Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, April 19, 1994 TAG: 9404190131
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ALLISON BLAKE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
The agreement, struck March 4, will be marked today at a formal signing and news conference at 9 a.m. Virginia's secretary of state and Virginia Tech's former dean of students, Beverly Sgro, will give the keynote speech.
Under the agreement, Virginia Tech's Center for Gerontology, Radford University's School of Nursing and New River Community College will share research information, and, perhaps more importantly, ban together to gain research funding. Although the coalition will work out of its own quarters, it also will be loosely based out of a new $3 million special care pavilion to be built at Warm Hearth. A capital campaign to pay for the building will be launched in the New River Valley, said Dave Murray of Warm Hearth.
"For a number of years, we wanted to create a partnership so that age-related issues could be studied and dealt with at a retirement community," Murray said.
Several projects already have taken place: Tech horticulture and landscape architecture researchers helped design the pathways around the village. Hotel and tourism management researchers helped design food service areas.
"In the short run, this really gives all of us an opportunity to sit down and begin talking about cooperation in better ways, said Jim McAuley, head of Tech's gerontology center.
The consortium will not, however, deal with medical or health research. The focus will be everything from nutrition, arts, or computers, or "the real subtle nuances of living," which includes the design of kitchens, Murray said.
"Where do you put a peephole in the door for a community where people seem to be getting smaller?" said Murray.
Given the aging of Americans, wherein half the population will be 55 or older by the year 2050, such practical research is necessary, Murray said.
"The demographics in this country clearly indicate we have a massive wave of seniors coming, and we are not prepared to deal with it the way we ought to deal with it," he said.
The new, 72-unit pavilion will be built to provide special care for Alzheimer's disease and dementia patients, whose illnesses require special attention to their surroundings.
"This is a new field being explored," said Murray. "They need special care, they need an environment where family activities are promoted. Lots of families don't like to go to facilities when they're not happy their loved ones are there.
"There is no facility like this in Virginia."
by CNB