The UCLA Alzheimer’s and Dementia Care Program has received the SCAN Foundation’s first Innovation in Health Care Award.
This year’s award recognized “Outstanding Partnerships: Meaningful Achievements, Measurable Outcomes.” Recipients were announced Oct. 26 at The SCAN Foundation’s annual Long-Term Services and Supports Summit in Sacramento, California.
“This is a tremendous honor,” said Dr. David Reuben, chief of the UCLA Division of Geriatrics and director of the program. “There aren’t many awards like this. It’s really a feather in UCLA’s hat.”
The annual award is open to California-based health plans, accountable care organizations, medical or physician groups, and hospitals that have collaborated with at least one community-based organization.
“Innovation in health care is best achieved through cross-sector engagement,” said Bruce Chernof, president and CEO of The SCAN Foundation. “The Alzheimer’s and Dementia Care Program exemplifies a clear roadmap on how medical care and community-based service providers can partner to meet the needs of high-risk older adults and their caregivers.”
The UCLA program partners with eight such organizations that together deliver coordinated care for people with Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, as well as for their caregivers. It is essentially a “one-stop shop” for these services. The program’s partners are OPICA Adult Day Care, WISE and Healthy Aging, Alzheimer’s Greater Los Angeles, Jewish Family Services, Alzheimer’s Association Central Chapter, ONEgeneration, Coast Caregiver Resource Center, and Senior Concerns.
Nurse practitioners are key to the program’s delivery of care, coordinating efforts with physicians and social services. Together they provide services to people with Alzheimer’s disease and dementia and training for their caregivers, helping alleviate the strain that caregivers so often experience when caring for loved ones. Another important goal of the program is to decrease health care costs.
The Alzheimer’s and Dementia Care Program has provided care to almost 2,200 people with Alzheimer’s disease and dementia since its founding in 2012. In that time, it has successfully reduced nursing home admissions, problem behaviors, and patient and caregiver depression.
The SCAN Foundation is an independent public charity that advances a coordinated and easily navigated system of services for older adults.
