Betsy White, APRN, PhD

Check out the NDWS Special Collection just published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. It includes five open access articles on survey questionnaire development, sample frame development, data collection, and more.

Are there songs that give you time travel? It turns out that that power—of music to recall vivid memories—can be harnessed to ease dementia symptoms.

🎧 On this month's Humans in Public Health, Professor Ellen McCreedy: https://humans-in-public-health.captivate.fm/episode/the-power-to-transport

This is one article from Special Collection on the NIA-funded National Dementia Workforce Study (@ndws.bsky.social) just published (open access!) in @agsjournal.bsky.social

agsjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/toc/10.1...

cc @joannespetz.bsky.social @um-ihpi.bsky.social @ucsf-ihps.bsky.social

Socializing the Benefits of Entering Long-Term Care In a 2024 US national poll 33% of older adults (age 50-80 years) reported experiencing loneliness and 29% reported feeling socially isolated.1 Nursing homes and assisted living facilities (collectivel...

New paper in @jamainternalmed.com!

In it, we use data to examine a commonly held belief about what moving into a nursing home or assisted living facility (also known as a long-term care facility; or LTCF) does to your social life.

jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

New in @jamainternalmed.com led by Fangli Geng:

Changes in SNF coding practices & expenditures under the Patient Driven Payment Model

SNFs are coding more (but still less than hospitals), and expenditures have increased for more medically complex patients

jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

A Quiet Policy Shift That Could Devastate American Science Why NIH’s sudden move to multi-year grant funding should alarm every principal investigator and university

A little known - but hugely consequential - part of the government’s changes to science funding:

open.substack.com/pub/sciencea...

Immigrant Staff in Nursing Homes: Mitigating Staffing Shortages During the COVID-19 Pandemic - Hankyung Jun, Fangli Geng, Brian E. McGarry, Momotazur Rahman, Elizabeth M. White, Emily A Gadbois, David... The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated staffing shortages in U.S. nursing homes. Staff who are immigrants may have stronger tendencies to remain in their jobs than U...

New paper led by Kate Jun (RAND) on the importance of immigrant staff in mitigating nursing home staffing shortages during the pandemic.

journals.sagepub.com/eprint/GC9G2...

Dual Threats From Trump and GOP Imperil Nursing Homes and Their Foreign-Born Workers - KFF Health News Understaffed nursing homes face a workforce crisis if President Donald Trump and Republicans further curtail immigration and cut Medicaid.

More than 800,000 immigrants and naturalized citizens comprise 28% of direct care employees at home care agencies, nursing homes, assisted living facilities, and other long-term care companies. kffhealthnews.org/news/article...

Except the Medicaid cuts will also force nursing homes to close, so these people and their families will be left with no help.

Brown faculty to confer highest honor on preeminent scholars in physics, public health J. Michael Kosterlitz, a professor of physics, and Terrie Fox Wetle, a professor emerita of health services, policy and practice, will receive the Rosenberger Medal of Honor during Commencement and Re...

Our founding dean, Terrie Fox Wetle, will receive the Rosenberger Medal of Honor during Commencement and Reunion Weekend. This is the highest honor Brown faculty can bestow, having only been conferred 36 times in the last 100+ years.
www.brown.edu/news/2025-05...

Brown faculty to confer highest honor on preeminent scholars in physics, public health J. Michael Kosterlitz, a professor of physics, and Terrie Fox Wetle, a professor emerita of health services, policy and practice, will receive the Rosenberger Medal of Honor during Commencement and Re...

Awarded just 36 times, the Susan Colver Rosenberger Medal is the highest honor Brown's faculty can bestow. At the University's 257th Commencement it will be awarded to Professor Terrie Fox Wetle, founding dean of Brown's School of Public Health. #Brown2025 #BrownSPH2025 www.brown.edu/news/2025-05...

Recent job reports show that healthcare has been adding jobs to the economy. Home health has seen robust growth over the last year or so, with some slowing in recent months.

1/4

The continued assault on NINR is particularly dumb.

NINR is one of the smallest NIH institutes but it's a critical funder of nursing school faculty.

