Six New Grants Totaling $8.27 Million Approved by JAHF Board of Trustees at December 2019 Meeting

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The John A. Hartford Foundation Board of Trustees has approved funding for six grants totaling $8,270,726 to continue momentum to build Age-Friendly Health Systems and to better support family caregivers of older adults.

Institute for Healthcare Improvement: Age-Friendly Health Systems Initiative, Phase II ($6,026,760 for 42 months)

The Age-Friendly Health Systems initiative of The John A. Hartford Foundation and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, in partnership with the American Hospital Association and the Catholic Health Association, will expand its reach into U.S. hospitals and outpatient care locations, integrate post-acute care settings and engage diverse stakeholders. The work will continue building the movement to adopt evidence-based approaches to improve care of older adults organized by the “4Ms” framework - What Matters, Medication, Mentation and Mobility. By the end of three years, 2,500 hospitals and practices and 100 nursing homes will be recognized by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement as Age-Friendly Health Systems.

Diverse Elders Coalition: Addressing Unmet Family Caregiving Needs in Diverse Older Communities, Implementation Phase ($1,199,763 for two years)

To address the lack of culturally and linguistically appropriate support for family and friend caregivers from different populations, the Diverse Elders Coalition will launch a training curriculum to educate health care and social service providers who want to better meet the needs of diverse family caregivers. Building on a prior phase that included conducting a national survey and focus groups, the initiative will also provide resources and support directly to caregivers through a series of listening sessions and educate national and local policy makers about programs and policies that would improve the well-being of diverse caregivers and enhance their ability to provide care.

Johns Hopkins University: Engaging Family Caregivers through Shared Access to the Electronic Health Record, Planning for Transformational Change
($364,656 for 18 months)

The aim of this initiative is to enable family caregivers to more easily access the health information needed to coordinate and manage care of older adults, particularly those with complex health conditions. This planning grant addresses ways to increase family caregivers’ shared access to electronic health records of older adults in their care by developing strategic partnerships with expert leaders and organizations; creating educational materials and toolkits for patients, clinicians and administrative staff; and developing a proposal and evaluation plan for a health system-level demonstration project to be conducted in a next phase. Researchers at Johns Hopkins University will partner with and build on the OpenNotes movement, which promotes shared access to electronic health records through secure patient portals.

Benjamin Rose Institute on Aging: Dissemination of Best Practice Caregiving, Guiding Organizations to Dementia Programs for Family Caregivers
($300,000 for two years)

This two-year grant supports the widespread dissemination of a comprehensive online decisional aide for health care and community-based organizations to adopt evidence-based interventions that improve the lives of family caregivers of people living with dementia. Best Practice Caregiving: Guiding Organizations to Dementia Programs for Family Caregivers, developed in a previous grant, is available on the Family Caregiver Alliance website and currently showcases 42 programs, with more in the pipeline. This grant will create a business plan; develop and implement a broad dissemination and marketing strategy; establish an efficient system for updating and adding new programs; and evaluate program information, use and adoption.

Center for Health Care Strategies
: Development of the Better Care Playbook, Phase V ($204,547 for two years)

Through a six-foundation collaborative committed to improving care for people with complex health and social needs, the Center for Health Care Strategies (CHCS) will receive support to continue the development and dissemination of the Better Care Playbook, an online set of resources that support the adoption of evidence-based models and practices. After a year of joint activities and planning, the Playbook has transitioned to CHCS from the Institute for Healthcare Improvement. In this phase, the site will be updated with improvements to its organization and functionality based on user feedback.

The Hebrew Home at Riverdale
: Evaluation of the Weinberg Center for Elder Justice’s Shelter Model ($175,000 for nine months)

The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Center for Elder Justice at the Hebrew Home at Riverdale is the nation’s first elder mistreatment shelter, residing within a well-respected skilled nursing facility. This grant aims to complete an evaluation of the elder mistreatment shelter model in order to position it for national dissemination. A rigorous external evaluation will be conducted by the RAND Corporation using existing data to document the shelter model and services, analyze costs and estimate the impact of services.