Department Overview:
Vision, Mission and Values
Mission: To act as a comprehensive center for innovative and evidence-based educational services and studies on senior citizens promoting education, outreach, training, and research.
Vision: Become a regional hub for education, community awareness and research enabling lifelong health, wellbeing, and societal engagement for senior citizens.
Values: The UoS CEHA is committed to:
- Excellence in the fulfillment of all tasks relevant to our mission.
- Promoting respect and appreciation to senior citizens
- Promoting complementarity among different disciplines through multidisciplinary teamwork and the acceptance of responsibilities by all members.
- Emphasize evidence-based policy and practice.
- Supportive work environment that recognizes and encourages innovation and initiative.
- Emphasize population-centered practice in the form of:
- Population-based community-focused practice to inspire and influence community attitudes, community awareness, community, as well as behaviors.
- Population-based individual / family -focused or family-focused practice to improve knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, practices, and behaviors of individuals alone, part of a family, class, or group.
- Population-based systems-focused practice emphasizing organizations, policies, laws, and power structures. Changing systems is often a more effective and long-lasting way to impact population health than requiring change from every single individual in a community.
Goals and Objectives
- Community service objectives
- Increase awareness and understanding of aging issues
- Increase the safety and well-being of senior citizens through the educational services provided
- Increase the ability of older adults to remain active, healthy, and living independently in their communities
- Ensure the availability of a continuum of care that supports “aging in place 'Emphasize collaborations with community partners
- Educational objectives
- To offer self-care educational courses /programs for elderly, families, students, and care givers in conjunction with the UoS colleges (medicine, health sciences and pharmacy).
- To encourage undergraduate and graduate students to facilitate awareness programs as part of their educational activities (monitored by faculty).
- Introducing specialized courses aiming to prepare any willing subject with the basic skills for handling elderly seniors providing proper and safe environment as well as procedures to maintain the wellbeing of senior citizens
- Research objectives
- Become a national and regional center for training of young scientists to adequately support the development of medical, healthcare, pharmaceutical, and biotechnology sectors in UAE
- Study the incidence and prevalence of aging diseases (neurodegenerative, CVA, etc.…) in UAE focusing on dementia and stroke.
- Identify the genetic components of neurodegenerative and aging diseases in the UAE and investigate the functional implications of genetic variations with special emphasis to Alzheimer's, dementia, stroke, and arthritis.
- Identify barriers to healthy aging among the UAE society
- Become the standard bearer of research into the pathogenesis of aging and neurodegenerative diseases in UAE
- Develop new approaches/strategies to diagnose, prevent, monitor, and treat neurodegenerative and aging diseases
Anticipated outcomes
- Regional outcomes:
- Becoming the pioneers in establishing a center of excellence directed towards evidence-based age-related education, research, and outreach.
- Build further collaboration with other GCC partners
- UAE outcomes:
- Fulfilling the UAE strategy for senior care which coincides with the UAE centennial 2071 of establishing “A happy and cohesive society."
- Providing a data profile for elderly diseases and the efficacy of treatment within the UAE
- Improvements in knowledge awareness and behaviours toward elderly care
- Improvements in patients' physical symptoms and behavior
- Providing relevant recommendations for policymakers
- Sharjah community outcomes:
- Becoming the pioneer and the first Emirate to establish a center of excellence directed toward healthy aging.
- Providing highly qualified awareness and outreach services related to elderly care for the Sharjah elderly.
- Establishing a key performance indicator as part of the age-friendly network
- Establishing a direct relationship with the elderly community receiving continuous reflection and feedback
- UoS outcomes:
- Fulfilling the UoS strategy of community service
- Establishing an incubator for multidisciplinary research adding to the university research productivity and consequent ranking
- The UoS will be the first to develop a community ambassador program related to elderly
Governance
The Center is directly following the Vice Chancellor for Medical Colleges and Health Sciences.