CSUN professor gets grant for dementia care

Cal State University Northridge (CSUN) health science professor Debra Sheets has been awarded a $50,000 grant from the UniHealth Foundation’s "David R. Carpenter Initiative: Advancing Healthy Aging" to develop a Web-based dementia care training program.

The one-year award, titled "Training for Dignity: Basic Dementia Care Training Program," will allow the university’s Gerontology Program in conjunction with the Alzheimer’s Association to conduct association-developed dementia training curriculum through the Internet.

A College of Health and Human Development professor and coordinator of the university’s Interdisciplinary Gerontology Program, Sheets has focused on aging with physical disability, assistive technology and intergenerational service learning.

She’s worked 20 years as a registered nurse specializing in trauma and critical care and received a Ph.D. in gerontology and public policy from the University of Southern California.