Submitted by Jewish Family Service
Jewish Family Service of Cincinnati (JFS) will be hosting a live, interactive listening session that will feature presenters from the Alzheimer’s Association Center for Dementia Respite Innovation (CDRI). The two-hour session will introduce the work of the CDRI, solicit feedback from Cincinnati families about community respite needs, and allow Jewish Family Service to provide an overview of their respite project plans, which were made possible by a CDRI grant that was awarded to JFS in August. The grant was provided to enhance the quality and availability of dementia-specific respite care for people living with dementia and their caregivers in Cincinnati.
The session was held on Monday, October 21, 2024, from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m., in the headquarters of Jewish Family Service at 9395 Kenwood Road in Blue Ash. JFS encouraged local respite providers, dementia support groups, community groups/centers, and religious groups or congregations to attend.
The facilitators for the listening session were the CDRI’s Shawn Johnson, BSW, LNHA, and Emily Waddington, MSW, LISW, CDP. In addition, JFS Adult Day Services Manager Rebecca Borello provided details on how Adult Day Services (ADS) plans to use the funds awarded by the CDRI. Attendees were encouraged to participate by writing down their thoughts or questions on index cards, which were provided.
ADS was one of just 21 recipients nationwide chosen from nearly 200 applicants — and the sole agency in Ohio — to receive such a grant. Jewish Family Service created ADS in response to a growing community issue: older adults experiencing changes in their mental acuity were increasingly at risk of becoming socially isolated — a circumstance that tends to worsen their condition with time. Studies show that regular physical, social, and cognitive activities can help protect older adults from age-related changes in mental acuity.
In conjunction with the grant, Jewish Family Service will receive online training and ongoing technical assistance from the CDRI. To help inform public policy, the CDRI will also collect data and evaluate the impact of these innovative projects from all grant recipients.
The Alzheimer’s Association created the CDRI earlier this year after receiving a $25 million grant from the Administration for Community Living, a division of the US Department of Health and Human Services. Over the next five years, the CDRI will provide $25 million in grant funding to local respite providers and organizations to enhance the quality and availability of respite care nationwide. Visit the Alzheimer’s Association’s website to see the full list of this year’s grant recipients.
