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SARASOTA, FL, (August 18, 2005) – Education, gender, race, age and economic status are all factors in how people plan for health care and financial needs as they grow older. Kathy Black, assistant professor in the School of Social Work at the University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee with expertise in advance care planning, received a $20,000 Interdisciplinary Synergy Grant to study disparities in advance care planning among elders in Sarasota and Manatee counties. The USF Sarasota-Manatee research project was the only one of its kind granted university wide.

With information gathered through census data, Black’s team will identify people in area that have a high percentage of old, poor, ethnic and disabled. Random surveys of the elderly in poor areas compared with similar data from more affluent areas will aid in evaluating the differences between the variables of education, race, gender, age and wealth for the two groups.

The focus will not just be on health care, said Black, a Hartford geriatric social work faculty scholar and research associate at USF Sarasota-Manatee’s Center for Research in Healthcare Systems and Policies. Other research team members include Dr. Sandy Reynolds from the College of Aging Studies and Dr. Hana Osman from the College of Public Health, bringing unique perspectives to this interdisciplinary project. “Many of these less affluent elderly do not have access to resources that help with legal and financial issues, in addition to residential adaptation, such as getting ramps constructed and home health assistance to remain at home.”

The results of this one-year project, gathered with help from the Institute for Public Research at Florida International University, will become pilot data to submit for a federal grant. If those funds are granted, the study will be expanded statewide.

The new Campus Center, scheduled to open in fall 2006, will be a 100,000-square-foot facility with 24 classrooms; a 190-seat lecture/exhibition hall; seminar and video-conferencing rooms; computer labs; a daycare center; student gathering places; faculty and staff offices; a technology and learning center; dining facilities; and training facilities for the School of Hotel and Restaurant Management. Once completed, the Center will offer some 800 courses annually in 39 academic programs.