ACT II: Does being evidence-based help ensure training curricula are used?

In order to improve the communication skills and professionalism of direct care employees and volunteers, the Aging Communications Training (ACT) curriculum was developed in 2006-7, based on extensive evidence-based research. Area Agency on Aging Master Trainers from thirteen states were trained in its use at the National Association of Area Agencies on Aging (n4A) conference in 2007. After these Master Trainers returned to their states, they each trained at least twenty local trainers. Very positive evaluations were received from those trainer-trainees, and incorporated into the final report to the Retirement Research Foundation in 2008. This presentation examines its further implementation in local jurisdictions. Did the curriculum continue to be used? Was it modified? What actual difference did the program make to the direct care workers in aging services who were the eventual target of the training, and to their clients? By surveying the original trainers and those they trained, we are seeking the answers to these questions to enable further fine-tuning of the curriculum, making it even more valuable as the nation's senior population expands. In addition, ongoing efforts with local AAAs in several states to refine and spread the training beyond the usual “aging network” to other organizations with senior clients within their areas will be described, with particular emphasis on accomplishing this on a limited budget in times of reduced availability of public and foundation funding.