New $81M NIH grant to help U.S. answer urgent need for better dementia care

In an Oct. 3, 2023 news release by the Institute for Healthcare Policy & Innovation at the University of Michigan, the National Dementia Workforce Study was introduced.

From the news release: Watching a loved one suffer the slow decline of dementia is hard enough. But trying to find care for them that’s high-quality, safe, available and affordable is nearly as difficult, as millions of American families have found out the hard way in recent years.

That lack of options stems from a combination of workforce shortages, payment policies and a lack of consistency in dementia care delivery and regulation, according to experts from the University of Michigan and the University of California, San Francisco and their colleagues.

“We can’t overstate the urgency of gathering this information and harnessing it in ways that can help the 6 million Americans already living with dementia, and the millions more who will be diagnosed in years to come as new tests and treatments for early-stage dementia become available,” says Donovan Maust, M.D., M.S., a geriatric psychiatrist and health care data researcher at U-M’s Michigan Medicine who leads the NDWS team. “This investment will fill the gaps in knowledge that stand in the way of better care, and make it possible to use resources more wisely.”

Read the news release.