For Immediate Release
June 7th, 2020
(Kingston, Ontario) – The Canadian Frailty Network (CFN) has released a professional development education module entitled Frailty: Assessment, Mitigation, and Prevention. The module is available on the CFN website at no cost to all Canadian physicians, allied health and social care providers and learning enthusiasts. As an accredited resource for health professionals, physicians are offered CME credits upon module completion.
The CFN Frailty Module provides an overview of the concept of frailty, the issues it presents to the people it affects, and the burden it places on the Canadian healthcare system. The learnings focus on the importance of early frailty identification and assessment across the care continuum, as well as various approaches to mitigate and prevent frailty.
“CFN is committed to training the next generation of care providers and researchers. We have trained thousands of graduate students, post-docs, and working professionals who have learned to develop, evaluate, and implement innovative healthcare models to improve care for older adults living with frailty. Our training program is the only one in Canada dedicated to frailty. We are very pleased to add CME accredited physician training to our offerings.” says Dr. John Muscedere, CEO and Scientific Director of CFN.
One in four older adults in Canada between the ages of 65-84 years, and 1 in every 2, over the age of 85 are medically frail. In the last decade, there has been increasing recognition of the importance of addressing frailty in our aging population. Frailty is a state of increased vulnerability resulting from reduced reserve and loss of function across multiple systems. Older adults living with frailty are more likely to be hospitalized, require long-term care, and die.
The Frailty Module was developed for physicians; however, CFN encourages anyone working with older adults in a health or social care setting to access the educational resource. Undoubtedly, frailty is a multidisciplinary health issue and the CFN Frailty Module will contribute to a deeper understanding of frailty in addition to supporting competency in discussing, assessing, and preventing frailty in older adults.
“While we created the module to support physician’s continuing education, we are confident that the information will be valuable and utilized by many people working with older adults in a variety of care settings.” says Carol Barrie, Executive Director and COO at Canadian Frailty Network. “Everyone can benefit from this training. Personal support workers, nurses, health and social care administrators and policy makers will all learn the importance of understanding and assessing frailty and how to help older adults avoid frailty as they age.”
CFN enlisted clinicians and frailty experts from across their pan-Canadian network to lend their expertise in the creation of the educational module. Notable contributions were made by Care of Elderly physicians Dr. Linda Lee and Dr. Chris Frank, Dr. Amanda Lorbergs, manager of research and knowledge translation at CFN, and Dr. Olga Theou, Canada Research Chair and Assistant Professor in Physiotherapy and Geriatric Medicine at Dalhousie University.
“Primary care is uniquely positioned to provide routine medical care and high-quality coordinated care for older adults with complex care needs. Frailty screening and assessment by primary care providers creates an opportunity for a holistic discussion about care needs, as well as support and services required to ensure that those with frailty receive appropriate resources. This training will be invaluable to family physicians”, says Dr. Linda Lee, Associate Clinical Professor in the Dept of Family Medicine, McMaster University and contributor to the module.
Frailty: Assessment, Mitigation and Prevention is now available on the CFN website at this address https://www.cfn-nce.ca/training/frailty-module/
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Media inquiries:
Kelsey MacIntosh,
Health Promotion Coordinator and Communications Specialist,
Canadian Frailty Network,
Tel: Mobile: 613-639-0513
Email: [email protected]
About the Canadian Frailty Network
Canadian Frailty Network (CFN) is Canada’s sole network devoted to improving care for older Canadians living with frailty and supporting their families and caregivers. We do this by increasing frailty recognition and assessment, increasing evidence for decision-making from the bedside to the policy making level, advancing evidence-based changes to care, training the next generation of care professionals and scientists, and engaging with older adults and caregivers. Canadian Frailty Network is funded by the Government of Canada’s Networks of Centres of Excellence (NCE) program. For more information, please visit www.cfn-nce.ca, or follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.