MS Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementias Program (BOLD) - The Mississippi Alzheimer’s and Related Dementias Program (ADRDP) intends to increase the public health blueprint for healthy aging, and actively improve the public health approach to Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD) for the state of Mississippi. In Mississippi, the number of deaths from Alzheimer’s Disease has increased 275.2% since 2000. African Americans are 2.5 times as likely to develop dementia than Caucasians, while Hispanics are 1.5 times more likely to develop the disease. ADRD affects older and younger adults in the workforce, the healthcare industry, and caregivers of individuals living with the disease. The purpose of the ADRDP (Component 2) is to expand the statewide response and public health approach to ADRD with an emphasis on social determinants of health (SDOH) to promote health equity using CDC’s Healthy Brain Initiative State and Local Public Health Partnerships to Address Dementia: The 2018-2023 Road Map, the Road Map for Indian Country (RM Series), as well as future updates of both, as guides. By engaging in cross-sectoral collaborations and diverse partnerships, obtaining pertinent state-based data and surveillance, and conducting assessments and evaluation to identify and respond to existing and emerging community and data-driven public health actions, the Alzheimer’s State Coalition and ADRDP can effectively inform and serve this growing ADRD population. Outcomes that will be achieved during the five-year implementation period of performance include the following: 1) Improved implementation of jurisdiction ADRD goals that are comprehensive across public health domains, ADRD topics, and prevention levels; 2) Increased awareness and understanding of ADRD topics among the general public, caregivers, providers, and other professionals, and 3) An increased number of community-clinical linkages among health care systems and existing services, public health agencies, and community-based organizations. The overall goal of these strategies is to inform public health action on sources of reliable information about brain health and ways to use the information to enlighten those they serve. These priorities are linked by a continuous quality improvement approach and social determinants of health lens to address health disparities of ADRD.
