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Brain Health: You Can Make a Difference!

Brain Health Basics

ACL's 2018 update of its Brain Health Resource offers a PowerPoint presentation for professionals to use in educating older adults and adults with disabilities about brain health as we age, and a related handout for consumers. These materials update and simplify educational materials from a 2014 collaboration between ACL, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). 

  • The PowerPoint presentation (PPT, 4.3MB) helps people learn how to reduce the risks related to brain health. This presentation addresses normal aging of the brain, threats to brain health, and healthy aging for the body and brain.

  • A two-page handout (PDF, 1.7MB) for the consumer audience covers the basics of brain health. 

Medicine, Age, and Your Brain

ACL's Medicine, Age, and Your Brain contains a PowerPoint presentation, educator brochure, and a one-page handout for consumers.

Brain Injury

The Brain Injuries: Prevention, Rehabilitation, and Community Living (PDF) brochure addresses brain injuries, how to prevent them, and what happens after they occur. The pamphlet covers brain injury statistics, causes of brain injuries, prevention strategies, health and rehabilitation after injury, and sources of help. This material was developed in 2015.

Dementia

The following issue briefs explain dementia-capable long-term services and supports for individuals and their family caregivers.

Dementia-capable States and Communities: the Basics and Lessons Learned (PDF) defines dementia-capability and explores:

  • Brain health and dementia education

  • Identifying and referring people with possible dementia for diagnosis

  • Ensuring program eligibility and resource allocation take into account the impact of cognitive disabilities

  • Effective staff communication with people with dementia and their caregivers

  • Person- and family-centered services

  • Quality assurance systems that measure dementia-capability

  • Development of dementia-friendly communities

Responding to the Wandering Behavior of People with Dementia (PDF)

  • Service needs of people who are at risk of wandering

  • Discussing person-centered approaches to meet needs

  • Services options that can address wandering

Promoting Community Living for Older Adults Who Need Long-term Services and Supports (PDF)

  • Evidence about the effects of providing more home and community-based services (HCBS)

  • State recommendations

  • Special circumstances of older adults with dementia

Brain Health Resources for Community Based Organizations: Perspectives From the Field

Community-based organizations play an important role in providing support and services in the home and community. The resources below provide examples of how area agencies on aging and other organizations are boosting awareness, providing education, and conducting services and supports on the topic of brain health.

  • A webinar from the National Alzheimer’s Disease Resource Center provides perspectives from two ACL dementia grantees about why and how they provide education on brain health in their communities and health care systems. Additionally, the two presenting grantee organizations share information about the implementation and outcomes of their brain health efforts to date.

  • A recorded webinar highlights findings from a report assessing how area agencies on aging across the country are providing service and supports to individuals with dementia and their caregivers and developing initiatives related to brain health. A digital version of the report can be found here.

  • A companion research paper to the report provides further insights and touches on how services and supports have been adapted during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

  • A briefing paper on Promoting Brain Health in States and Communities:  Nationwide examples from ACL’s Alzheimer’s Disease Program Grantees by Vijeth Iyengar, PhD and Erin Long, MSW.

  • A set of case studies describes how Area Agencies on Aging and Title VI Native American Aging Programs nationwide are promoting brain health for caregivers, families, and older adults.

Evaluate the Effectiveness of Your Brain Health Training

Collecting data from trainings, though pre/post surveys is a great way to demonstrate the impact of your Brain Health trainings. The data can also be a useful tool to support program sustainability. ACL has compiled a database of questions that align with the content in the Brain Health trainings described above. Organizations providing the trainings can select questions from the database to develop a pre/post survey for their training sessions. The survey should be administered before a class begins and again at the end of the session to measure and document what the attendees learned during the training.

More Information about Brain Health

For more information about brain health, please visit the National Alzheimer’s and Dementia Resource Center.


Last modified on 06/15/2023


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