Research Collaborative for Family Caregivers of Older Adults

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Family caregiving for older adults is increasingly recognized as an impending public health crisis due to our growing aging population and changing family characteristics. To achieve innovative solutions for the grand challenges family caregivers face, academic entities, who have formerly operated separately, must coalesce to share research approaches and expertise. The purpose of this K07 application, led by Dr. Lee Ellington, is to build the Research Collaborative for Family Caregivers of Older Adults at the University of Utah and Utah Health Sciences to ultimately support the health and wellbeing of family caregivers caring for older adults. The Collaborative is designed to transcend traditional academic boundaries using a bridging infrastructure to harness, connect and amplify existing strengths of five campus entities joining for the first time. These entities include the Center for Alzheimer’s Care, Center on Aging, Center for Health Outcomes and Population Equity in Cancer, Consortium for Families and Health Research, and the College of Nursing (5Cs). Each is committed to starting new endeavors and expanding existing partnerships for caregiving science of older adults through Collaborative activities. Each brings a unique cadre of researchers, trainees and junior faculty, and has a distinct domain or focus that allows for rich cross-fertilization. In addition to collaborating with the 5Cs, Dr. Ellington will partner with a strong, existing University mentorship program to select and provide value-added mentorship and training to 10 Caregiver Scholars fostering their potential to become leaders of interdisciplinary research teams improving support for family caregivers of older adults. Finally, she will create new caregiving-related curricula, which will be delivered through CCTS and the Interprofessional Education Program. These curricula streams will have a wide reach at the University and Health Sciences, educating and training both emerging researchers and the next generation of health care professional about caregiving for older adults. Drawing from her current leadership experiences and enhanced by additional professional development activities, Dr. Ellington is poised to achieve the following aims: 1) Leverage existing entities across the University of Utah and Utah Health Sciences to establish an environment for interdisciplinary faculty to share, collaborate, and advance research for family caregiving across mental and physical health conditions and disabilities for older adults; 2) Partner with an established mentorship program at the University of Utah and Utah Health Sciences to expand capacity and training to promising junior caregiving scientists who actively participate in Collaborative programmatic activities; and 3) Develop and evaluate new curricula on family caregiving for older adults to reach new investigators including emerging clinician scientists and future health care providers. The Collaborative will increase the pool of investigators and promote the capacity and quality of research; thus, elevating the University’s commitment to caregiving and aging science for the health and wellbeing of caregivers of older adults for our state, our region and our nation.