The Harry and Jeannette Weinberg Foundation has awarded a $700,000 Family and Informal Caregiver Support Program grant to support the creation of a Sacramento Asian Pacific Islander (API) Dementia Care Network, a joint project of the Asian Community Center of Sacramento, the Alzheimer’s Association, Northern California and Northern Nevada Chapter and the UC Davis Alzheimer’s Disease Center.

“While the incidence of Alzheimer’s Disease in the general population in California is projected to double by 2030 in people over age 55, that number will actually triple
among the API community, creating a burgeoning need for dementia care,” says Edie Yau, director of Diversity with the Alzheimer’s Association. “Persistent reliance on family, cultural beliefs, lack of knowledge about dementia and other conditions, limited English skills and a lack of language/culturally competent services can combine as barriers to service to the API community.”

The Sacramento API Dementia Care Network partnership will address these barriers by focusing on three key areas: improving the understanding of dementia and depression among API family caregivers and community organizations; building capacity to enable service providers to reach families and coordinate services; and piloting interventions using community assets to identify, serve and connect API caregivers with service providers and information that sustains family care of elders.

The Weinberg Foundation’s Family and Informal Caregiver Support Program was established to increase support for innovative and evidence-based community projects that help family and friends who care for low- and moderate- income older adults.