Global Health for Aging Adults  Special Interest Group

Thank you for visiting The APTA Geriatrics Global Health for Aging Adults Special Interest Group (GHAA SIG) page!

The goals of the GHAA SIG are to increase awareness of the practice of geriatric physical therapy across the globe, advance geriatric PT practice globally, encourage international clinician and student activities, and facilitate global partnerships. Our SIG is dedicated to enhancing health and well-being of old adults through networking and collaboration among geriatric PTs and researchers of various countries.

We are seeking to connect with you to share your ideas and experiences. We have been working on several key SIG activities and projects in 2021. Please see the link below as we seek volunteers for our GHAA Journal Club committee as well as contributions to our new Global Health for Aging Adults Quarterly Newsletter.

Please continue to check out new features on the website as we strive to provide news, stories, blogs, videos, and more to support your goals of being connected to international Geriatric Physical Therapy professionals.

Thank you for being a member of GHAA SIG.

Stay well and be in touch,

GHAA SIG Leadership Team

In 1999 I was working at an academic medical center on a specialized unit for frail, medically complex, older adults. At the same time, I was preparing to take the Geriatric Certified Specialist exam. An opportunity came up to go to San Salvador, El Salvador with Health Volunteers Overseas (HVO) to provide a course on Geriatric Rehabilitation to the physical therapy faculty at the University of El Salvador and local physical therapists. As I studied for the boards, I simultaneously created the course materials for the course I planned to give in Central America. The trip to El Salvador turned out to be an amazing experience. Every day for two weeks I worked with a group of 80 physical therapists. That represented about 10% of all of the physical therapists in the country at that time. I also had the chance to appear on a local television show hosted by a physician I met on the trip to discuss stroke rehabilitation.

A number of years ago, our local university, The University of Toledo, was trying to expand their physical therapy students' involvement in a long running medical mission program to Len, Nicaragua coordinated by medical students in the school of medicine. I was fortunate enough to be selected to supervise a group of physical therapy students and provide care to underserved people in and around the city of Len. Each year the physical therapy component of the program grew and I had begun to make contacts with more of the local healthcare professionals. Unfortunately, because of some political instability the trips have been cancelled the past several years. However, I've continued to get grants for equipment for the local hospital in Len and I hope to one day be able to continue volunteering in Nicaragua.

Rick Black, PT, DPT, MS
ProMedica Corporate Rehabilitation Director
333 N. Summit St, Toledo, OH 43604
Office 419-254-5321 | Fax 419-254-7611

On October 1, 2021 the world celebrated International Day of the Older Person, which was a wonderful reason to launch this new section of the GHAA website. The idea for Articles of Interest is to share journal articles that support our GHAA mission to share information that impacts the physical therapy care of older adults from around the world. The month of October in the United States is Breast Cancer awareness month, which helped generate the theme for several of the articles listed, in addition to the ongoing COVID -19 pandemic. The articles were selected by Jennifer Howanitz and Samejima, Soshi. The articles will provide insight into international perspectives on isolation caused by COVID 19, care of older oncology patients, and how language barriers affect care of older breast cancer patients. Please feel free to contact us via our email links on the website with topics for future articles of interest.

TOPIC - COVID 19 Impact in Geriatric Physical Therapy Care and International Breast Cancer care of the older adult Bland KA, Bigaran A, Campbell KL, Trevaskis M, Zopf EM. Exercising in isolation? the role of telehealth in exercise oncology during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. Physical Therapy. 2020;100(10):1713-1716. doi:10.1093/ptj/pzaa141 https://academic.oup.com/ptj/article/100/10/1713/5879285

Sepulveda-Loyola W, Rodriguez-Sanchez I, Perez-Rodriguez P, et al. Impact of Social Isolation Due to COVID-19 on Health in Older People: Mental and Physical Effects and Recommendations [published online ahead of print, 2020 Sep 25]. J Nutr Health Aging. 2020;1-10. doi:10.1007/s12603-020-1469-2 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7514226/

Battisti NM, Mislang AR, Cooper L, et al. Adapting care for older cancer patients during the COVID-19 pandemic: Recommendations from the International Society of Geriatric Oncology (SIOG) covid-19 Working Group. Journal of Geriatric Oncology. 2020;11(8):1190-1198. doi:10.1016/j.jgo.2020.07.008 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32709495/

Stuiver MM, Stout NL, Dennett AM, Speksnijder CM, Campbell KL. An international perspective on integrating physiotherapists in oncology care. Journal of Physiotherapy. 2019;65(4):186-188. doi:10.1016/j.jphys.2019.07.004 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30272159/

Soto-Perez-de-Celis E, Vazquez J, Kim H, et al. Improving Care for Spanish-Speaking Older Adults with Breast Cancer: Feasibility, Reliability, and Validity of a Self-Administered Spanish Language Geriatric Assessment. Cancers (Basel). 2021;13(11):2685. Published 2021 May 29. doi:10.3390/cancers13112685 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8198244/

APTA Geriatrics March 2021 Journal Club - Originally presented March 16, 2021