Alabama BOLD Public Health Programs to Address Alzheimer's Disease and Related DementiasComponent 1: Capacity Building/Implementation - Because of the prevalence and increasing incidences of cognitive decline with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD) being the most common, the Alabama (AL) Department of Public Health (ADPH) will develop, and advance efforts focused on improving, sustaining, and building infrastructure, partnerships, and services necessary to increase capacity related to ADRD in AL. This will be achieved through using a public health approach. To accomplish this, awareness and understanding among the public (including populations of high burden), providers, and other professionals, will be increased of ADRD topics corresponding to primary (e.g., dementia risk reduction); secondary (e.g., early detection and diagnosis, linkages to treatment, care, and services); and tertiary (e.g., prevention and management of comorbidities leading to preventable hospitalizations and poor health outcomes, and caregiving for persons with dementia) prevention. Within the project activities, the social determinants of health (SDOH) will be addressed to achieve health equity goals including but not limited to the improvement of community-clinical linkages among health care systems and existing services, public health agencies, and community-based organizations. For this project, ADPH will complete the project in two phases utilizing nine strategies. Phase 1 – Capacity Building (Years 1-2): 1) Create an Alabama ADRD Coalition (AAC) and state needs assessment to assess the impact of ADRD in the state and respond to the crisis; 2) Educate AAC members/partners on ADRD primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention topics to orient them to brain health, ADRD issues, and actions needed to address ADRD across the state; and 3) Utilizing the Healthy Brain Initiative Road Map Series and the statewide needs assessment results, AAC will develop an AL ADRD Strategic Plan. Phase 2 – Implementation (Years 3-5): 4) AAC to develop an AL ADRD Implementation Plan to achieve priorities, activities, and goals specified in AL’s ADRD Strategic Plan; 5) Educate the public, with emphasis on populations with health disparities, about ADRD topics to include primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention; 6) Educate providers and other professionals about ADRD topics to include primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention; 7) Increase the availability and use of data to improve knowledge and inform data driven decision-making about ADRD goals and activities; 8) Adopt activities that would address sustainability across the state; and 9) Improve coordination and dementia outcomes to address key SDOH. Projected outcomes include improved implementation of jurisdiction ADRD goals that are comprehensive across public health domains, ADRD topics, and prevention levels, increased awareness and understanding of ADRD topics among the general public, providers, and other professionals, and an increased number of community-clinical linkages among health care systems and existing services, public health agencies, and community-based organizations.
