Public Health Center of Excellence on Dementia Caregiving will expand its dissemination and engagement to professionals to advance the nation's public health response to caregiving. - There are 12.7 million unpaid individuals providing care to people living with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD) in the United States. Although these caregivers (most often family members) provide critical, sustained assistance to people living with ADRD, this support comes at a high cost to many individuals, families, communities, employers, healthcare systems, and the nation’s public health. Dementia caregiving is a public health priority in the U.S. because it: a) affects a considerable segment of the U.S. population; b) it exerts inordinate effects on key groups of people (e.g., ⅔ of all dementia caregivers in the U.S. are women; caregivers of people living with ADRD who must manage more severe symptoms of the disease are more likely to experience adverse health outcomes); and c) there are several programmatic strategies that can potentially alleviate the negative implications of dementia care. The proposed renewal of the Component 2 Building our Largest Dementia Infrastructure (BOLD) Public Health Center of Excellence on Dementia Caregiving (PHCOE-DC) at the University of Minnesota will expand upon its robust record of dissemination and engagement with state, tribal, local, and territorial (STLT) professionals to advance the nation’s public health response to ADRD caregiving. The three strategic objectives of the PHCOE-DC are to: 1) provide training and technical assistance to BOLD and other ADRD public health programs; 2) support the translation of ADRD research into public health action that supports dementia caregivers; and 3) develop and share education and workforce training that supports dementia caregivers. The PHCOE-DC will continue to equip public health professionals to support dementia caregivers in their communities, states, and nationwide. In addition to a robust set of dissemination activities that will achieve these strategies (e.g., a well-developed approach of webinars, toolkits, scientific publications, and learning communities4), the PHCOE-DC will remain actively engaged and coordinate with the Component 1 Healthy Brain Initiative (HBI) Collaborative, the Component 2 Risk Reduction in Dementia and Early Detection of Dementia PHCOEs, and the Component 3 ADRD Public Health Adoption Accelerator to pursue joint projects that address the goals of the HBI Roadmap (e.g., by co-hosting the annual BOLD Public Health Centers of Excellence Annual Summit for STLT public health agencies and other members of the HBI/BOLD network). Further supporting its extensive activity and coordination, the PHCOE-DC will rely on its 28-member Strategic Advisory Core of national partners with deep expertise in ADRD caregiving, as well as its 15-member Lived Experience Advisory Groups, for consultation and guidance across all of the Center's actions. An experienced evaluation team (Emory University) will ensure that the reach and impact of Center activities meet key performance metrics. As part of its strategic activities, the PHCOE-DC will conduct systematic quarterly reviews of available scientific literature and professional resources to ensure that all freely available materials and resources on the Center’s webpage are up to date when disseminated to STLT and other health professionals. In addition to its highly collaborative dissemination plan, a novel aspect of the proposed PHCOE-DC renewal is the support for three projects to support public health agencies, each aligned with HBI Roadmap actions and designed to address the Center's three strategic objectives. These projects emerged from public health agency feedback and priorities identified during the PHCOE-DC’s current iteration (2020-2026). The renewal of the PHCOE-DC and successful completion of its strategic objectives will result in expanded engagement, dissemination, and ultimately effective public health action to support ADRD caregivers across the U.S.
