A University of Chicago Medicine program that provides specialized training to manage aging-related issues has received an additional $5 million in federal funding.

The Supporting Healthy Aging Resources & Education (SHARE) Network will receive roughly $1 million annually over five years from a Health Resources and Services Administration grant known as the Geriatrics Workforce Enhancement Program (GWEP).

“This grant will be used to train health professionals across Illinois to better care for older adults and to support healthcare and community organization partners to provide dementia-friendly and age-friendly care,” said Katherine Thompson, MD, a professor of geriatric medicine at UChicago and the SHARE Network’s project director.

The need is great, Thompson said. People over 85 years old are the fastest growing segment of United States population, yet far too few medical students specialize in taking care of older patients.

Roughly 20,000 geriatricians are needed in the United States, but fewer than 7,300 certified geriatricians are currently practicing, according to Geriatrics Healthcare Professionals, a nonprofit organization.

“Not a lot of people are getting the training they need to take care of this population,” Thompson said.

Education, outreach deliver wide community impact

Since its inception in 2015, the SHARE Network has partnered with healthcare and community organizations to train the likes of physicians, nurses, nurse practitioners and pharmacists.

Offering education and outreach on a wide variety of aging-related concerns, from memory and mobility changes to end-of-life care planning, the SHARE Network has helped hundreds of clinics and nursing homes achieve age-friendly certification and provided free community health presentations.

In collaboration with several healthcare and community organizations, the SHARE Network has even helped Hyde Park secure a designation from Dementia Friendly America, a Washington, D.C.-based organization, as Chicago’s first dementia-friendly neighborhood.

The SHARE Network prioritizes serving residents of Chicago’s South Side — where many older adults qualify for Medicare but often lack day-to-day support and caregiving help at home — and it provides a framework to connect patients with a larger network of community organizations for assistance and services.

Help can come in many forms. Taylor Tech Solutions, LLC, of Northwest Indiana, teamed up with the Paul G. Stewart Center senior apartments in Bronzeville to offer bimonthly computer and smartphone training for residents, for example. The tech company and the apartment complex are SHARE Network community partners.

“The residents really appreciate that,” Thompson said. “It’s how a lot of people are communicating with their doctors and healthcare teams now, so it’s really necessary training for a lot of people.”

Expanded mission and service area

Over the years, the SHARE Network — one of only 42 GWEPs nationwide and the only one operating in Illinois — has expanded to provide training in high-need areas statewide. Healthcare workers from across the U.S., Canada and even Nigeria have attended SHARE Network virtual seminars.

The GWEP grant offers flexibility in how the SHARE Network can use funds, which allows the group to address evolving needs, Thompson said.

“We have a really strong core team that helps to run our projects — folks from medicine, social work, public health and community health,” Thompson said. “I think it really goes back both to the strengths of our core team, our community partnerships and the population that we're trying to serve.”