ABOUT US.
UsAgainstAlzheimer’s exists to conquer Alzheimer’s disease. Since our founding in 2010, we have taken on the toughest problems to end Alzheimer’s.
UsAgainstAlzheimer’s work falls under the following core pillars:
- Champion health equity and access for communities of color and women who are disproportionately impacted by the disease
- Improve brain health and promote earlier detection, diagnosis and intervention
- Empower and educate people and communities to take action for brain health
- Amplify the voices of those who live with Alzheimer’s and their caregivers
- Advocate for increased research spending to speed treatments to market
We have made an impact since we began twelve years ago. In that time…
- Federal funding for Alzheimer’s research has increased by $300 million a year to over $3.1 billion annually.
- In 2019, we launched the National Alzheimer’s Index, or NADEX, a data platform that aggregates Medicare data to visualize Alzheimer’s “hotspots” by geography and The NADEX empowers community partners and policy makers to make informed, data-driven public health decisions around brain health inequities.
- In 2020, we created the UsAgainstAlzheimer’s Center for Brain Health Equity with funding from the CDC
- In 2020, we established a Provider Leadership Group and workgroups, representing 1 million clinicians. This group developed and disseminated information about best practices in early intervention grounded in research on unmet needs and impact opportunities.
- In March 2021, we launched BrainGuide, our ground-breaking consumer platform. BrainGuide educates and empowers individuals to take action in their brain health or that of a loved one. Since its launch, 300,000 people have visited the site and 170,000 people have taken the confidential memory questionnaire.
- In December 2021, a prevention goal was added to the National Alzheimer’s Plan. We played a leading role in building the coalition of 200 organizations who pushed to make this happen.
He are heartened by the progress that’s been made, but there is still much to do. We continue work with urgency to find effective treatments and prevention steps needed to reach a time when brain-span equals lifespan.
THE OPPORTUNITY.
There are several opportunities for UsAgainstAlzheimer’s to promote the content from the Far From Alone campaign. This includes but is not limited to:
- Producing a provider online seminar on social isolation for CME through our Brain Health Academy
- Enhancing our content on the BrainGuide platform to include social isolation and loneliness
- Consideration of a podcast on the topic of social isolation
- Sharing social media posts from the Far From Alone campaign
About Brain Health Academy: The Brain Health Academy, created by UsAgainstAlzheimer’s aims to improve clinical practice and health outcomes by educating healthcare providers about risk and protective factors for dementia through a series of six online seminars. Each seminar will focus on a modifiable risk factor for dementia, including “social isolation and dementia” and provide evidence-based recommendations related to the factor. Participants will have the opportunity to earn CMEs through the seminars.
About BrainGuide and our Content Strategy: BrainGuide is a first-of-its-kind platform that empowers people with knowledge and resources to take the best next steps in managing their own or a loved one’s brain health. The solution is free, available in English and Spanish, and provides a private, confidential way for people to check their own memory or that of a loved one. After completing the questionnaire, BrainGuide provides tailored resources based on the answers provided, including tips for how to raise the topic in conversations with loved ones and providers. BrainGuide includes a summary that can easily be shared with a provider. In addition to the memory questionnaire, the BrainGuide platform includes educational content on a wide range of topics as well as consumer activation programs through a series of Brain Health Challenges. Topics include staying socially connected, healthy nutrition, physical activity, reducing stress, quality sleep and more.
As we expand our content on BrainGuide, which reached over 270,000 people in 2021, our aim is to build additional content that is focused on social isolation and loneliness. We will create new fact sheets on the topic, share the Far from Alone toolkit and guide people to the resources of the campaign.
In addition, we will explore how to engage the Far from Alone campaign through other communications vehicles including our regular BrainStorm podcast, social media platforms and other channels.
Our Commitment.
Our organization is committed to advancing risk reduction and prevention of Alzheimer’s disease. We understand the devastating impact of social isolation and loneliness and the potential impact on cognitive decline. Recent studies found that: social isolation significantly increased a person’s risk of premature death from all causes, a risk that may rival those of smoking, obesity, and physical inactivity. Social isolation was associated with about a 50% percent increased risk of dementia. Our vision is to provide further education to providers as well as families and communities about these impacts and identify strategies to reduce risk.