On Tuesday, April 18, the UGA CARE Center hosted a community forum for increasing Alzheimer’s awareness locally, in partnership with the Bulloch County ROAD Foundation.
The event took place at The FoxHall at the West District in Statesboro. The community listening session was free to the public and hosted six medical panelists with expertise in Alzheimer's disease and other dementia-related illnesses. The UGA CARE Center used this forum as its first step towards the greater plan of establishing more community Alzheimer's resource centers and support structures within Bulloch County.
The event was spearheaded by Kathryn Chiang, MPH, who is a doctoral researcher from the UGA College of Public Health’s Institute of Gerontology. Chiang is also the CARE Lead Program Coordinator for Bulloch County.
Chiang, along with the help of local moderator Sarah Rapillard (Endoscopist at Coastal Plain Therapy & Wellness), led the interactive Q&A session between the community's attendees and invited experts.
Experts who lined the panel of the event included (left to right): Dr. Sarah Saint-Hamilton, Social Work; Dr. Adrienne Cohen, Director of Social Gerontology and Associate Professor at Georgia Southern; Dr. Devin Lavender, Pharmacy; Dr. Steve Correia, Brain Health & Cognition; and Dr. Don Scott, Older Adult Medicine.
Chiang’s team of CARE graduate assistants also contributed greatly to the success of the event, including Elise Lodde, an undergraduate Health Promotion major. The event culminated in a successful informational session, which ultimately assisted the UGA CARE team for when it returns in August 2023 with a Bulloch County community action plan.
On the future community action plan for Bulloch County, Chiang says, “Over the next few months, we will be wrapping up our listening phase of the CARE process. And over the summer, I will be heading back to Athens and taking all the information that I learned today and creating an action plan for the community. I hope to launch that big action plan starting in August 2023. So, hopefully sometime in the fall, locals will begin to see some of the resources that we have at the CARE Center popping up. This includes support groups, supplemental education, learning seminars, and so much more.”
The UGA CARE Center is based out of the Institute of Gerontology at UGA. “CARE” is an acronym which stands for “Cognitive Aging Research and Education.” Furthermore, the center is a clinical, research, and outreach space where dementia risk education, alongside dementia research and support, is provided to its partners. The center remains committed to its overarching mission of expanding dementia support services to countless rural and underserved communities across the state of Georgia.
The ROAD Foundation currently partners with the UGA CARE Center in Athens for increasing the support and awareness of Alzheimer’s disease in Bulloch County.
Chandler Dennard, Chief Executive Officer for the ROAD Foundation, said, “We are trying to help local caretakers from an educational standpoint who are caring for individuals with dementia. And to achieve that goal, we are currently partnering with the CARE team out of UGA’s Public Health department to increase the dementia resources and awareness within our community.”
The ROAD foundation is an acronym that stands for “Rockin’ Out Alzheimer’s Disease.”
The foundation was started back in 2012, with the hopes of spreading Alzheimer’s awareness to the Bulloch County Community. ROAD’S ongoing mission is to promote Alzheimer's awareness locally and provide support to caregivers through educational and financial resources. The foundation regularly supports funding for additional research and has local resources such as its Caring Closet, which stocks dementia patient caretaker supplies. Some supplies include adult briefs, pull-ups, wipes, and countless other materials.
ROAD also regularly holds fundraisers, which raise money for the fight against Alzheimer’s disease. Some of its prior drives include a Striking Out Alzheimer’s softball tournament, as well as their annual Rockin’ Out Alzheimer’s concerts, which have become a community favorite. The next ROAD concert is set for Friday, August 4, 2023, with a Rolling Stones tribute by the Jumping Jack Flash cover band.
For more information on the ROAD Foundation, please visit their website at http://rockinoutalzheimers.org/.
For more information on the University of Georgia CARE Center, please visit their website at https://publichealth.uga.edu/research/research-institutes/institute-of-gerontology/care-center/.
The CARE Center can also be contacted directly at 706-542-2539 or by email at [email protected].
