The leadership award is designed to improve an institution's curricula and enhance the research capacity in Geriatrics. Accordingly, this proposal describes the creation of a network of academic long-term care institutions, joined with the University of Pennsylvania's IOA to collectively enhance their research and education capacity. We will engage experienced researchers within the University to bolster the interdisciplinary collaborations and promote age-related research in multiple long-term care settings. In this proposal, """"""""long-term care setting"""""""" refers to any setting whereby a spectrum of services may be provided to persons with illnesses that affect their ability to care for themselves, including the home, adult day care, partial hospital programs, assisted living, personal care settings, nursing homes or life care communities. Moreover this project will incorporate all such settings, with nursing homes making up the largest numbers. In creating this ALTCN, we will 1) develop an infrastructure to facilitate age- related research in long-term care settings; 2) provide an environment to foster an interest in age-related research among young investigators and students; 3) expand available data sets for long-term care research; 4) develop mechanisms to resolve obstacles to long-term care research; 5)promote new age-related research among the researchers of the IOA and 6) disseminate long-term care research.
