Mission-driven Organizations Align to

Make Person-Centered Dementia Care the Norm

Three organizations with person-centered care at the core of their missions (CCAL – Advancing Person-Centered Living, Eden Alternative, and Planetree) today announced they have joined together as a leadership team to form the Dementia Action Alliance. The Dementia Action Alliance will coalesce and connect the voices of people living with dementia, their care partners and other advocates to inform key policy, research, and service provider stakeholders about the importance and benefits of making person-centered care the standard for dementia care in our country.

The United States is facing unprecedented growth in the number of people living with dementia – currently estimated at 5.4 million Americans and growing at an alarming rate as the baby boom generation ages. A recent article in the New England Journal of Medicine found that dementia costs now exceed those for cancer and heart disease. Despite the high expenditures, the quality of dementia care in general across the country is not up to par. Person-centered care, which is recognized as the gold standard by the Institute of Medicine, would improve quality as well as reduce costs.

“The Dementia Action Alliance heralds a timely Call to Action to cross the quality care chasm into the gold standard of person-centered practices both improving quality of care and reducing overall care expenses – important benefits for everyone,” said Karen Love, Founder of CCAL.

The leadership team has begun to engage grass root groups across the country that include and represent people living with dementia and their advocates to learn what THEY feel is most needed and important for dementia care practices, public policies, and research agendas. A one-day thought leaders’ Summit will be held in Washington, DC in Spring 2014 to share these perspectives and priorities and to discuss how to begin implementing them.

Michael Lepore, PhD, Director of Quality, Research and Evaluation for Planetree, notes: “By aligning research, policy, and practice efforts, and advancing implementation of person-centered care to support individuals living with and affected by dementia, the Dementia Action Alliance is supporting our collective human desire to realize compassion in action.”

“Our three organizations are deeply committed to creating person-centered environments and experiences. By gaining the support and involvement of national, state, regional, and local entities in this alliance, we can reach the ‘tipping point’ that makes person-centered care the only acceptable norm for our country”, Chris Perna, CEO of Eden Alternative said.