Schools need faculty to train nurses. Faculty shortages have long been a key rate-limiting factor affecting nurse supply

But who needs nurses? 🤔😑😡

Sarah!! It's been over 20 years since we were at Penn together and I just randomly saw this post. I'm so sorry about your grants - what an absolute dumpster fire we're in right now. Your work sounds very cool & I hope you're able to pull together other funding to keep it going. Hang in there...

Congratulations to the 68 new members of Brown's Epsilon Iota Chapter of the Delta Omega Honorary Society in Public Health! The students inducted yesterday were recognized for their outstanding performance and devotion to public health. education.sph.brown.edu/students/lif...

We know it was neither about protecting nor defending women. I'm sad that #NIH has terminated the #WHI.

NIH terminates $13 million grant on dementia A $12.9 million grant for a study on dementia risks among at-risk U.S. populations was terminated by the National Institutes of Health.

“Older Black Americans are twice as likely as white patients to develop [dementia]. Just as it is not illegal to research breast cancer in women, Mezuk said, it should not be illegal to research dementia in Black and lower-income white Americans.”

www.michigandaily.com/news/researc...

I've received additional confirmation, as well as an email I can share publicly.

See the directive NIH grants management staff received from Michelle Bulls, director of extramural policy at NIH:

The NIH called my health equity research ‘antithetical to scientific inquiry’ The NIH canceled Logan Beyer’s health equity research, saying it was “antithetical to scientific research.” That’s completely wrong, she writes.

Nice response to grant terminations: “The NIH called my health equity research ‘antithetical to scientific inquiry’ “ www.statnews.com/2025/04/15/n... via @statnews.com

“It’s a very strong network, and it would be easy to wreck, but it took years to build.”

Harvard FTW: "The university will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights. Neither Harvard nor any other private university can allow itself to be taken over by the federal government."

How cutting Medicaid would affect long-term care and family caregivers The federal program is the biggest source of money for long-term care for the elderly and disabled. Republican proposals to cut its budget could jeopardize supports family and caregivers rely on.

"There's a real likelihood of unnecessary institutionalization, because of what states would have to do," says Jorwic. Disabled & elderly people who could have stayed home with some assistance might need to enter a nursing home, simply because that's the only way they can get care. #Medicaid

Low-income workers who are covered by Medicaid are generally in jobs that don't provide health benefits. Without Medicaid, they'd be uninsured.

Proposals due April 28 for Cycle 2 pilot grants

There are many innovative ways to use new NDWS survey data and linked data sources to understand the diverse dementia care workforce. And, you can receive a pilot grant to do so. Apply by April 28 for up to $100,000 in direct costs for projects using Wave 1 data. www.ndws.org/pilot-grants

Federal Judge Blocks Mandate on Nursing Home Staffing - KFF Health News A federal judge in Texas blocked a Biden administration rule to boost staffing at nursing homes. The decision comes even though many homes lack enough workers to maintain residents’ care.

A federal judge in Texas blocked a Biden administration rule to boost staffing at nursing homes. KFF Health News walked through the decision from the judge and what it could mean for nursing home staffing. kffhealthnews.org/news/article...

Line out the door for security, probably. It's windy and freezing.

Line out the door for security, probably. It's windy and freezing.

Line out the door for security, probably. It's windy and freezing.

Line out the door for security, probably. It's windy and freezing.

My #hhs colleagues deserve better.

A hundred years ago, the average life expectancy was <50. Today, it is ~80.

What made the difference? Public Health. Public health, however, is not some magic entity happening in a vacuum - it requires people.

Without those people, there can be no Public Health. That serves no one.

Wake up.

Shameful way to treat public servants. I'm so sorry to see this. It is a tragedy for our country.

Vaccines for Children grants. All terminated.

Every single one of the 64 US jurisdictions managing our immunization programs.

See Philadelphia's Dept Pub Health cuts below. The VFC terminations run from pages 25-31 in this listing: taggs.hhs.gov/Content/Data...

HANDS OFF VACCINES FOR CHILDREN!

Proposals due April 28 for Cycle 2 pilot grants

There is still time to submit a proposal for NDWS Cycle 2 pilot grants. Apply by April 28 for direct costs up to $100,000 for projects using Wave 1 NDWS surveys to address critical gaps in dementia workforce research. See Cycle 1 winners and learn more at www.ndws.org/pilot-grants.