Psychosocial Core

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ABSTRACT- PSYCHOSOCIAL CORE The NYU-ADC has pioneered in the development of comprehensive counseling for family caregivers of people with AD, and has established a national reputation in this field. The Psychosocial Core will provide resources, including data and participants, for the design and evaluation of new psychosocial interventions for all older adults who participate in the NYU-ADRC, including those with early signs of cognitive impairment, and continue to support its nationally known caregiver intervention research program. The affiliated Psychosocial Research Program continues to develop and evaluate innovative projects to reduce the emotional consequences of cognitive decline. New since 2016 is the affiliated Family Support Program, which serves caregivers throughout NYC. Expanded research on supportive interventions will continue in the upcoming period. The Psychosocial Core will continue to conduct comprehensive psychosocial assessments and to provide counseling and support to participants in the ADRC and to the family members of participants with MCI and early dementia. The counselors will maintain contact with family caregivers of participants with moderate to severe AD, after they are no longer receiving in-person annual assessments, to increase the likelihood of autopsy of these participants. These activities of the Core enhance the ability of the ADRC to retain its clinical population through autopsy. The Psychosocial Core interacts closely with the other Cores and provides valuable support to the research projects, clinical trials and pilot studies associated with the ADRC and with collaborating investigators. The Psychosocial Core conducts a Psychosocial Assessment of all participants with normal cognitive function and MCI, and of study partners of those with MCI and caregivers of participants in the early stage of dementia. The assessment now includes measures to enable research about the relationships between psychosocial and cognitive changes associated with aging and incipient dementia, and investigate causes for disparities between impairment in day- to-day function and results of cognitive tests and brain imaging evaluations. The Psychosocial Core data, together with the other data in the ADRC database, will provide a uniquely comprehensive dataset to inform the design of innovative psychosocial interventions for older adults with age-associated cognitive changes and MCI. Psychosocial data on individuals with normal cognitive function and MCI, and on the family members of people with MCI and AD, can be integrated with information from the Clinical, Neuroimaging, Biomarker and Neuropathology Core evaluations and become the basis for new studies in the affiliated Psychosocial Research Program. The Core will continue to provide clinical and research training and mentor new investigators. The breadth of research on psychosocial interventions is a defining attribute of the NYU-ADRC, and the Psychosocial Core will continue to provide resources for research to understand and mitigate the psychosocial impact of memory loss associated with both normal aging and disease.