More than three million people with dementia experience cognitive, functional, behavioral and psychological disabilities. Dementia generates significant financial and emotional stress for both the person with dementia and their unpaid caregivers.
The Aging Brain Care (ABC) program is an evidence-based population brain health management program that uses an interdisciplinary care team to improve the brain health of community dwelling adults at risk for cognitive impairment or those living with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD). The program is rooted in collaborative care and includes the patient’s care partner(s) and the patient’s primary care team.
The ABC Program has been operating for 15 years at Eskenazi Health. Unique characteristics of the ABC model include home-based assessments of caregiver stress and patient cognitive, behavioral, psychological and functional status coupled with protocol-driven interventions. All interventions are done in collaboration with the primary provider—the ABC model does not assume care of the patient but rather brings additional resources to the table for the primary provider.
The Aging Brain Care program meets Guiding an Improved Dementia Experience (GUIDE) Model requirements—a model test that aims to support people living with dementia and their unpaid caregivers.