The Geriatric Research Group – GRG

The Geriatric Research Group (GRG) has been founded in 1988 in Brescia (Italy) by a group of physicians, psychologists and economists with the aim of improving the level of knowledge and sensibility of the Italian community on the problems related with the individual aging and that of the society as a whole.

The fields of interest of GRG in the 26 years of his life have been the following:

• Research projects on the main diseases of the elderly, with particular attention to the pathway disease-disability, the effect of comorbidity on survival, the condition of frailty and its prevention, the role of peculiar conditions such as dementia, depression and delirium on the well being of the affected individuals.
• Research projects regarding the network of services devoted to the elderly: home services, hospitals, long term care, nursing homes, with particular attention to the evolution of needs of the elderly and to the new technologies in the different fields of the care of old patients.
• Programs of continuous education of doctors, nurses, physiotherapists, psychologists involved in the care of the elderly in the various environments. Attention has been given also to caregivers information and support.
• Attention has been given also to the permanent education of the old population regarding correct life stiles for the prevention of unhealthy aging (in this area of particular relevance is a weekly article on the local newspaper now arrived to more then 1200 issues).
• Advice for the management of services for the elderly, with a peculiar attention to experimenting innovative solutions both in the public fields and in the private areas. Of particular interest: the draft of Alzheimer Plan for Regione Emilia, the first plan for special care units in the Nursing Homes in Lombardy, the implementation of a Sub Intensive Care Unit in the Italian hospital geriatric departments, the project for the organization of Country Hospitals particularly devoted to frail elderly.

GRG has performed collaborations, among others, with the National Institute of Aging (Bethesda, USA), the World Health Organization (Geneva), the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, the University of Columbia (New York), the Karolinska Institute of Stockholm, the Alzheimer Foundation USA.

In Italy GRG has collaborated with a number of universities (Milan, Padua, Brescia, Turin, Florence, Roma Tor Vergata, Catholic University of Roma, Naples), the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Education, the National Research Council, Regione Lombardia, Regione Veneto, and many other local governments.

GRG has been the founder of the first Italian Center for the Study and Research in the field of Alzheimer Dementia, which today is one of the most productive european scientific institutions in dementia field.

GRG has received grants from the Italian Ministry of Education, Ministry of Health, National Research Council, Regione Lombardia, European Community, private Foundations.

www.grg-bs.it