Strengthening Informal Support Resources with Strategic Methodological Advances

 描述(申请人提供)：此申请旨在约翰霍普金斯大学建立一个新的Edward R.Roybal中心，该中心将提供富有远见的领导力和关键基础设施，以激励、促进和扩展老年人在行为和社会科学方面的创新研究。拟议的约翰·霍普金斯-罗伊巴尔中心(JHRC)将涉及申请申请的两个重点领域(RFA-AG-14-004)：重点领域4--分析影响老年人的方案的新方法；以及重点领域5--在特定优先领域为老年人造福的家庭、工作场所或公司的新方案或做法。联合人权委员会的一个统一主题将是强调更好地了解和加强弱势老年人口，特别是有身体或认知障碍的老年人的非正式支助资源。非正式支助资源包括多个方面，包括家庭因素(如婚姻状况、成年子女的数量和地点、照顾者的可获得性)；一个人的社会网络的规模、结构和多样性；通过这些关系获得的接触、支助和参与的数量，以及非正式支助资源与更正式的照料服务之间的协调程度。随着面向老年人的医疗服务和其他计划越来越多地以家庭和社区为基础，减少对传统机构交付模式的依赖，将计划和服务扩展到以患者为中心的方法之外，将关键家庭成员、照顾者和老年人社交网络的其他方面也包括在内，这一点至关重要。联合人权委员会的第二个反复出现的主题将是方法创新，以更好地促进证据基础，说明加强非正式支助资源如何有利于老年人的健康和福祉。六个初始试点 研究将作为JHRC的一部分得到支持，这些研究解决老年人在各种临床条件下的非正式支持需求，包括痴呆症、中风、终末期肾脏疾病和多种慢性病。尖端的技术和方法进步对于有效地将社会和行为研究成果转化为 使患有这些疾病的老年人及其家庭的生活发生变化的应用做法。

 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This application seeks to establish a new Edward R. Roybal Center at Johns Hopkins University that will provide visionary leadership and critical infrastructure to stimulate, facilitate, and extend innovative research in the behavioral and socia sciences for older adults. The proposed Johns Hopkins Roybal Center (JHRC) will address two focus areas of the request for applications (RFA-AG-14-004): Focus area 4 - novel methods for analyzing programs affecting older populations; and Focus area 5 - novel programs or practices at homes, workplaces, or firms benefitting older people in specific priority areas. A unifying theme of the JHRC will be an emphasis on better understanding and strengthening the informal support resources of vulnerable older adult populations, particularly those with physical or cognitive impairments. Informal support resources encompass a number of dimensions, including family factors (e.g., marital status, number and location of adult children, caregiver availability); the size, structure, and diversity of one's social network; the amount of contact, support, and engagement achieved through these relationships, and the degree of coordination between informal support resources and more formal care services. As healthcare services and other programs for older adults become more home- and community-based, and less reliant on traditional institutional delivery models, it is vitally important to extend programs and services beyond a patient-centered approach to also include key family members, caregivers, and other aspects of the older adult's social network. A second recurring theme of the JHRC will be on methodological innovations that better advance the evidence-base for how strengthening informal support resources can benefit the health and well-being of older adults. Six initial pilot studies will be supported as part of the JHRC that address the informal support needs of older adults across a diverse set of clinical conditions including dementia, stroke, end stage renal disease, and multiple chronic conditions. Sophisticated technological and methodological advances are essential to the effective translation of social and behavioral research findings into applied practices that make a difference in the lives of older adults with these conditions and their families.