Training Health Care Providers on Senior Substance Abuse

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and the American Medical Association suggest that there is an epidemic of alcohol abuse among the elderly. Since the number of elderly using home healthcare is a rapidly growing, it is important for home health care professionals to be aware of alcohol use by their patients and of the potential negative effects of this use. The goal of the proposed Phase I SBIR Project is to develop an integrated, interactive, multimedia nursing continuing education (CE) course (Alcohol Use and Abuse in the Elderly) add screening instrument (Elderscreen) to provide home healthcare nurses with knowledge, tools, and skills to assess their senior patients for alcohol use/abuse and make appropriate referrals. To maintain their licensing, nurses in many states are required to take CE credits, which gives this product great commercial potential. In Phase I, Danya proposes to develop the online nursing CE course with accompanying screening instrument and Alcohol Fact sheets. The online nursing CE course will undergo a pre-test/post-test feasibility pilot test evaluation during Phase I. In Phase II, we will develop supplemental materials to the course including a Case Study Video and Online Resource Center Website, and a full-scale evaluation of the online nursing CE course will be conducted.