unity in: Increasing research opportunities for aging and caregiving LGBTQIA+

Populations

FACULTY MEMBER

Whitney Wharton, PhD, associate professor

PARTNERS/COMMUNITY

Leaders in the local and national LGBTQIA+ community, with support from the Alzheimer’s Association and the National Institute on Aging

Some aspects of aging and caregiving among members of the LGBTQIA+ community are more prominent, less recognized, and too seldom included in clinical research. The RISE initiative helps address those challenges.

As a child, Whitney Wharton watched her parents’ arduous journey as caregivers for her grandmother. It was a powerful introduction to challenges faced by Alzheimer’s patients and caregivers.

Years later, as a cognitive neuroscientist, she recognized that some communities have fewer resources and greater fears about how they are perceived or stigmatized as they age.

Many LGBTQIA+ persons, she found, didn’t know where to find resources for aging and caregiving. Also, many clinicians and researchers did not know the right questions to ask them.

Working with colleagues at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Wharton created RISE (Research Inclusion Supports Equity) to address both challenges. The website includes resources related to aging, living with memory loss, and caring for a family member or friend.

RISE also includes a registry (theriseregistry. org) to help ensure that LGBTQIA+ patients and caregivers are better represented in Alzheimer’s and aging research.

Not collecting information about sexual orientation and gender identity can weaken research, Wharton says. The LGBTQIA+ community faces different challenges, especially when race is a factor. LGBTQIA+ individuals are more likely to become caregivers because they are less likely to have children and more likely to live alone.

Caregiving is even more stressful when LGBTQIA+ individuals have not come out to parents or relatives or if families disapprove of their partner or living situation. Close-knit families of choice within the LGBTQIA+ community often have caregiving responsibilities not represented in traditional family dynamics.

Through its website and registry, RISE strives to make health care providers and researchers more responsive to these challenges. — Sylvia Wrobel

Impact

“The overwhelming interest in RISE since its founding one year ago speaks to the urgent and previously unmet needs of the aging and caregiving LGBTQIA+ population and those who work with them.” — Whitney Wharton

Boosting clinician well-being

FACULTY MEMBER

Nicholas A. Giordano, PhD, RN, assistant professor

PARTNERS/COMMUNITY

Emory Healthcare, Grady Health System, Emory Healthcare Public Safety, and Emory University Police Department

Because of the pandemic, work-related stress and burnout are more pervasive among workers across clinical care settings. An initiative called ARROW — Atlanta’s Resiliency Resource fOr frontline Workers — is helping foster resiliency among frontline workers, including those who care for underserved populations.

Nicholas A. Giordano, an assistant professor in the School of Nursing, is working toward a sustainable systems-level solution as director of ARROW. Through this initiative, health care and other frontline workers are learning how to use mindfulness and compassion-based skills to strengthen self-care.

ARROW is funded by the Health Resources and Services Administration as part of its nationwide resiliency training program. Instruction is free for Emory Healthcare and Grady Health System clinicians and staff and Emory Healthcare and Emory University public safety and police officers.

To date, Giordano and his Emory nursing, medicine, public health, and spiritual health colleagues have trained more than 250 frontline workers.

Clinicians participate in Cognitively Based Compassion Training, a program offered through ARROW to enhance mental well-being and resiliency.

Once a week, wellness workshops are held in departments and units within the hospitals. Those wanting to learn more may take an eighthour program grounded in spiritual health that combines classroom instruction and contemplative exercises.

Some participants have become certified trainers themselves, a development that will have a sustainable effect on worker well-being.

Grady is a prime example. When a newly certified instructor there held a workshop, more than 70 people attended. Grady now has 10 certified trainers. Mindfulness and self-compassion skills are now taught to Grady nurses during orientation and to a unit incident response team, says Michelle Wallace, DNP, RN, FRCN, NEA-BC, FACHE, chief nursing officer at Grady Health System.

Online mindfulness instruction will soon be available through the Emory Nursing Experience, which provides continuing education for nurses. — Pam Auchmutey