The Rural Outreach Core (ROC) exists to raise awareness of Alzheimer disease (AD) and dementia in the underserved rural counties in Missouri and neighboring Illinois and to support rural health care providers in caring for their patients with dementia. A secondary aim of the ROC is to recruit rural research participants. Missouri is more rural than the majority of other states with 37 percent of the state's population residing in rural communities. It is important for rural residents and the clinicians that serve them to have access to current information about AD and related dementias, as well as to have the opportunity to participate in AD research. The ROC aims for 2015-2020 are as follows: 1. To provide education for healthcare professionals and lay audiences in areas of rural Missouri and Illinois within the catchment area for the Knight ADRC (a radius of a 2 hour driving distance from the Knight ADRC). This catchment area aligns with the service area of the St. Louis Chapter of the Alzheimer's Association, with whom ROC partners on many of its outreach initiatives. a) To conduct an annual Clinician Partners Program (CPP) at the Knight ADRC to intensively educate physicians, advance practice nurses and other healthcare professionals practicing in rural and semi-rural communities about Knight ADRC research, as well as provide up-to-date training about early recognition, diagnosis, treatment and management of AD and related disorders. b) To provide educational talks to raise awareness in persons residing in rural areas about AD and related dementias and the research of the Knight ADRC. c) To provide state-wide AD training in partnership with the Alzheimer's Association, with particular emphasis on the Ascertain Dementia 8 item informant interview (AD8) dementia screening tool to fulfill an initiative in the Missouri State Plan for Alzheimer's Disease. d) To provide education regarding the assessment and management of demented drivers to rural health care providers, a need that has been consistently identified by our Clinician Partners. e) To create a new section of the existing Knight ADRC website for use by CPP alumni and other healthcare professionals in rural areas to provide tools for use in clinical practice. 2. To recruit Knight ADRC research participants from rural areas in the Knight ADRC catchment area to increase research diversity and to allow underserved rural dwellers access to research opportunities.
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