Community Recruitment and Liaison Core Rio Grande Valley AD-RCMAR

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Summary Community Liaison and Recruitment Core (CLRC) Although Alzheimer´s disease (AD) disproportionally affects elderly Hispanics, they are severely underrepresented in research studies, preventing advances in understanding of their excess ADRD vulnerability and improving care accordingly. The Community Liaison and Recruitment Core (CLRC) of the Alzheimer´s disease (AD)-Resource Center for Minority Aging Research (RCMAR) at University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) will spearhead the Center's recruitment and retention of diverse older adults as research participants in social, behavioral, and biomedical research, by training scholars in theory-based approaches for engagement of older Hispanics and their families in AD-related research. In addition, the CLRC of AD-RCMAR will strengthen existing infrastructure for dissemination and translation of research advances impacting the engaged communities with respect to aging, ADRD, and health of older Hispanics. The specific aims of the CLRC are: (1) Collaborate with the Research Education Core (REC) to educate, train, and mentor AD-RCMAR scholars in theory and approach to community engagement for minority health disparities, and assist AD-RCMAR scholars in recruiting older Hispanics and their families in their research studies; (2) Expand community-academic partnerships and capacity to support the recruitment and retention of older urban and rural Hispanics and their families; and (3) Disseminate research findings to the scientific community, health care providers and the South Texas communities served. We will achieve these aims through mentorship of AD-RCMAR scholars, linkage of scholars with established investigators conducting community-based research in rural and urban Hispanic populations, and community training to facilitate widespread adoption of best practices for optimizing participation in research studies. The results will create a state- of-the art infrastructure for researchers, health care providers, advocates and policy makers interested in decreasing health disparities affecting older Hispanics, and in particular those affected by AD. To accomplish these goals, we have built a team of scientists with extensive experience in community change, community–based research, education and Hispanic populations, that involve scientists at the UTRGV as well as the World Health Organization collaborating Center the Work Group for Community Health and Development at the University of Kansas, and health agencies, health care providers, clinicians and community-based organizations of the Rio Grande Valley (RGV), Texas.