Division of Geriatrics and Gerontology team awarded NIH grant for assisted living research

The Department of Medicine is pleased to share that the National Institutes of Health National Institute on Aging (NIH/NIA) has awarded $2,224,871 to a research team in the Division of Geriatrics and Gerontology. The team, led by Molly Perkins, PhD, associate professor of medicine, is investigating informal caregiver involvement in end-of-life care of persons with advanced dementia in assisted living.

The goal of this five-year project is to improve understanding of the relationships between and among informal caregiver involvement, informal caregiver health, and quality of life of assisted living residents with advanced dementia at end-of-life. This study, which is the first to focus on these relationships in depth or over time, will provide information vital to guide policy and practice, including recommendations for training and education of assisted living staff and families.

Perkins co-directs the NIH/NIA Roybal Center for Dementia Caregiving Mastery at Emory, along with co-investigator Kenneth Hepburn, PhD, professor in the School of Nursing. Members of the multidisciplinary team also include Alexis Bender, PhD, Laura Plantinga, PhD, and Ann Vandenberg, PhD, MPH in the Division of Geriatrics and Gerontology; Ihab Hajjar, MD in the Department of Neurology; Mi-Kyung Song, PhD, RN, FAAN in the School of Nursing; Regine  Haardoerfer, PhD in the School of Public Health; Candace Kemp, PhD from the Georgia State University Gerontology Institute; Michael Lepore, PhD from the LiveWell Institute; and Frances McCarty from the Virginia Tech Department of Statistics.

Please join us in congratulating the Geriatrics team on this exciting opportunity!