Millions of people in the United States are living with dementia. According to the National Institute on Aging (NIA), over 6 million individuals have Alzheimer’s disease, more than 1 million people have Lewy body dementia, and many others have frontotemporal dementia, vascular dementia, and mixed dementia. While most dementia diagnoses occur when people are over age 65, some people are diagnosed with dementia much earlier in life. As the number of people aged 65 and older continues to increase, the number of cases of Alzheimer’s and related dementias (ADRD) is projected to grow to 13.9 million by 2060.
The large number of people with dementia combined with their high use of medical and long-term care services makes it a costly condition for individuals, families, Medicare, and Medicaid. Many people with dementia live alone, which can increase their risk of malnutrition, injury, neglect, exploitation, and unmet needs. In addition, untrained caregivers may not know how to respond to the behavioral symptoms that are common in those with dementia.
With the population of people living with dementia rising and no cure for ADRD, person- and family-centered care and training is vital. Fortunately, there are effective strategies to help maintain cognitive function, reduce behavior symptoms, prevent acute care crises, and delay functional decline.
A Comprehensive Resource Center for Grant-Funded Programs Focused on Care Systems and Caregivers
Funded by the Administration on Aging/Administration for Community Living (AoA/ACL) and based at RTI International, the National Alzheimer’s and Dementia Resource Center (NADRC) provides individualized technical assistance, reports, and other resources, such as a dementia-focused webinar series, to projects that work to improve services to people living with dementia and their caregivers.
Our Resource Center provides expert technical assistance to the AoA/ACL and ACL's Alzheimer's disease program grantees. ACL’s Alzheimer’s disease grantees work to establish dementia-capable care systems, provide services to people living with dementia in the community, including those who live alone and those with intellectual and developmental disabilities, deliver training to staff serving persons living with dementia, and offer consultation and training for family caregivers.
Resources produced by NADRC cover critical topics for programs and individual care providers, including:
- Dementia-capable systems
- Supportive services for people living with dementia
- Supportive services for caregivers
- Evidence-based caregiver interventions
- Behavioral interventions for people living with dementia
- Home- and community-based services for people living with dementia
- Person-centered dementia care
- Training of health care providers and other professionals
- Data collection and reporting
- Program evaluation
- Issues related to dual-eligibles
Delivering Person-Centered Services and Resources That Promote Independence and Safety
Between 2008 and 2022, the AoA/ACL funded over 230 Alzheimer’s disease program grantees across the nation. The grants support efforts at the state and local level to expand the availability of home and community-based services for persons living with dementia and their caregivers.
In addition to supporting these projects, our team at RTI International provides consultation on evaluation planning and design, data collection procedures, and data analyses, as well as demonstration videos on data reporting.
The Resource Center has a website with a comprehensive library of archived webinars and publications that include issue briefs, toolkits, case studies, and reports. In addition, group listservs, topic-based teleconference calls, and article resource lists help grantees communicate and access resources on a regular basis.
These resources assist grantees, caregivers, and others in the aging network improve and expand on person-centered care for the growing population of people living with Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.
