DEMENTIA
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), approximately every 4 seconds a new case of dementia emerges. Furthermore, by the year 2050, the number of people with dementia is expected to surpass 135 million.
Reducing the burden on millions of families and care providers caring for patients with dementia is one of the biggest health challenges of the 21st century. Rising to that challenge, EHG has developed technologically-enabled services and supportive solutions for families and care providers helping elders with dementia in the U.S. and abroad.
Our projects focus on the following areas:
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Care Delivery Optimization
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Caregiver Training
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Dementia Awareness
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Patient-Centered Technology
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Developing Prevention Approaches
PROJECTS
CARE DELIVERY OPTIMIZATION
EHG has analyzed best practices across the United States, United Kingdom, Japan, South Korea, Thailand, and China, and generated systematic approaches to improve management and optimize care delivery for organizations or facilities that focus on dementia care. We provide leadership workshops, online training, and consultant services in facility design, culture adaptation, quality control, and employee support to foster the long-term development of organizations or facilities and make the delivery system more cost efficient and effective.
CAREGIVER TRAINING
EHG has developed both self-directed, online and in-person, training courses aimed at family caregivers and hired caregivers. Caregivers are able to receive certificates upon learning the skills required to care for patients with dementia.
Currently, we have more than 50 video courses covering basic knowledge of dementia, daily living assistance, communication skills, behavioral problem management, activities organization, environmental design, and support to caregivers. We’re collaborating with other associations working in dementia, to lead the way in the certification of training programs that provide high quality training and help caregivers with their career development.
DEMENTIA AWARENESS
Because EHG has focused on underserved patient groups, we’ve created culturally-sensitive dementia training and support projects for Chinese Americans, Latino Americans, and relatedly, patients in China. We’ve built up multiple health information technology platforms in Chinese and in Spanish, and online communities to disseminate knowledge and provide resources in order to reduce stigma and improve understanding of disease presence and progression. Our Weibo (Chinese twitter) group is currently one of the largest online communities in China for dementia.
PATIENT-CENTERED TECHNOLOGY
Environment and health Group has been devoted to developing and adapting advanced technology into dementia-friendly and patient-centered interventions to improve the quality of life for patients, release burden from caregivers, and assist health providers to deliver more efficient health care. Our current ongoing projects include a cloud-based care delivery system, smart prompts for sleep and behavioral disturbance management, and an evaluation system for self-monitoring and assessment.
DEVELOPING PREVENTION APPROACHES
EHG has been collaborating with researchers from Cornell and Harvard Universities to synthesize evidence in preventive strategies for dementia onset. We address the approach through improving brain health through Mobile Health (mHealth) tools, which includes promoting physical activities, examining nutritional status, and looking at sleep quality to benefit not only persons with dementia or those at risk of brain disorders, but also the overall population, promoting longevity and healthy aging practices.