GSA Takes on Key Role in Advancing Nation’s Caregiving

By Executive Director and CEO James Appleby, BSPharm, MPH

It’s almost time for National Family Caregivers Month in November, and GSA is already getting a head start on some major activities in this arena.

On October 16 and 17, we’re helping to support the National Research Summit on Care, Services, and Supports for Persons with Dementia and Their Caregivers, which is being held at the headquarters of the National Institutes of Health. The event is being sponsored by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and several private sector organizations, and I’m proud to say that GSA Fellows Katie Maslow and Laura Gitlin are serving as co-chairs. (And let’s congratulate Laura on being recently being named chair of the National Alzheimer’s Project Act’s Advisory Council on Alzheimer’s Research, Care, and Services!)

If you can’t attend in person, you can view the presentations via videocast. Advance registration is required. Our friends at the NIH have told us the level of interest in this particular event has exceeded their expectations.The participants will include researchers, service providers, persons with dementia, family caregivers, and other stakeholder groups. The Summit is intended to identify what we know now and what we still need to learn in order to accelerate the development, evaluation, translation, implementation, and scaling up of comprehensive care, services, and supports for persons with dementia, families, and other caregivers.

GSA will be continuing the caregiving conversation a few weeks later on Capitol Hill, when we’ll be hosting a briefing titled “Congressional Stories of Family Caregiving” on November 7. This is part of our partnership with the John A. Hartford Foundation to share the findings of last year’s major report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, “Families Caring for an Aging America.” Stay tuned for announcements about the time and location of this briefing!