Johns Hopkins to fund new center to improve health, well-being of older people

Johns Hopkins University has been awarded a five-year, $1.8 million grant from the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute on Aging to fund a center that will conduct research on the informal support resources of vulnerable older adults. David L. Roth, Ph.D., director of Hopkins’ Center on Aging and Healthand a professor in the Division of Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, will be the principal investigator.

Called the Johns Hopkins Roybal Center, it will focus on the transition of health-care services from traditional institutions such as nursing homes to home- and community-based models, which include key family members and caregivers, according to an NIH statement. The Center will strengthen research partnerships at Hopkins for investigators across the schools of Medicine, Public Health and Nursing.

The Edward R. Roybal Centers for Research on Applied Gerontology were authorized by Congress in 1993 and named for former House Select Committee on Aging Chair Edward R. Roybal. In addition to Johns Hopkins, Brandeis University in Massachusetts also was designated as a new Roybal Center, and 11 existing centers received funds to continue research — for a total of $23.4 million over the next five years.

The centers have been innovative models for moving promising social and behavioral research findings out of the laboratory and into programs and practices that can be applied every day to improve the health and well-being of older people.

Roth says he is “both thrilled and humbled by this opportunity to lead a talented group of committed researchers at Johns Hopkins to improve the health care and quality of life for many older adults and their families. This new Johns Hopkins Roybal Center will provide much-needed resources for us to better pursue these important goals.”