Social Research, Policy, and Practice
Joseph Gaugler, PhD, FGSA (he/him/his)
Robert L. Kane Endowed Chair in Long-Term Care and Aging and Distinguished McKnight University Professor
School of Public Health
University of Minnesota
Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States
Elma Johnson, MPH (she/her/hers)
Project Coordinator
Health Policy and Management
University of Minnesota
Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States
Laura Gitlin, PHD, FGSA, fAAN (she/her/hers)
Dean Emeritus and Distinguished Professor
Dean's Office
Drexel University
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
Sari Shuman, MPH, MSW (she/her/hers)
Senior Research Public Health Analyst
Social, Statistical & Environmental Sciences
RTI International
Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, United States
Gary Epstein-Lubow, MD (he/him/his)
Distinguished Medical Scholar
Aging
Education Development Center
Waltham, Massachusetts, United States
Kellie Waugh, BS, MPH(c) (she/her/hers)
Analyst, Health Improvement and Healthy Aging
Community Health and Prevention
Association of State and Territorial Health Officials
Arlington, Virginia, United States
When considering the dissemination and implementation of evidence-based innovations in aging, sustainability is a driving concern but understudied outcome. Sustainability refers to "is the extent to which a newly implemented intervention is maintained or institutionalized within a service setting’s ongoing, stable operations" (Lewis et al., 2017). Although attention in dementia care is beginning to pivot to issues related to successful dissemination and implementation of a growing number of evidence-based innovations, concerns related to the maintenance of long-term care adoption of dementia care interventions in clinical, community, and public health contexts remain pressing. Beyond dementia care and in the broader field of implementation science, available research on sustainability is limited with challenges ranging from heterogeneity in definitions, measurement, follow-up periods and similar issues.
The objective of this symposium is to initiate a scientific and practice agenda as it relates to sustainability for dementia care interventions. We will feature presentations on dementia care sustainability from public health, community, clinical, and scientific perspectives. Following this symposium, we aim to establish a framework to better achieve sustainability of evidence-based and evidence-informed dementia care innovations across key settings and communities.
Individual Symposium Abstract First Author: Sari B. Shuman, MPH, MSW (she/her/hers) – RTI International
Individual Symposium Abstract First Author: Gary Epstein-Lubow, MD (he/him/his) – Education Development Center
Individual Symposium Abstract First Author: Kellie Waugh, BS, MPH(c) (she/her/hers) – Association of State and Territorial Health Officials