Buckwalter tapped by Coleman to present 2002

	Kathleen C. Buckwalter

Kathleen C. Buckwalter, professor of nursing and associate provost for health sciences, will deliver the talk, titled “Who Will Care? Research and Service on Behalf of Iowa’s Impaired Elders.”

Buckwalter, a registered nurse, researches issues affecting older adults, with an emphasis on geriatric mental health. She has written and consulted extensively on the needs of older individuals with mental and cognitive impairments and on the needs of their caregivers, including family members and health professionals.

The lecture is free and open to the public. It will be preceded by a performance of the first movement, Adagio-Allegro vivace of Beethoven’s Trio no. 2 in G Major, op. 1 no. 2. The performers include Annette-Barbara Vogel, assistant professor of music, violin; Anthony Arnone, assistant professor of music, cello; and Uriel Tsachor, professor of music, piano.

The 2000 census showed that Iowa ranks as one of the oldest states. Nearly one in five Iowans—18.8 percent—is 60 or older, with those 85 and older making up 2.2 percent of the population. Almost 30 percent of Iowans 65 and older live alone, and a quarter of Iowa households have individuals 65 and older living in them. Depression is common among older Iowans, often related to retirement, the loss of a spouse, or physical impairment. Any of these life events may leave the older individual feeling isolated and unable to adjust, which can lead to depression. Other common mental problems include dementia brought on by Alzheimer’s disease and similar disorders and acute confusion related to factors such as dehydration, medications, or pain.

Buckwalter has been instrumental in efforts to improve services for mentally impaired elders and those who provide care for them. She led a project to design and test an outreach program to identify and provide mental health services to elderly rural Iowans, who typically fell through the cracks of the existing system. The project integrated a variety of health, mental health, and human service agencies in the planning and delivery of services, and trained hundreds of so-called “gatekeepers”—rural mail carriers, veterinarians, grain and farm equipment dealers, and others who might have day-to-day contact with older community members—to recognize signs of mental impairment and make appropriate referrals to qualified service providers. The project, which was independently evaluated, succeeded in identifying clients who otherwise might not have come to the attention of local social service networks; interviews with a sample of clients suggested significant improvements in depression and other psychiatric symptoms.

Another way to improve mental health services for elders is to provide more training to staff in nursing homes, where up to 70 percent of residents over age 65 experience mental health or behavioral problems. Buckwalter and a team of specialists at the University and the Abbe Center for Community Mental Health in Cedar Rapids developed an interactive, statewide train-the-trainers program for nurses at about 100 long-term care facilities in Iowa. The nurses learned how to train other workers, most of them nursing assistants, to better meet the mental health needs of residents. In all, more than 1,500 Iowa nursing home staff benefited from the program. The program was replicated in rural Virginia with minority staff members to ensure the cultural competence of the training materials.

Buckwalter also has turned her attention to the needs of professional and family caregivers. Her funded research and consultation includes projects to assess the effects of institutionalization of persons with Alzheimer’s disease on family members who had cared for them at home, and to integrate family members into care plans for institutionalized elders. She has written on elder abuse by family members and long-term care facility staff as well.

In addition to her place on the UI College of Nursing faculty, where she is a University of Iowa Foundation Distinguished Professor, Buckwalter has appointments in the Departments of Psychiatry and Internal Medicine in the College of Medicine; she also is co-director of the UI Center on Aging, associate director of the Gerontological Nursing Interventions Research Center, and co-principal investigator of the Hartford Center of Geriatric Nursing Excellence at the University. Buckwalter’s contributions to nursing science and practice are nationally recognized, earning her membership in the National Academy of Science’s Institute of Medicine and the American Academy of Nursing, as well as numerous awards and honors.

Article by Derek Maurer