Rollins teams with Alzheimer's Association to offer free curriculum

The number of Americans living with Alzheimer’s disease is growing—and growing fast—as the population ages. This poses a large public health crisis. To help raise awareness of and prepare for this, the Alzheimer’s Association and the CDC turned to Rollins’ Centers for Technical Assistance and Training to develop a free curricular resource. The result is “A Public Health Approach to Alzheimer’s and Other Dementias,” an intro-level curriculum that covers dementia and Alzheimer’s basics—symptoms, stages, risk factors, and diagnosis/management—and public health’s role in mitigating the epidemic—surveillance/monitoring, primary prevention, and early detection and diagnosis.

The curriculum was piloted in 2016 and rolled out last year. “The goal was to create materials for public health students, specifically focused on undergrad public health students, to inspire them to focus on dementia and Alzheimer’s in their work,” says Tara Redd, director of program development for the centers. “We’ve gotten a lot of interest from undergraduate schools of public health, but we’ve also gotten a good response from graduate public health schools and schools in other disciplines, such as physical therapy and social work. Some health departments have even started using it as a teaching tool.”

The curriculum is available for download on the Alzheimer’s Association’s website or at emry.link/AlzPH.