Center for Dementia Respite Innovation - The Alzheimer’s Association, in partnership with USAging and the University of Minnesota (UMN), proposes to advance the field of dementia respite care through a five-year grants award program entitled the Center for Dementia Respite Innovation. Our overall goal is to enable community-based respite programs to improve and increase the delivery of person-centered, dementia-capable respite care with a focus on innovation, collaboration, outcomes, accessibility, affordability, and sustainability. Our six objectives are to: 1) build upon national partnerships to establish a steering committee and subcommittees to oversee our strategic direction; 2) provide four million dollars per year in pilot and continuation program enhancement grants, 3) provide technical assistance, marketing, and other support to grantees; 4) offer free tools and resources to all persons interested in improving respite care services; 5) evaluate the impact of the funded projects, and 6) widely disseminate project findings, including new respite models and best practices. Primary anticipated outcomes include funding and supporting 80 pilot and 20 continuation awards and developing publicly-available, respite-related resources and findings. Outcomes data will further demonstrate the quality of life and other benefits of respite to caregivers and PLWD. Primary products include new respite-specific essentiALZ modules, a sustainability-focused webinar series, and wide dissemination of project findings and summaries. These activities will significantly jump start a long overdue revolution in innovative respite services across the US that are community-targeted, flexible, sustainable, and focused on the unmet needs of persons living with dementia (PLWD) and their caregivers.
