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Garrison Institute on Aging-Lubbock Retired and Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP) Provides Services to South Plains, Texas.

ABSTRACT: The Texas Tech University Health Sciences (TTUHSC) Garrison Institute on Aging (GIA) was established to promote healthy aging through cutting edge research on Alzheimer's disease (AD) and other diseases of aging, through innovative educational and community outreach opportunities for students, clinicians, researchers, health care providers, and the public. The GIA sponsors the Lubbock Retired and Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP). According to RSVP Operations Handbook, RSVP is one of the largest volunteer efforts in the nation. Through this program, volunteer skills and talents can be matched to assist with community needs. It is a federally funded program under the guidance of the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) and Senior Corps (SC). Volunteers that participate in RSVP provide service in the following areas: food security, environmental awareness building and education, community need-based volunteer programs, and veteran services.

SUBMITTER: Blackmon J

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4672082 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Garrison Institute on Aging-Lubbock Retired and Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP) Provides Services to South Plains, Texas.

Blackmon Joan J Boles Annette N AN Reddy P Hemachandra PH

Frontiers in aging neuroscience 20151208

The Texas Tech University Health Sciences (TTUHSC) Garrison Institute on Aging (GIA) was established to promote healthy aging through cutting edge research on Alzheimer's disease (AD) and other diseases of aging, through innovative educational and community outreach opportunities for students, clinicians, researchers, health care providers, and the public. The GIA sponsors the Lubbock Retired and Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP). According to RSVP Operations Handbook, RSVP is one of the largest v ...[more]

PMID: 26696877

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Project description:BackgroundIn our ever-increasingly multicultural, multilingual society, medical interpreters serve an important role in the provision of care. Though it is known that using untrained interpreters leads to decreased quality of care for limited English proficiency patients, because of a short supply of professionals and a lack of formalized, feasible education programs for volunteers, community health centers and internal medicine practices continue to rely on untrained interpreters.ObjectiveTo develop and formally evaluate a novel medical interpreter education program that encompasses major tenets of interpretation, tailored to the needs of volunteer medical interpreters.DesignOne-armed, quasi-experimental retro-pre-post study using survey ratings and feedback correlated by assessment scores to determine educational intervention effects.ParticipantsThirty-eight students; 24 Spanish, nine Mandarin, and five Vietnamese. The majority had prior interpreting experience but no formal medical interpreter training.Outcome measuresStudents completed retrospective pre-test and post-test surveys measuring confidence in and perceived knowledge of key skills of interpretation. Primary outcome measures were a 10-point Likert scale for survey questions of knowledge, skills, and confidence, written and oral assessments of interpreter skills, and qualitative evidence of newfound knowledge in written reflections.ResultsAnalyses showed a statistically significant (P <0.001) change of about two points in mean self-ratings on knowledge, skills, and confidence, with large effect sizes (d?>?0.8). The second half of the program was also quantitatively and qualitatively shown to be a vital learning experience, resulting in 18 % more students passing the oral assessments; a 19 % increase in mean scores for written assessments; and a newfound understanding of interpreter roles and ways to navigate them.ConclusionsThis innovative program was successful in increasing volunteer interpreters' skills and knowledge of interpretation, as well as confidence in own abilities. Additionally, the program effectively taught how to navigate the roles of the interpreter to maintain clear communication.

Project description:IntroductionTo date, there are no known studies that have investigated the new need for volunteer services among cancer patients during the Covid-19 pandemic. However, it is essential for volunteer associations to heighten such knowledge to best guide their offer in this challenging period.AimThe present study aims to provide a mapping of the cancer patients' needs for volunteer services followed at Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori in Milan (Italy) during the Covid-19 pandemic. Since there are no specific questionnaires for this purpose, we created an ad hoc tool for which we report the preliminary result.MethodWe used a mixed-method multiphase approach.Phase iin April-May 2020 40 ad hoc paper questionnaires were distributed at the entrance of the aforementioned hospital, with the aim of investigating patients' needs through two open-ended questions then analyzed through thematic analysis.Phase iithe contents that emerged from Phase I were transformed into items and submitted to the judgment of a small group of "peers" (patients) and "experts" (professionals) in November-December 2020 to evaluate their comprehensiveness, representativeness and intrusiveness. Phase III: in January-February 2021 paper questionnaires, containing the items reviewed in Phase II, were distributed within the hospital to a representative sample of cancer patients. We applied descriptive statistics, Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and Cronbach's Alpha.Results32 patients completed Phase I, 3 "peers" and 9 "experts" participated in Phase II, 214 patients completed the questionnaire in Phase III. EFA highlights five kinds of needs during the Covid-19 pandemic, in order of priority: (1) need to be supported at the hospital; (2) need for emotional support; (3) need for daily errands; (4) need for practical support to family members; (5) need to share free time. Preliminary results on the tool are encouraging, although further studies are needed. These results will allow local volunteer associations to adapt their services during the pandemic.

Project description:ObjectiveTo evaluate how the availability of contraceptive services was associated with a change in the abortion rate before and after Texas' legislative changes to the family planning budget in 2011 and abortion access in 2013.MethodsIn this cross-sectional study, we obtained 2010 and 2015 data on contraceptive provision (number of publicly funded clinics and number of contraceptive clients served per 1,000 reproductive-aged women) from the Guttmacher Institute and county-level abortion data from the Texas Department of State Health Services. We categorized counties as having an abortion rate that increased or declined less than the national rate between 2010 and 2015 ( low-decline counties ) compared with those having an abortion rate that declined equal to or greater than the national rate between 2010 and 2015 ( high-decline counties ). We evaluated differences in contraceptive provision between high-decline and low-decline counties and evaluated county characteristics (racial and ethnic composition, unemployment, poverty, uninsured, education, distance to an abortion clinic, deliveries covered by Medicaid, and Catholic hospital marketplace dominance) as potential confounders.ResultsOf 157 counties that had at least one contraceptive clinic in either 2010 or 2015, 49 were low-decline counties and 108 were high-decline counties. Although the total number of publicly funded family planning clinics increased by 10.8%, there was a 4.7% decrease in the total number of contraceptive clients served statewide. Compared with low-decline counties, high-decline counties had a higher median number of contraceptive clients served per 1,000 women aged 18-44 years (31.9 vs 60.7, P <.05) in 2015. Between 2010 and 2015, the abortion rate decreased 19.7% for each 1.0% increase in contraceptive clients served.ConclusionTexas counties with higher abortion-rate declines had more publicly funded contraceptive clinics and served more contraceptive clients than counties with lower declines, which may indicate the importance of greater access to publicly funded contraceptive services.

Dataset Information

Garrison Institute on Aging-Lubbock Retired and Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP) Provides Services to South Plains, Texas.

Publications

Garrison Institute on Aging-Lubbock Retired and Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP) Provides Services to South Plains, Texas.

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