Everyone living in the Circumpolar North should have the opportunity to live a long
and healthy life. However, we live in an environment that can be challenging as we
get older. The physical environment may be difficult to navigate (extreme weather,
changing climate, high costs of living, etc) but it is important to remember that
the social environment also changes for us as we age. As more adults are choosing
to age-in-place and retire at home here in Alaska, we are noticing real gaps in our
knowledge about what healthy aging means to our elders and how we can achieve it in
our Arctic environment.
The Healthy Aging Lab at UAA works to understand the shifting sociocultural landscape
for aging adults and identify service needs to facilitate healthy aging-in-place.
We do this in a variety of ways, from Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR)
projects, to community-engaged courses in health sciences, to individual service-learning
projects—our work aims to benefit not only the student (and future geriatric workforce),
but the senior community as well.
On Nov. 13, the College of Health hosted a legislative event highlighting the Alaska Comprehensive Forensic Training Academy (ACFTA) in the Health Sciences Building. Co-led by Nursing Professor Angelia Trujillo, D.N.P., and Social Work Professor Kathi Trawver, Ph.D., the event brought together health care professionals, community partners, and legislators to learn more about ACFTA’s mission.
A recent article from KHNS highlights the critical gap in forensic healthcare access for sexual assault survivors in Skagway, Alaska. With no local options for forensic exams, survivors must travel significant distances to receive care. The article also points to available advocacy services and funding options that support these survivors.
Angela Trujillo, Professor of Nursing and Alaska Comprehensive Training Academy (ACTFA) from UAA, visits Unalaska to train health care professionals on how to better serve patients who have been victims of violence.
Dr. Rei Shimizu, from the University of Alaska Anchorage School of Social Work, in collaboration with multiple institutions, has been awarded a five-year, $8 million grant from the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office on Violence Against Women (OVW).
Angela Trujillo, Professor of Nursing and Alaska Comprehensive Training Academy (ACTFA) from UAA offers free trainings for health care professionals on how to document and report abuse effectively.
The UAA Healthy Aging Research Laboratory is partially supported by an Institutional
Development Award (IDeA) from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences of
the National Institutes of Health (NIH) under grant number 2P20GM103395. The content
is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily reflect the official
views of Alaska INBRE.