The Administration for Community Living awarded 11 grants totaling $10,787,854 over a three-year period through the Alzheimer's Disease Initiative: Specialized Supportive Services (ADI-SSS) program, which builds and expands dementia capability in states and communities and fills gaps in services for people with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD) and their caregivers.
The funded projects will provide direct services; implement dementia-specific evidence-based and evidence-informed interventions; and conduct extensive education, training and outreach programs in the communities they serve.
Organizations in ten states and Puerto Rico received grants, which are funded through the Prevention and Public Health Fund. They are:
Arizona State University, Phoenix, AZ: Arizona Board of Regents for Arizona State University (ASU) will enhance existing supportive services to persons with ADRD living alone in Arizona communities. Other objectives include building upon preliminary activities to continue improving the quality of services dedicated to aging individuals with ADRD who have intellectual or developmental disabilities (and their caregivers). ASU will also expand existing services for those living with moderate to severe impairment from ADRD within the Latino community.
Capital Region Geriatric Center, Cohoes, NY: The Capital Region Geriatric Center will expand the safety net for those living alone with ADRD, collaborate with those offering services to people with developmental disabilities, and work with caregivers. Major objectives include providing in-home companion care services to assist individuals living alone with ADRD with Activities of Daily Living (ADL), and providing care management services to increase medication adherence, communication between healthcare providers, and access to services.
Full Life Care, Seattle, WA: Full Life Care will adapt evidence-based and evidence-informed interventions to fill the dementia-capable system service gaps within the King and Snohomish Counties in Washington State. Objectives include providing education, training, and support for paid caregivers serving adults living alone with ADRD. This also extends to providing education, training, and support for family caregivers of adults with moderate to severe ADRD.
Houston’s Amazing Place, Houston, TX: Amazing Place will strive to improve care provided to people with ADRD and reduce negative consequences experienced by family members providing care. Objectives include identifying and assessing older adults living alone and at risk for ADRD; connecting people at risk for ADRD with local resources; and developing personalized care transition plans for people with ADRD and their family caregivers.
MaineHealth, Portland, ME: MaineHealth will strengthen integration between the primary health care delivery system and the dementia-capable community services system across two regions – one rural (Lincoln County) and the other urban (Greater Portland). Objectives include enhancing dementia capability by expanding current efforts in training and care coordination.
Massachusetts Association of Councils on Aging and Senior Center Directors, Easthampton, MA: Massachusetts Councils on Aging and its partners seek to provide more supports for people with ADRD and caregivers by expanding statewide infrastructure to improve understanding of and supportive responses to dementia. Goals include training volunteers to deliver respite services and launching new memory cafes, especially within underserved, minority communities and expanding support for families of individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities with ADRD.
Memory Care Home Solutions, St. Louis, MO: Memory Care Home Solutions will use person-centered approaches to meet the goal of filling gaps in dementia-capable service systems for people with ADRD and their caregivers. The approach will be to implement an evidence-based intervention featuring 10 in-home occupational therapy visits optimizing functional independence, improving health outcomes for people with ADRD, and improving caregiver dementia-management skills.
Nevada Senior Services, Las Vegas, NV: Nevada Senior Services, Inc. will aim to address challenges people with ADRD and their care partners experience in receiving dementia-capable health care and related community-based care transitions services during and after a hospital stay. Anticipated outcomes include enhancing an evidence-based care transitions model along with post-care transitions services to improve healthcare outcomes for people with ADRD and their caregivers.
The Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA: UVA will enhance Virginia’s dementia-capability through evidence-based services and education for symptom management based on dementia type and severity. Objectives include developing and piloting an integrated care coordination system for caregivers and people with dementia in moderate to severe stages of Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) or mixed AD/Vascular Dementia and providing care coordination and comprehensive dementia services people with dementia living alone.
Universidad Central del Caribe, Bayamon, PR: The overarching goal of Project WellBeing: Enhancing Linkages and Services for Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias Population is to fill gaps in established dementia-capable home and service systems for Latinos with ADRD and family caregivers by providing quality, person-centered services that help them remain independent and safe in their communities. These services will be delivered in the Puerto Rican catchment areas of Bayamón, San Juan, and Carolina.
Volunteers of America, Minneapolis, MN: Volunteers of America Minnesota will expand culturally responsive outreach, screening, diagnostic support, and education services that lead to the identification, engagement, and assistance of people facing dementia and their caregivers within African American, East African, and Hmong communities and among people with disabilities. Objectives include acquisition of a mobile medical van; training, education, and respite services for caregivers as needed; and linkages to financial support.
Projects funded under the Alzheimer's Disease Initiative: Specialized Supportive Services program particularly focus on people with ADRD who live alone, individuals living with moderate to severe impairment from ADRD and their caregivers, and people with intellectual and developmental disabilities who are at risk of developing a dementia.