Abstract
Older at-risk adults with a chronic, life-threatening illness would benefit from home-based Palliative Care (PC) that includes a comprehensive, holistic assessment of the patients needs, strengths, and vulnerabilities created by a gerontologist. Currently, there is a critical need for gerontologists to be part of PC interdisciplinary teams (IDT), alongside social workers, nurses, and physicians. The goal of this culminating project was to identify health risks of older adults with chronic illness utilizing geriatric rapid assessment instruments to identify individual risks and applying the Gerontology Core Competencies as a framework. A survey administered to Snowline Hospice IDT demonstrated that 85% of participants desired increased training in common geriatric assessment tools. This project demonstrates a new model of home-based PC delivery to at-risk older adults living in rural areas. Gerontologists within PC practice can support social workers, who often lack geriatric specific training in their educational curriculum, by creating comprehensive, holistic care plans that address individual patient goals at the end-of-life.