Gerontology research at the National Institutes of Health, January 1960 Source: Center for Aging Research, National Institutes of Health, "Activities of the National Institutes of Health in the Field of Gerontology," January 1960. Public Health Service Publication No. 761. Research and training on the psychological and social science aspects of aging found support for only 55 extramural projects, less than 10 percent of the total. An examination of the list of 13 projects on the social aspects of aging reveals that 8 of them were concerned primarily with physical rehabilitation and the organization of health services. The subcommittee found that among all of the training and research projects being supported in aging, only 37 percent-just over 1 in 3—are primarily in aging. In the other 63 percent, aging receives an undetermined amount of attention. With NIH providing the major leadership today in gerontological research, that research logically and effectively is directed toward medical-biological rather than the social aspects of aging. A principal gap in research in aging is, then, the need to provide the means whereby the social sciences receive an emphasis which has been lacking. Additionally, the subcommittee recommends not only expanded social science research in aging but an emphasis on basic research, the development of new knowledge. MEETING TOMORROW'S RESEARCH NEEDS The subcommittee's findings, based on its own studies and documented by the opinions of scores of specialists from all branches of the field, lead to the simple conclusion that there is compelling need for (1) knowledge in depth which will provide a basic understanding of the processes of both individual and social aspects of aging and (2) statistical and evaluative data upon which to base sound program development involving the expenditure of billions of dollars. While the need is simple, the method of achievement is relatively complex. Involved are the recruitment and training of personnel for research and teaching; creation of facilities and conditions in which the right kinds of research can be done; and determining the proper share which the Federal Government should contribute to the costs of research. Finally, it involves a determination on the nature and location within the Government of whatever instrumentality may be best adapted ACTION FOR THE AGED AND AGING 91 to providing leadership in research and training and to administering the funds appropriated therefor. RESEARCH PERSONNEL Basic to the problem of recruiting large numbers of high caliber personnel to work in gerontology is the necessity of identifying the field of gerontology as an important one for study, research, and teaching. It was the conclusion of both seminar groups that it lies within the power of the Federal Government to give stature and validity to the field of gerontology through the development of its own research programs and through financial support of research and training throughout the country. Attention must be given to the immediate recruitment of four categories of personnel if we are to make the progress which the subcommittee believes to be essential. These are: Teachers, scientists, research specialists and technicians, and graduate students. Teachers Large-scale development of trained personnel in gerontological research requires that a sizable number of faculty members in colleges, universities, and professional schools devote increasing proportions of their time to teaching and research in this new field. Interest has appeared. There are some who are teaching a few courses and some who are doing bits of research. There are very few, however, who have thus far been willing to identify themselves wholly with the field and to devote their careers to gerontology. After listening to the participants in the seminars and after analyzing the material it has collected from a wide variety of sources, the subcommittee is convinced that there are many college and university teachers today who are eager to get into the field and who will do so once the conditions are favorable. The essential conditions, in the judgment of the subcommittee, are: (a) Funds for the support of teaching positions; (b) Increase in the facilities and materials for research; (c) Encouragement for students; (d) Assurance of support of training and research on a continuing basis. It lies well within the province and power of the Federal Government to hasten the development of these conditions and to give the assurances required. Scientists Equally acute is the need for highly trained professional personnel from widely diverse fields who will devote their full time to research on aging in a large number of centers, institutions, and laboratories over the country. Here the recruitment problems are similar to those with respect to teachers: need for research centers where teams of scientists can work together; research material; and guarantees of long-term support. The subcommittee is in total agreement with those who point out that qualified researchers are not going to be attracted to projects supported on a year-to-year basis. Two special problems were made known to the subcommittee, as necessary to attract leading scientists to the field. Much laboratory work in gerontology is done with animals. One of the recommenda tions that appeared frequently in the responses to the subcommittee's questionnaire and in the seminar proceedings was that scientists must have necessary research material for effective work, such as: Animal colonies of many species must be established to make available material of known ages. Lack of the latter is, and has been, a major problem for experimenters.16 These are some of the conditions and factors that must be recognized in giving status to the field of gerontology and in attracting highly qualified personnel to it. Research specialists and technicians Among the people already working on gerontological studies, a common problem is the difficulty of securing trained assistants and technicians. This type of personnel must usually be secured from areas on the periphery of gerontology. This problem was noted by several of the respondents to the subcommittee questionnaire and by the seminar participants. Dr. Henry S. Simms, of Columbia University's Department of Pathology, noted, for example: * *The financial encouragement is needed for researchers in this field both on the investigator level and on the technical level. I have personally had difficulty in hiring good technicians in competition with industry and with cancer research. I have also had difficulty in finding researchers on the faculty level because of budgetary limitations. Provision for training, research facilities, and assurance of continuing support of