The CDC (US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) still has its hands full with the CV19 pandemic, which started early last year. But devastating viral disease isn’t the only thing on its plate, as its mission is “saving lives, protecting people” ™
Based on a law passed by Congress in 2018, the CDC put out requests for folks to implement projects in three dementia arenas: 1) early detection, 2) risk reduction and 3) caregiving. The initiative is called “BOLD”….Building Our Largest Dementia Infrastructure [not BOLDI (?!?)]
Congress allocated about $15M for the BOLD projects. Alzheimer’s and dementia research in general is said to have reached the $3B plateau last year at NIH, so this is much less than 1% of that, but the CDC focus is on implementing concrete public health measures.
Late last year, the CDC announced that there would be three BOLD Public Health Centers of Excellence. Readers of this blog and the companion blog, AlzheimerGadfly.net, may have seen my pieces about early diagnosis and risk reduction. But caregiving is where the rubber meets the road, as some might say.
The National Academy of Medicine (NAM) just published their massive review and report on caregiving just two months ago. The NAM report featured two multi-dimensional interventions that look promising but might need more study of effectiveness. It will be interesting to see what the CDC grantees will produce.
The NAM report does recognize the variability of public health interventions in the US, but the CDC has stated this will be a point of emphasis for their projects, highlighting the “social determinants of health.”
The CDC’s Healthy Brain Initiative (2018) document points out dementia public health needs, and health disparities, but highlights our state of WA and its program for African-Americans, Asian and Pacific Islander Americans (pg 45); other states are also mentioned.
In the UK and Canada, with nationalized health services, there are primary care associated dementia resources for patients and caregivers, but it’s unclear how effective they are. Of course, things are different in the US.
Caregiving Old Guy and this blog are about being practical; the CDC projects have some promise in being practical. But it’s time to stop speculating about the big picture and get back to the minutiae of the daily schedule!
CC0 pixabay
