Yale Bulletin and Calendar

May 19, 2000

Volume 28, Number 32

YSN and Connecticut Public Radio
creating show on care of ill, elderly

Connecticut Public Radio (CPR) will partner with the Yale School of Nursing (YSN) to produce a series of stories about programs to improve care for the elderly and people with chronic illness.

This collaboration is made possible by Sound Partners, a project of The Robert Wood Johnson and Benton Foundations. Sound Partners competitively awards grants to public radio stations that work with local health care organizations to do community-centered journalism. The series, which will be aired beginning in August, will be coordinated with community outreach health activities in New Haven's Hill neighborhood.

The Hill is a medically underserved community and home to YSN. The radio series will be unique in emphasizing the ongoing low-tech efforts that raise quality of life for the elderly and people with chronic illness instead of focusing on drug discoveries, as is common in health reporting.

CPR is an award-winning, National Public Radio (NPR) member station, serving all of Connecticut and parts of Long Island, Rhode Island and Massachusetts. CPR has been honored two years in a row by the Associated Press as news station of the year, and is committed to in-depth, community-conscious journalism.

"This project will help us expand our health care reporting, and allow us to focus on many aspects of illness and recovery that have not yet made media headlines," says CPR News Director John Dankosky. The series producer is Nancy Cohen, a veteran writer and radio producer who contributes frequently to NPR's Science Desk.

YSN's faculty has a strong tradition of research and practice in the areas of chronic illness and aging. "Low-tech nursing interventions for the elderly and chronically ill work," says the school's dean, Catherine L. Gilliss. "They raise the quality of life, often extend life and tend to be relatively low in cost. Yet our society's attention and resources are disproportionately focused on high-tech cures and the promise of pharmacological 'magic bullets.'"

Unfortunately, Gilliss adds, there is not a cure for everyone, but there is hope for everyone. This series will bring to light the tremendously rich experiences and contributions of the elderly and people living with chronic illnesses and will inspire policy makers to support the care that makes this independence possible.

Connecticut Public Radio can be heard in Hartford and New Haven on WPKT 90.5 FM; in Norwich and New London on WNPR 89.1 FM; in Stamford and Greenwich on WEDW 88.5 FM; in Storrs at 99.5 FM and in Long Island on WRLI 91.3 FM.

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