NADRC Webinar: Community-based Dementia Programs: Learning from Challenges and Sustaining Successes

Event Start Date: September 14, 2021 - 5:00 PM EDT

Event End Date: September 14, 2021 - 6:00 PM EDT

Dozens of community-based dementia programs launched over the last few decades. In addition to supporting people living with dementia and family caregivers, most of these programs educate and provide training for professionals and members of the community. Addressing the wide range of training and support needs for these audiences has led to many lessons learned and provided the programs with a solid foundation for sustained success.

This webinar provides an overview of the types of services and training provided by community-based dementia programs. In addition, participants will learn about lessons learned and methods for sustaining successful program activities from two community-based dementia programs. Heather Menne, PhD, from the National Alzheimer’s and Dementia Resource Center, based at RTI, will provide background on community-based dementia services provided in recent years. Phyllis Roate, MA, from the Illinois Department on Aging and Christy Nishita, PhD, from the University of Hawaiʻi Center on Aging will share their experiences implementing dementia programs.

Participants in this webinar will be able to:

Understand the range of services and training provided through community-based dementia programs;
Identify possible lessons learned and challenges in implementing home and community based services; and
identify ways to sustain successful community-based dementia programs.

Presenters:

Heather Menne, PhD, is a senior health policy researcher in the Aging, Disability, and Long-term Care Program, is a skilled health policy researcher, project manager, and collaborator with 15 years of Federal and nonprofit experience and expertise in aging and disability programs and services. Her research career has focused on older people, people with disabilities, and long-term services and supports (LTSS), with a specific emphasis on people living with dementia, family caregivers, and formal caregivers. She also conducted evaluations of evidence-based and evidence-informed programs for older adults and family caregivers. She has experience in qualitative and quantitative research methods, evaluation design, and survey development, as well as data management and statistical analysis. In 2013–2014, Dr. Menne was a Health and Aging Policy Fellow serving in the office of U.S. Senator Robert P. Casey, Jr. (D-PA). Before joining RTI, she worked at the Administration for Community Living, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for 3 years, and as a Senior Research Scientist at Benjamin Rose Institute on Aging for 12 years.
Christy Nishita, PhD, is a gerontologist and applied, community-based researcher at the University of Hawaii Center on Aging. Her work focuses on addressing the rapid aging of Hawaii’s population and critical gaps in the systems of care that support older adults. As PI for the Hawaii’s Alzheimer’s Disease Initiative (HADI), she has worked to develop more coordinated systems of care and services for persons with dementia and their caregivers.
Phyllis Roate is a regional coordinator for the Illinois Department on Aging (IDoA), Office of Older Americans Services. Phyllis has been with IDoA for six years and holds a bachelor’s degree in education from Western Illinois University and a master’s degree in gerontology from the University of Illinois at Springfield. In addition to working with Illinois’ Area Agencies on Aging, she is the state lead for IDoA’s statewide initiatives, Combating Social Isolation in Seniors and the Dementia Friendly America initiative.

This webinar includes complimentary CEs. This webinar webinar will be recorded and available at nadrc.acl.gov. To request speech-to-text captioning during this event, please fill out this contact form. Please direct any questions to Sari Shuman at sshuman@rti.org.

NADRC is funded by ACL. It provides technical assistance to ACL and its grantees and serves individuals and organizations outside our grantee community. The NADRC website provides a range of materials, including issue briefs, event recordings, and tools to support service providers and caregivers.