Advancing Workforce Analysis and Research for Dementia (AWARD) Network

摘要/项目摘要 在美国，有600多万人患有神经退行性疾病，接受治疗和 来自无偿护理伙伴和受薪工人的支持。受薪劳动力数量庞大，种类繁多， 数以百万计的人，其中大多数人的职业不需要大学学位。最大的职业 到目前为止，“直接护理”队伍由240万名个人护理助理、110万名护理人员组成。 助理，以及80万名家庭保健助理。这些工人受到一系列政策和计划的影响 不同的州、支付者和医疗保健组织，包括不同的培训要求，州- 关于允许直接护理人员提供哪些服务的级别规定，以及报销 可能影响直接护理人员需求和工资的战略。我们几乎没有证据来指导 评估和完善政策，即使是确保适当规模和准备充分的 直接护理人员队伍正在增长。还迫切需要确定有效的方法来支持直接 护理人员与日益多样化的痴呆症患者和 其他医疗保健专业人员。 为了促进对为痴呆症患者提供服务的直接护理人员的研究，我们将建立 老年痴呆症的先进劳动力分析和研究网络。劳动力研究人员来了 来自一系列学术学科(例如公共卫生、经济学、社会学、医学、护理学)，并 分布在全国各地，很少集中在任何一家机构。他们通常在不同的部门 或者来自痴呆症护理专家的研究单位，限制了跨学科的机会 早期研究人员在指挥的理论和实践方面的研究合作和指导 对医疗保健工作人员的研究。颁奖网络将提供节目和活动，以创造一个强大的 研究人员社区，从事直接护理工作人员及其在照顾生活中的作用的研究 患有痴呆症。 奖励网络的活动将包括：(1)主办年度会议；(2)每月举行虚拟会议 培训、网络研讨会和研讨会，(3)组织两所暑期培训机构，(4)支持竞争 研究实习，(5)直接资助试点研究，(6)开发资源和数据，以协调和 加快研究。 奖项网络将发展基础设施和关系，以产生支持以下方面的研究 以证据为基础的政策和实践，以提高服务于可持续发展的直接护理人员的能力。这 这项工作最终将告知政策领导人和医疗保健组织，努力确保适当的护理和 减少这一人群的健康差距。

ABSTRACT / PROJECT SUMMARY More than 6 million people live with neurodegenerative diseases in the United States, receiving care and support from both unpaid care partners and paid workers. The paid workforce is large and diverse, employing millions of people, most of whom are in occupations that do not require a college degree. The largest occupation by far is the “direct care” workforce, which consists of 2.4 million personal care aides, 1.1 million nursing assistants, and 800,000 home health aides. These workers are affected by a range of policies and programs that vary across states, payers, and healthcare organizations, including differing training requirements, state- level regulations regarding what services direct care workers are allowed to provide, and reimbursement strategies that may affect demand for and wages of direct care workers. We have little evidence to guide evaluation and refinement of policies even as the importance of ensuring an adequately-sized and well-prepared direct care workforce is growing. There also is an urgent need to identify effective approaches to support direct care workers in their interface with an increasingly diverse population of people living with dementia and with other healthcare professionals. To advance research on the direct care workforce that serves people living with dementia, we will establish the AWARD (Advancing Workforce Analysis and Research for Dementia) Network. Workforce researchers come from a range of academic disciplines (e.g. public health, economics, sociology, medicine, nursing) and are spread throughout the nation with few centered at any one institution. They often are in separate departments or research units from scholars with expertise in dementia care, limiting opportunities for interdisciplinary research collaborations and mentoring of early-stage researchers in the theories and practicalities of conducting studies of the healthcare workforce. The AWARD Network will offer programs and activities to create a strong community of researchers engaged in research on the direct care workforce and its role in care for people living with dementia. Activities of the AWARD Network will include: (1) hosting an annual meeting, (2) holding monthly virtual trainings, webinars, and workshops, (3) organizing two Summer Training Institutes, (4) supporting competitive research internships, (5) directly funding pilot research, and (6) developing resources and data to harmonize and accelerate research. The AWARD Network will develop infrastructure and relationships to generate research that supports evidence-based policy and practice to advance the capacity of the direct care workforce in serving PLWD. This work will ultimately inform policy leaders and healthcare organizations striving to ensure appropriate care and reduce health disparities for this population.