One of the leading contributors to burden of disease after the age of 60 is dementia, most commonly the neurologic condition of Alzheimer?s disease. The manifestations of the disease result in the need for assistance with toileting, bathing, memory, reorientation, safety, and many other needs. The worldwide demand for unpaid caregivers willing and able to provide the highly skilled services needed by the adults currently living into late life with the complications of Alzheimer?s disease is 39.8 million, and that number is increasing. The University of Texas at Austin School of Nursing, the investigators, Dr. Tracie Harrison, (PI) and Dr. J Taylor Harden (Co-I) submit an R13 grant application for conference funding, (2019) to promote the caregiving needs of underrepresented people caring for people with Alzheimer?s disease and other related dementias during the National Hartford Center of Gerontological Nursing Excellence (NHCGNE) conference. The NHCGNE is an 18-year organization built on the combined interests of the membership, comprised of nursing organizations and other institutions, primarily situated within universities. The specific purpose of this grant application is to provide a caregiving conference, satellite to The Gerontological Society of America (GSA) conference that will bookend the NAPA Summit, which is designed to meet the National need for caregiving interventions by Alzheimer?s caregivers. Our conference will build on excitement begun by NAPA, push a deeper exploration of cognitive assessment skills, and enhance the diffusion of caregiving knowledge to students from diverse backgrounds, conferees as well as the 3.9 million professional nurses providing care in the U.S. Caregiver is defined as an unpaid individual involved with the medical or routine actions of a person who is either older, disabled, or in some way in need of regular assistance. Funding will support the 2019 conference with a theme of Caregiving Diversity, broadly defining diversity as individuals from groups shown to be nationally underrepresented in the biomedical, clinical, behavioral and social sciences, including individuals from underrepresented racial/ethnic groups, individuals with disabilities and/or from disadvantaged backgrounds (NIH, 2018). Innovation is seen in the topic of underrepresented caregivers in research, processes of educating and connecting early and later career researchers as well as the evaluation methods. The deliverables include a special issue publication, thematic distribution of ideas over a blog, increased NIA submissions tracked post-conference in NIH RePorter, and an overall increase in knowledge and skill level. The benefit to public health will be directly actualized through enhanced caregiving practice.
This project advances the NIA, NHCGNE and NAPA missions to enhance the health of all older adults with dementia and disabling conditions related to aging through research and dissemination of aging research to an interdisciplinary and international audience. The collective aims of the project address the rising demand for caregiving services as the U.S. population continues to age.
