Three prestigious institutions, the Rollins School of Public Health, the University of Minnesota, and Johns Hopkins University, have joined forces to establish a groundbreaking partnership. With a $17 million grant from the National Institute on Aging, they will create the State Alzheimer’s Research Support Center. This center will serve as a national resource to advance and evaluate dementia care programs throughout the United States.
The primary goal of the center is to bring together collaborative research efforts and establish a national database to evaluate the effectiveness, accessibility, and equity of state and regional dementia care programs. By identifying successful programs, the center aims to promote their adoption across the senior living and care industry nationwide. Additionally, the center will provide pilot funding to support states in evaluating coordinated dementia care services and policies that enable individuals with dementia to remain in their homes and communities.
Dr. Regina Shih, a professor at Rollins and one of the key figures behind the initiative, expressed the importance of sharing successful programs across states to improve dementia care on a national scale. The center will prioritize projects that focus on under-resourced communities to ensure that data from marginalized groups are included in the national database. This is crucial as rates of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease are higher among Black and Hispanic populations compared to non-Hispanic white older adults.
In addition to research efforts, the support center will also establish partnerships with state and regional organizations, support pilot projects across 16 states, merge data sources for accurate evaluation of dementia care services, and create a dissemination strategy to drive innovation in dementia care.
Dr. Joseph Gaugler, co-principal investigator from the University of Minnesota School of Public Health, highlighted the center’s goal of fostering innovation in dementia care, enhancing policy development, and ultimately improving the well-being of individuals living with dementia and their caregivers. Collaborating institutions such as Brown University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and the Alzheimer’s Association will also contribute to this transformative initiative.
