examines how negative events, such as health ailments, divorce, and job layoffs, can strike older workers and upend even the best-laid retire­ment plans. Click here to view this brief. Please send any questions or comments to crr@bc.edu.

Resources

From the Older Women's League - This May 21-27, 2006, the Older Women's League and partners will again sponsor Older Americans' Mental Health Week to address these critical issues. We are inviting you to be a partner. As a new partner, you will be asked to help raise awareness of mental health and aging issues among your constituencies.

The Older Americans' Mental Health Week toolkit, which provides a thorough outline of these issues and an activities guide, will help guide your organization through the public health observance. Through public education activities, advocacy, and media outreach, our issues gained significant attention and visibility. In 2005 highlights included:

• A successful bipartisan congressional briefing on older adults and mental health
• A matte news release on mental health and aging, published in over 780 community newspapers
• An educational poster that was displayed in thousands of senior centers, community mental health centers, and other venues around the country
• Over 20 national partnerships

With the help of organizations like yours, we will continue to impress upon the American public and policymakers that mental illness is not a normal part of aging and that mental disorders among older adults are treatable. Please join us May 21-27 to ensure that mental health and aging issues receive the attention that they deserve. To become a partner of Older Americans' Mental Health Week, please contact Matt at 703-sss-ssss or matt@owl-national.org. Thank you!

Mentor Minorities program from The Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research

The Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (OBSSR) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) invite you to explore our website designed to expand the promotion efforts of the NIH research supplement training program. Furthermore, the OBSSR seeks to ensure a concentration of researchers who will address behavioral and social factors that are important in improving the public's health, especially among underrepresented populations. This website creates a link between underrepresented students and faculty eligible for support through the NIH Research Supplements to Promote Diversity in Health-Related Research program (see http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PA-05-015.html).

In addition, it establishes a central resource for students and faculty, as well as researchers, seeking information on NIH research training opportunities in the behavioral and social sciences. For more detailed information and to join the program, visit http://mentorminorities.od.nih.gov/.

Call for Papers: Clinical Interventions in Aging

Dr. Richard Walker, Editor-in-Chief of Clinical Interventions in Aging, would like to invite you to submit an article to be considered by peer-review for publication in late 2006. Clinical Interventions in Aging is an international, peer-reviewed journal focusing on evidence-based reports on the value, or lack thereof of, treatments intended to prevent or delay the onset of maladaptive correlates of aging in human beings. The journal includes expert opinion, commentaries, original research, and reviews. In order to meet publishing commitments we would need to receive a draft manuscript from you by July 2006. Please do not hesitate to contact him
(cia@dovepress.com) if you have any comments or questions. Click here for author guidelines.

The NIH Social Work Research Working Group is offering a Summer Institute titled: Design and Development of Quantitative Research on Social Work Interventions in Health. Appropriate candidates are encouraged to apply.

This Institute will address essential conceptual, methodological, and practical issues involved in planning and carrying out research on the impact of social work (SW) interventions on outcomes, health behavior, and treatment.

Eligibility: Investigators who have completed their doctorate and who plan to develop NIH R03 or R21 grant applications for research in this area. Faculty will include established investigators from social work and other fields. The goal is for every participant to develop an NIH R03 or R21 proposal by the end of the training that will eventually lead to a grant submission under PA-06-082 (R03) or PA-06-083 (R21): Research on Social Work Practice and Concepts in Health.

For more information, click here.

The April issue of NIH News in Health, the monthly newsletter bringing you practical health news and tips based on the latest NIH research, is now online at http://newsinhealth.nih.gov. The newsletter's featured website for April was: American Indian Health.

A new booklet from AHRQ's Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) presents detailed charts and other information on health insurance coverage and usual source of care during 2002 for Hispanic, non-Hispanic white, non-Hispanic black, and other single/multiple race non-Hispanic Americans. Differences are broken down by income, gender, age group, and other factors. The chartbook also compares Hispanic subgroups-Puerto Rican, Cuban, Mexican, or "other Hispanic"-a term that includes South Americans, Central Americans, and Dominicans. The full title is: MEPS Chartbook No. 14: Racial and Ethnic Differences in Health Insurance Coverage and Usual Source of Health Care, 2002. Copies are available by sending an e-mail to ahrqpubs@ahrq.hhs.gov.

Twelve outstanding geriatric social work faculty members have been chosen as the newest inductees into the Hartford Faculty Scholars Program, a venture funded by the John A. Hartford Foundation, administered by The Gerontological Society of America, and directed by Dr. Barbara Berkman. The individuals who receive this distinction are provided with opportunities for professional development and $100,000 in funding over the next two years.

Now in its seventh year, the award aims to improve the well-being of older adults by increasing the number of adequately trained geriatric social workers. Listed below are the new faculty scholars.

• Kathryn Betts Adams, PhD, Case Western Reserve University
• Harriet L. Cohen, PhD, Texas Christian University
• Joy Swanson Ernst, PhD, Hood College
• Denise Gammonley, PhD, University of Central Florida
• Daniel S. Gardner, PhD, New York University
• Marie Liston, PhD, Rutgers University
• Crystal Dea Moore, PhD, Skidmore College
• Anissa Taun Rogers, PhD, University of Portland
• Marie Savundranayagam, PhD, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
• Fengyan Tang, PhD, University of Pittsburgh
• Cheryl Waites, PhD, North Carolina State University
• Bradley Zodikoff, PhD, Adelphi University

Six outstanding social work students have been chosen as the newest recipients of the prestigious Hartford Doctoral Fellowship, a program funded by the John A. Hartford Foundation, administered by The Gerontological Society of America, and directed by Dr. James Lubben.

The following individuals will each receive a $50,000 dissertation grant plus $20,000 in matching support from their home institutions that will enable them to more fully concentrate on their dissertation research projects over the next two years:

• Amy Cohen-Callow, University of Maryland, Baltimore
• Bryan K. Ford, University of Alabama
• Kathryn G. Kietzman, UCLA
• Frances Mills, University of South Carolina
• Duy D. Nguyen, Columbia University
• Frances E. Wilby, University of Utah

Year 2 of the CSWE Gero-Ed Center's Curriculum Development Institutes (CDI) is now well underway, with the California and West Coast CDIs successfully completed. When many faculty attempt to implement curricular change, they often find it more difficult and slower than expected, which is reflected in this year's theme, One Year Later: The Reality vs. the Ideal - Next Steps? Each CDI is structured to include sessions on sustainability and competency-based education, along with region-specific presentations by experts in the field on such topics as diversity, cultural competency, and health and mental health. Click here to visit the CSWE Gero-Ed Center's website.