Age-Friendly Insights Poll: Adults 50+ on Dementia Care
JAHF commissioned a survey of more than 1,000 U.S. adults aged 50 and older to understand their views on dementia care and support. Adults age 50+ overwhelmingly want the government to support family caregiving and workforce benefits related to dementia care. They also want support from health care and social service providers to meet their needs.
Download and share the key insights.
Poll findings include:
- The vast majority of adults favor policies that assist older adults with dementia and their family caregivers.
- 92% support training to improve caregiving, 91% support payment for in-home assistance or respite care and 84% support caregiver support groups.
- Women and Black respondents voice even stronger support for policy supports than men or white respondents.
- If they were to receive a dementia diagnosis, older adults want support and programs from health care and social service providers to meet their needs.
- More than half of adults 50+ (56%) would consult their primary care provider first if they had concerns about memory issues.
- Most older adults (90%) say being able to remain in their home would be important to them, with differences based on race and income level.
- Women are more concerned about dementia and caregiving responsibilities than men.
- 95% of women are concerned about the emotional stress of caregiving, compared to 81% of men.
- 78% of women are worried about experiencing loneliness or isolation, compared to 64% of men.
To see the complete findings, including differences in responses based on race and gender, click here.
Resources from JAHF and its partners support clinicians and caregivers in helping older adults respond to a dementia diagnosis.
For older adults and family caregivers:
- Best Programs for Caregiving: For Caregivers – database to find dementia caregiving programs
- My Health Checklist – helps patients prepare for a health care appointment
- Patient Priorities Care – guides priority-setting for complex conditions, including dementia
For clinicians and health systems:
- Best Programs for Caregiving: For Professionals – database to implement dementia caregiving programs
- UCLA Alzheimer’s and Dementia Care Program
– dementia co-management model for health systems
- Includes training webinars and educational curricula for primary care
- National Dementia Care Collaborative – guidance for health systems to adopt evidence-based approaches to dementia care
- Age-Friendly Health Systems – free Action Communities to implement the 4Ms of age-friendly care, including Mentation
For policymakers and advocates:
- GUIDE Model – a dementia care payment model from the CMS Innovation Center
- National Strategy to Support Family Caregivers – a whole-of-society plan to support caregivers
- Act on RAISE – an advocacy campaign to help partners implement the National Strategy
- SupportCaregiving.org – resources to help states, employers, funders and others implement the National Strategy
The poll, conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago, is part of Age-Friendly Insights, a JAHF series measuring opinions on issues related to improving the care of older adults and support for family caregivers. Read our previous poll insights.
All organizations and individuals working to improve dementia care can use this research in their own work. We appreciate your attribution to The John A. Hartford Foundation.
To learn more about the poll:
- Scan the key findings of the poll results
- Review the narrative report, methodology and dive deeper into the data.
Share these social posts to spread the survey’s findings:
X: #OlderAdults overwhelmingly want government policies that support people with #Dementia and their #Caregivers, according to a new poll commissioned by @johnahartford. Learn more about the poll’s findings here: bit.ly/AFI6_dementia
LinkedIn: According to a new poll commissioned by @The John A. Hartford Foundation, older adults overwhelmingly want government policies that support people with dementia and/or their caregivers. Older adults also want support from health care and social service providers to meet their needs, such as staying in their home, if they or a family member were to be diagnosed with dementia. View the poll’s findings and access resources to support older adults and their caregivers: bit.ly/AFI6_dementia
#OlderAdults #DementiaCare #AgeFriendlyInsights
For more resources, visit JAHF’s Dissemination Center.
