The Boston Minority Dementia Outreach and Educational Program (BMDOEP) is a 3 year educational project designed to respond to the unmet needs of families and informal caregivers of African American persons with Alzheimer's disease and related dementias (ADRD) in Boston. The underlying goal of the proposed project renewal is to continue the successful efforts needed to establish changes in the infrastructure and system of service for minority persons dealing with ADRD. This renewal will continue and expand efforts to raise awareness about ADRD, i.e., state of the art knowledge about care methods for persons with ADRD, assistance to family caregivers, recognition and assessment of dementia, and available and culturally appropriate services. The proposed project will continue to be under the aegis of the Education and Information Transfer Core activities of the Massachusetts ADRC. Objectives are: 1) Continue to educate families of minority elders with dementia; of these, 50 caregivers will be given individualized In-Home Caregiver Training to increase the level of competence, knowledge and confidence in caring for the person with dementia at home. This intervention will be delivered by staff of home care agencies trained by BMDOEPs Dementia Specialist Education Program (DSEP). 2) Continue to educate health care and social service agency staff currently serving minority individuals, including the DSEP and initiate new continuing education sessions, new peer support group sessions, a new supplemental program for Mental Health Specialists, enhanced services to selected agency staff, a new workshop on dealing with ADRD families, and the dissemination of the proposed AHCPR Clinical Guidelines for recognition and initial assessment of AD. 3) Initiate a new program to educate physicians serving minority elders and their staff to enhance their dementia recognition and to encourage referrals to supportive services. 4) Initiate a new program to train clergy, housing managers and other """"""""gatekeepers"""""""" to whom people turn when they have a problem. 5) Conduct expanded needs assessment, monitoring and evaluation of major project activities to determine the success of selected program components; specifically, the intensive educational programs for service providers and informal caregivers, case-finding, recruitment of research subjects and information dissemination. Overall the proposed project will continue to build on the MMLAP's current success in encouraging collaborations, minority leadership and changes in service systems for African-American dementia elders and their caregivers. The Alzheimer's Association is the principal partner of this project; there are 30 principal collaborators including Boston's leading university medical schools, city and state agencies on aging, leading minority led home care and social service agencies, major providers of home and home health services and over 50 other active participants in the MMLAP referral network.
