Christopher M. Callahan, M.D., a Regenstrief Institute research scientist, co-authored an editorial in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society (JAGS), “Improving care for dementia: Re-imagining the advocacy playbook,” that observes dementia care focused at the community, policy, and societal levels urgently requires more attention from researchers and clinicians.
According to the Geriatrics Healthcare Professionals website, JAGS has remained one of the oldest and most impactful journals dedicated exclusively to gerontology and geriatrics.
To accomplish the next step in what promises to be a long journey toward better dementia care, Dr. Callahan and his coauthor, Robyn Stone, DrPH, of LeadingAge, call for broadening the existing coalition supporting individuals with dementia. They encourage employing an advocacy model resembling the Americans with Disabilities Act, implemented in 1990. Future studies, they write, need to assess the extent to which this type of multi-stakeholder advocacy effort would ultimately affect health and quality of life outcomes for persons living with dementia and their care partners.
Dr. Callahan, who founded the Indiana University Center for Aging Research at Regenstrief Institute in 1997 and served as its director until 2018, is an internationally respected researcher-clinician. He has developed, tested and implemented new models of care designed to improve the health of older adults. These models facilitate collaboration among patients, their families, healthcare providers and community service agencies with an emphasis on applying health information technology. Both his research and clinical work focus on improving care for individuals with late-life depression and dementia.