research are compelling considerations in this category of personnel as in the two preceding categories. Graduate students Fully as important as recruiting established faculty members and scientists is that of providing for a continuing flow of newly trained personnel to the field. The key to this matter are the undergraduate and graduate students at the point of making their career choices for training and professional work. At the present time, very few students have opportunity to discover the field of gerontology and to recognize it as a valid field for teaching and research. Unless there are courses in gerontology within various departments (and only a few schools have these) or unless there are research projects underway which have funds available for hiring graduate students as assistants, the student is not even going to become aware of the field much less do his thesis in it and look forward to making gerontology his field of specialization. Here are some typical comments on the subject of attracting graduate students to gerontology: ***Encouragement should be given also to enlisting the interest of graduate students, medical students, and residents in training in the field. This will increase the cost of certain projects, since a considerable amount of supervision is needed for such students, but they can learn in no better way than by doing.-Dr. Alexander Simon, medi 10 Dr. Albert I. Lansing, Department of Anatomy, University of Pittsburgh. cal director, Langley Porter Neuropsychiatric Institute, San In the case of economists gerontology is very much a fringe I believe that adequate financing and support for young persons doing research on the aged will both encourage them to continue in this area and will serve to induce new personnel to enter this area of research. Dr. Sidney Goldstein, Department of Sociology, Brown University (Providence, R.I.). *** The problem is to get the field recognized as one in which a man can make a career equally as promising as those offered by the other sciences. Dr. Fred Cottrell, Department of Government, Miami University (Oxford, Ohio). METHODS OF RECRUITMENT There are various methods of recruiting the needed research personnel to the field of gerontology. Efforts to attract individuals to gerontology should, obviously, center in the Nation's colleges and universities. There are four main approaches which have been recommended by the experts consulted by the subcommittee; that is, there should be programs to provide block grants, centers for research on aging within universities, career investigatorships, and graduate scholarship and fellowship programs. Block grants Large block grants made to the universities would provide a major encouragement to the stimulation of research at the universities. Probably a dozen or more of these should be made as soon as possible. Dr. Wilma Donahue of the University of Michigan's Division of Gerontology has stated the case for block grants: Universities like the block grant because it makes available to them funds which they can spend as they see developing needs. It permits long-term planning of research programs, frees the researchers from the time-consuming tasks of overfrequent reporting and of preparing new project applications, and makes it possible to attract better qualified personnel because longer tenure can be guaranteed. It also provides funds which can be allocated by the colleges to young scientists who have not yet attained sufficient stature to apply directly for research funds. The fact that the National Science Foundation is beginning a block grant program this year and that the National Institutes of Health have sought and received authority to give block grants to medical and dental schools gives testimony that there is a trend toward this type of grant program. The need is for the social sciences to have available the same type of grant program. This will require some University centers for research on aging One of the essential needs that would be served by block grants should be the establishment of a series of regionally distributed centers and institutes for interdisciplinary research on aging. The need for such centers appeared prominently in the questionnaire responses, in the seminar deliberations, and in the research and training sections of the White House Conference on Aging. The four university centers now being supported with NIH funds are providing useful experience that will soon point to desirable patterns of organization and procedures. The present centers are demonstrating beyond question that scientists from varied disciplines are ready to work together in teams and that specialists in gerontology will appear out of these research settings. One major deficiency, at present, is the lack of such centers within the field of social science or social gerontology. The NIH-supported centers are, as noted earlier, almost completely focused on biological and medical research. The effective encouragement of university research and teaching centers on behalf of the problems of the aged would, in addition to providing research facilities, serve as training centers for research specialists and technicians and would afford an opportunity for graduate students to undertake work in the field of gerontology. Career investigators The establishment of positions for career investigatorships in gerontology at both the aging centers and within university departments would provide the means of drawing some of the highest qualified people into the field on a permanent basis. Typical of the proposals made on behalf of these positions were recommendations that "gerontological positions" be established for professors and associate professors. One of the recommendations noted that the immediate establishment of 6 to 10 of these appointments Scholarships and fellowships Many of the experts replying to the subcommittee questionnaire emphasized that an adequate supply of researchers will not materialize until scholarships and fellowships are established in the field of gerontology. The participants in the seminars conducted by the subcommittee discussed the means of overcoming the deficit of trained researchers. They came to the conclusion that what is involved is an immediate and continuing process of recruitment designed to attract senior researchers and at the same time draw younger people into the field. Financial aid to the graduate students combined with an opportunity to work with senior men will serve this purpose. With the establishment of research centers and career investigatorships, students will be encouraged to commit themselves to gerontology with some expectation they will be able to earn a living in the field. 11 Dr. Geoffrey H. Bourne, Emory University (Atlanta, Ga.). |