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In the summer of 2015, the Senior Rehab Project was created out of equal parts frustration and necessity. I was a lonely home health PT with very little insight into how to do my job well. Couple that with a severe lack of representation of #GeriPT in our professional spaces online, the podcast was born. SRP has consistently grown over the past 3.5 years. We've been listened to over half a million times, have a group of over 3,000 clinicians, & a STRONG team of 6 amazing clinicians that are working to advance care for older adults. It's time for us to take things to the next level. We've coined ourselves as the Senior Rehab Project.  Our focus is on Seniors. I don't know many older adults that even like to be called a Senior. We're in the field of Rehab - the action of restoring someone to health or normal life through training and therapy after illness. As the years have gone by, there's been one consistent theme - if we can influence people BEFORE illness, we can make a dramatic impact on their lives. That is beyond the sphere of Rehab. So as we're growing & our mission is becoming more and more clear, I feel it's time to rebrand to GEROS Health.  In Greek mythology, Geras, was the god of old age & is where we get the term "geriatric". It was considered a virtue whereby the more gēras a man acquired, the more fame, excellence, and courage he was considered to have. Age was an ASSET.....NOT a liability.
The term Geros translates as "Old Man". I just think about some of my friends & patients that are considered old men or women...the invisible portion of our society. Do we view their age as an asset? Do we see the value in their experience, wisdom, & journey? I don't know. BUT in the Greek culture, Geros was a sign of status, excellence, & courage. I want to bring a dose of that perspective to our profession. I want to create something that will get people thinking differently about age & question the stereotypes that are proliferated in our culture, media, & even profession. Health is defined by the World Health Organization as "a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity." This is what we're trying to pursue when we are serving people. We are pursuing health, even if "Rehab" is not warranted or necessary. I want to create something will get us thinking how we can nudge people/our communities towards health, even before someone comes in for "physical therapy". We are GEROS Health.
& Our goal is to advance care for older adults by making it easier for you to better serve them! We want to equip the professionals that stand to make a dramatic impact in the lives of older adults...and that's YOU. We will do that in 3 specific ways:
It is very important to mention that all three need to be present.
We have the Content & Community piece down. This is why I am VERY excited to also announce that the Institute of Clinical Excellence (ICE) is the official continuing education provider for the GEROS Health community. What does this mean? Christina Prevett and I, with the help of ICE, will be building out a curriculum that goes beyond our current course Modern Management of the Older Adult to specifically address the needs of the GEROS Health community & those that wish to better serve older adults. But that's not all! More to come over the next couple weeks. For now, you'll notice things starting to look at little different around here. Thank you all for reading! More to come soon! -Dusitn Jones, PT, DPT, CF-L1 p.s. If you're not a part of this amazing community, I encourage you to do so! Join GEROS Comments are closed.
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